description. {95} Pindar, on the other hand, in the splendid Fourth
Pythian Ode, already knows Colchis as the scene of the loves and flight
of Jason and Medea.

* * * *

'Long were it for me to go by the beaten track,' says Pindar, 'and I know
a certain short path.' Like Pindar, we may abridge the tale of Jason. He
seeks the golden fleece in Colchis: AEetes offers it to him as a prize
for success in certain labours. By the aid of Medea, the daughter of
AEetes, the wizard-king, Jason tames the fire-breathing oxen, yokes them
to the plough, and drives a furrow. By Medea's help he conquers the
children of the teeth of the dragon, subdues the snake that guards the
fleece of gold, and escapes, but is pursued by AEetes. To detain AEetes,
Medea throws behind the mangled remains of her own brother, Apsyrtos, and
the Colchians pursue no further than the scene of this bloody deed. The
savagery of this act survives even in the work of a poet so late as
Apollonius Rhodius (iv. 477), where we read how Jason performed a rite of
savage magic, mutilating the body of Apsyrtos in a manner which was
believed to appease the avenging ghost of the slain. 'Thrice he tasted
the blood, thrice spat it out between his teeth,' a passage which the
Scholiast says contains the description of an archaic custom popular
among murderers.

Beyond Tomi, where a popular etymology fixed the 'cutting up' of
Apsyrtos, we need not follow the fortunes of Jason and Medea. We have
already seen the wooer come to the hostile being, win his daughter's
love, achieve the adventures by her aid, and flee in her company,
delaying, by a horrible device, the advance of the pursuers. To these
incidents in the tale we confine our attention.