The Argonautica

sheer-sided all around, and men call Carambis;

around its summit blasts of Boreas split apart,

so high it meets the upper air, turned toward the sea.

Once you have rounded it, broad Aegialus lies alongside,

where broad Aegialus reaches the farthest coastal bounds,

against a jutting coast, the Halys river's currents

roar terribly; beyond it Iris flows close by,

smaller, and coils with white eddies into the sea.

Beyond that, farther on, a great commanding bend

of land juts out; beyond it Thermodon's broad mouth,

beneath Themiscyreian Cape, in deep, calm, windless gulf,

flows seaward, traversing the broad mainland's expanse.

There lies the plain of Doias, and nearby are three

cities of Amazons; beyond these, most wretched men,

the Chalybes, who hold harsh, rough, unyielding soil,

workers whose sole concern is toil at iron labor.

Nearby dwell Tibareni, rich in many sheep,

beyond high Genetaean Cape, sacred to Zeus Euxeinos.

Then Mossynoeci, neighbors sharing their frontier, occupy

the wooded mainland next, and all its lower slopes,

having built their dwellings inside towers made of timber,

Sail onward past them; make the smooth-faced island's beach,

driving the shameless birds away by every stratagem,

birds that, the tale goes, haunt it in unnumbered swarms,