THE GOLDEN FLEECE AND THE HEROES WHO LIVED BEFORE ACHILLES
BY
PADRAIC COLUM

1921

Part I. The Voyage to Colchis



I. The Youth Jason

A man in the garb of a slave went up the side of that mountain
that is all covered with forest, the Mountain Pelion. He carried
in his arms a little child.

When it was full noon the slave came into a clearing of the
forest so silent that it seemed empty of all life. He laid the
child down on the soft moss, and then, trembling with the fear of
what might come before him, he raised a horn to his lips and blew
three blasts upon it.

Then he waited. The blue sky was above him, the great trees stood
away from him, and the little child lay at his feet. He waited,
and then he heard the thud-thud of great hooves. And then from
between the trees he saw coming toward him the strangest of all
beings, one who was half man and half horse; this was Chiron the
centaur.

Chiron came toward the trembling slave. Greater than any horse