The Argonautica

they struck the water hard with long shafts of fir.

At evening, guided by Orpheus' counsel, they made landfall

on the isle of Atlas' daughter, Electra, there to learn

the secret holy laws through gracious mystic rites,

and sail more safely over the sea that chills with fear.

I speak no further of those rites; may sacred Samothrace

fare well, together with the gods who gained those mysteries,

the resident powers; their rites are not for us to sing.

They rowed from Electra onward through deep Gulf of Melas,

eager, with Thracian country holding one horizon,

Imbros lay opposite, seaward; just as the sun

was setting, they reached the Chersonese's far-jutting headland.

There a swift south wind blew; to that following breeze

they set the sails and entered swift and racing currents

of Athamas' daughter; the open northern sea was left

behind at dawn; by night, inside Rhoeteum's coast,

they measured the waters, keeping Ida's land on their right.

Leaving Dardania, the heroes steered onward toward Abydos;

then Percote, then sandy Abarnis lay ahead,

its shore; the heroes sailed past sacred Pityeia.

And now, through night, as the ship drove on a double course,

they traversed the whole Hellespont, dark-heaving with eddies.

There is a certain steep island within the Propontis,

lying a little off Phrygia's grain-rich mainland,