Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/266

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

234 HISTORY OF G1CEECE. the fruit of their visit. Hypsipyle, the queen of the island, bore to Jason two sons. 1 They then proceeded onward along the coast of Thrace, up the Hellespont, to the southern coast of the Propontis, inhabited by the Doliones and their king Kyzikus. Here they were kindly entertained, but after their departure were driven back to the same spot by a storm ; and as they landed in the dark, the inhabi- tants did not know them. A battle took place, in which the chief, Kyzikus, was killed by Jason ; whereby much grief was occasioned as soon as the real facts became known. After Kyzi- kus had been interred with every demonstration of mourning and solemnity, the Argonauts proceeded along the coast of Mysia. 2 In this part of the voyage they left Herakles behind. For Hylas, his favorite youthful companion, had been stolen away by the nymphs of a fountain, and Herakles, wandering about in search of him, neglected to return. At last he sorrowfully retired, ex- acting hostages from the inhabitants of the neighboring town of Kius that they would persist in the search. 3 1 Apollodor. i. 9, 17 ; Apollon. Rhod. i. 609-915 ; Herodot. iv. 145. Theocri- tus (Idyll, xiii. 29) omits all mention of Lemnos, and represents the Argu as arriving on the third day from lolkos at the Hellespont. Diodorus (iv 41 ) also leaves out Lemnos. 2 Apollon. Rhod. 940-1020 ; Apollodor. i. 9, 18 3 Apollodor. i. 9, 19. This was the religious legend, explanatory of a cere mony performed for many centuries by the people of Prusa: they ran round .he lake Askanias shouting and clamoring for Hylas " ut littus Hyla, Hyla cmne sonaret." (Virgil, Eclog.) "in cujus memoriam adhuc solemni cursatione lacum populus circuit et Hylam voce clamat." Solinus, C. 42. There is endless discrepancy as to the concern of Herakles with the Argonautic expedition. A story is alluded to in Aristotle (Politic, iii. 9) that the ship Argo herself refused to take him on board, because he was BO much superiot in stature and power to all the other heroes ol yap bd&eiv avrbv uyeiv TJJV 'Apyc) U.CTU TUV uKKuv, d>f {i7rep/3u/lAorra nohi> TUIV nZuTqpuv. This was the story of Pherekydes (Fr. 67, Didot) as well as cf Antimachns (Schol. Apoll. Rhod. i. 1290) : it is probably a very ancient portion of the legend, inasmuch as it ascribes to the ship sentient powers, in consonance with her other miraculous properties. The etymology of Aphetae in Thcs aly was connected with the tale of Herakles having there been put on shore from the Argo (Herodot. vii. 193): Ephorus said that he staid away volun- tarily from fondness for Omphale (Frag. 9, Didot). The old epic poet