spinning of wool, that she may kindle a blaze at night beneath her roof,
when she has waked very early--and the flame waxing wondrous great from
the small brand consumes all the twigs together; so, coiling round her
heart, burnt secretly Love the destroyer; and the hue of her soft cheeks
went and came, now pale, now red, in her soul's distraction.

Now when the thralls had laid a banquet ready before them, and they had
refreshed themselves with warm baths, gladly did they please their souls
with meat and drink. And thereafter Aeetes questioned the sons of his
daughter, addressing them with these words:

"Sons of my daughter and of Phrixus, whom beyond all strangers I
honoured in my halls, how have ye come returning back to Aea? Did some
calamity cut short your escape in the midst? Ye did not listen when I
set before you the boundless length of the way. For I marked it once,
whirled along in the chariot of my father Helios, when he was bringing
my sister Circe to the western land and we came to the shore of the
Tyrrhenian mainland, where even now she abides, exceeding far from
Colchis. But what pleasure is there in words? Do ye tell me plainly what
has been your fortune, and who these men are, your companions, and where
from your hollow ship ye came ashore."

Such were his questions, and Argus, before all his brethren, being
fearful for the mission of Aeson's son, gently replied, for he was the
elder-born:

"Aeetes, that ship forthwith stormy blasts tore asunder, and ourselves,
crouching on the beams, a wave drove on to the beach of the isle of
Enyalius[1] in the murky night; and some god preserved us. For even the
birds of Ares that haunted the desert isle beforetime, not even them did