The Argonautica

left half-hewn by woodcutters striking with their swift axes

when they came down from the wood; beneath the night wind

it first is shaken; then the blast tears free its roots

and crashes down; so Talos stood on tireless feet

a little while, still swaying there upright,

then, powerless, fell with a vast, immeasurable clang.

That evening all the heroes camped ashore in Crete;

Next, when the early dawn began its faintest shining,

the heroes founded a holy shrine to Minoan Athena,

drew water, boarded Argo, and took up the oars,

so first they might row past Salmone's jutting cape.

Straightway as they sped across the vast Cretan sea,

night terrified them: mortals call it the Dark Pall;

no stars pierced through the fatal night, nor any glimmers

of the moon; from heaven black chaos, or some other

darkness had risen, climbing from the deepest nether chasms.

Whether they now were carried in Hades or over the waters,

They knew no answer; helplessly they trusted to the sea

their homecoming, not knowing where it might bear them. Jason

lifted his hands and shouted to Phoebus in a mighty voice,

calling for rescue; tears streamed down in anguish;

At Pytho many gifts he vowed, and more at Amyclae,

and many gifts past counting he would bring to Ortygia.

Leto's son, quick to hear, you left high heaven