the weight, and she glided into the sea; but the heroes stood there and
kept dragging her back as she sped onward. And round the thole-pins they
fitted the oars, and in the ship they placed the mast and the well-made
sails and the stores.

[Footnote 1: Or, reading [Greek: ektothen], "they strongly girded the
ship outside with a well-twisted rope." In either case there is probably
no allusion to [Greek: hupozômata] (ropes for undergirding) which-were
carried loose and only used in stormy weather.]

Now when they had carefully paid heed to everything, first they
distributed the benches by lot, two men occupying one seat; but the
middle bench they chose for Heracles and Ancaeus apart from the other
heroes, Ancaeus who dwelt in Tegea. For them alone they left the middle
bench just as it was and not by lot; and with one consent they entrusted
Tiphys with guarding the helm of the well-stemmed ship.

Next, piling up shingle near the sea, they raised there an altar on the
shore to Apollo, under the name of Actius[1] and Embasius, and quickly
spread above it logs of dried olive-wood. Meantime the herdsmen of
Aeson's son had driven before them from the herd two steers. These the
younger comrades dragged near the altars, and the others brought lustral
water and barley meal, and Jason prayed, calling on Apollo the god of
his fathers:

[Footnote 1: i.e. God of the shore.]

"Hear, O King, that dwellest in Pagasae and the city Aesonis, the city
called by my father's name, thou who didst promise me, when I sought thy
oracle at Pytho, to show the fulfilment and goal of my journey, for thou