The Argonautica

whom naiad Oenoe bore after sharing Thoas' bed.

For Lemnian women, herding cattle, donning bronze

armor, and cutting wheat-bearing fields apart with plowshares,

came easier to every woman than all Athena's works,

that always filled their days before; despite all this,

Again and again they peered across the broad sea,

with grievous fear, still watching for Thracians' return.

So when they saw the ship Argo rowed close to the island,

at once in one body, beyond the gates of Myrine,

clad in deadly armor, they poured out to shore,

like Thyiads ravening raw flesh; fear made them think

the Thracians had come. Thoas' child Hypsipyle marched with them

wearing her father's armor; helpless ranks streamed,

wordless; such mighty fear hung heavy on their hearts.

Meanwhile the heroes sent out from the ship once more

Aethalides, swift herald, charged always to carry

all messages and the staff of Hermes, his own father;

Hermes had given him unfailing remembrance of all things,

immortal; now gone from life across to Acheron's

unspeakable eddies, still oblivion has not veiled his soul;

but it stays firm, remembering, changing its home forever,

numbered now with souls below, now turned toward the sunlight

again among living men. But why must I tell

Aethalides' story unbroken and at this great length?