The Argonautica

And so in that land a barrow now lies heaped for Idmon,

a sign stands there for later generations to behold:

a ship's launching-roller made of wild olive wood; it flourishes

in dense leaves just under Acherusian Cape. And if I too

must speak this needful truth unswervingly beneath the Muses,

Phoebus expressly told both Boeotians and Nisaeans

to honor hero Idmon as the city's guardian spirit,

and build their city round the roller of the ancient olive;

but there they honor someone else in the Aeolid's place,

Agamestor, not god-revering Idmon, to this day.

Who was the next to die? For once again the heroes heaped

a memorial barrow for their fallen comrade newly dead.

Two visible memorials of those men still remain.

Tradition says that Tiphys, Hagnias' son, died too;

it was no longer his fate to sail still farther. A brief

sickness laid him low, far from his home, when all

the crew had honored Abas' son with funeral rites.

At this cruel loss unbearable grief seized the heroes;

for once they buried Tiphys too, in very truth, beside

the other, they fell helpless on the ground before the sea,

curled close and silent, they gave no thought to any food,

or drink; their spirits drooped beneath the weight of sorrow,

because their homeward passage stood far outside all hope.

In their deep sorrow they would have held back even longer,