The Argonautica

recklessly felled the ancient oak in youthful pride.

Afterward the stern nymph imposed a baneful doom

upon the man and all his offspring. Once he came to me,

I recognized the sin and ordered Paraebius, worn down,

to build the Thynian nymph an altar and there offer

relief rites, praying to escape his father's doom.

Once he escaped that god-sent doom, Paraebius never

forgot or slighted me; barely can I send him, unwilling,

outdoors, for he yearns to stay beside me in bitter grief.”

So Agenor's son spoke; soon Paraebius drew near,

leading two sheep from the flock. Jason rose to his feet,

and Boreas' sons rose too, at the old man's direction.

Swiftly they called Apollo, lord of sacred prophecy,

and made fresh sacrifice at hearth as daylight waned.

The younger comrades busied themselves with heart-gladdening feast.

There, having feasted well, some slept beside the cables

of Argo; others slept together throughout the house.

At dawn the Etesian winds blew up to give them aid,

that blow alike across all earth by aid like this from Zeus.

Cyrene, ancient stories say, beside Peneus' marsh

once tended sheep among the men of earlier times,

for maiden life and untouched bed pleased her; Apollo

seized and carried her off while she herded beside the river,

far from Haemonia; Apollo placed Cyrene with nymphs,