witness to my oath, and Hera, queen of marriage, bride of Zeus, that I
will set thee in my halls my own wedded wife, when we have reached the
land of Hellas on our return."

Thus he spake, and straightway clasped her right hand in his; and she
bade them row the swift ship to the sacred grove near at hand, in order
that, while it was still night, they might seize and carry off the
fleece against the will of Aeetes. Word and deed were one to the eager
crew. For they took her on board, and straightway thrust the ship from
shore; and loud was the din as the chieftains strained at their oars,
but she, starting back, held out her hands in despair towards the shore.
But Jason spoke cheering words and restrained her grief.

Now at the hour when men have cast sleep from their eyes--huntsmen, who,
trusting to their bounds, never slumber away the end of night, but avoid
the light of dawn lest, smiting with its white beams, it efface the
track and scent of the quarry--then did Aeson's son and the maiden step
forth from the ship over a grassy spot, the "Ram's couch" as men call
it, where it first bent its wearied knees in rest, bearing on its back
the Minyan son of Athamas. And close by, all smirched with soot, was the
base of the altar, which the Aeolid Phrixus once set up to Zeus, the
aider of fugitives, when he sacrificed the golden wonder at the bidding
of Hermes who graciously met him on the way. There by the counsels of
Argus the chieftains put them ashore.

And they two by the pathway came to the sacred grove, seeking the huge
oak tree on which was hung the fleece, like to a cloud that blushes red
with the fiery beams of the rising sun. But right in front the serpent
with his keen sleepless eyes saw them coming, and stretched out his long
neck and hissed in awful wise; and all round the long banks of the river