The Argonautica

the heroes and Dolionian people all alike. Then,

three times they wheeled in full bronze battle armor,

around the tomb, paid rites, and staged the funeral contests,

as custom required, across the meadowed plain, where now

this mound lies heaped for men of later birth to see.

Nor was Cleite, the dead man's wife, left living

behind her husband; upon grief she heaped a worse grief,

and brought life to its end by fastening a noose round her neck.

Even grove-nymphs mourned the dead Cleite in sorrow,

and every single tear their eyelids poured to ground

those goddesses made a spring that mortals call Cleite,

the far-famed name once borne by that unhappy bride.

That day brought utmost terror to Dolionian women

and men, a day sent forth by Zeus; not one among them

dared taste a morsel of food, nor long afterward

remembered, through grief, their work grinding grain at the mill;

but lived upon raw stores, food untouched by fire.

There even now, when annual libations fall for Cyzicus,

Ionian settlers keep the ancient practice firm,

and grind sacrificial cakes at the whole people's mill.

Thereafter rough and raging tempests rose aloft

for twelve whole days and nights, and kept the heroes

from sailing ahead. As the following night fell dark,

all other chieftains, overcome already by sleep,