by Padraic Colum
1921
VII. KING PHINEUS
Said Tiphys, the steersman: "If we could enter the Sea of Pontus, we could make our way across that sea to Colchis in a short time. But the passage into the Sea of Pontus is most perilous, and few mortals dare even to make approach to it."
Said Jason, the chieftain of the host: "The dangers of the passage, Tiphys, we have spoken of, and it may be that we shall have to carry Argo overland to the Sea of Pontus. But You, Tiphys, have spoken of a wise king who is hereabouts, and who might help us to make the dangerous passage. Speak again to us, and tell us what the dangers of the passage are, and who the king is who may be able to help us to make these dangers less."
Then said Tiphys, the steersman of the Argo: "No ship sailed by mortals has as yet gone through the passage that brings this sea into the Sea of Pontus. In the way are the rocks that mariners call The Clashers. These rocks are not fixed as rocks should be, but they rush one against the other, dashing up the sea, and crushing whatever may be between. Yea, if Argo were of iron, and if she were between these rocks when they met, she would be crushed to bits. I have sailed as far as that passage, but seeing The Clashers strike together I turned back my ship, and journeyed as far as the Sea of Pontus overland.
"But I have been told of one who knows how a ship may be taken through the passage that The Clashers make so perilous. He who knows is a king hereabouts, Phineus, who has made himself as wise as the gods. To no one has Phineus told how the passage may be made, but knowing what high favor has been shown to us, the Argonauts, it may be that he will tell us."
So Tiphys said, and Jason commanded him to steer the Argo toward the city where ruled Phineus, the wise king.
To Salmydessus, then, where Phineus ruled, Tiphys steered the Argo. They left Heracles with Tiphys aboard to guard the ship, and, with the rest of the heroes, Jason went through the streets of the city. They met many men, but when they asked any of them how they might come to the palace of King Phineus the men turned fearfully away.
They found their way to the king's palace. Jason spoke to the servants and bade them tell the king of their coming. The servants, too, seemed fearful, and as Jason and his comrades were wondering what there was about him that made men fearful at his name, Phineus, the king, came amongst them.
Were it not that he had a purple border to his robe no one would have known him for the king, so miserable did this man seem. He crept along, touching the walls, for the eyes in his head were blind and withered. His body was shrunken, and when he stood before them leaning on his staff he was like to a lifeless thing. He turned his blinded eyes upon them, looking from one to the other as if he were searching for a face.
Then his sightless eyes rested upon Zetes and Calais, the sons of Boreas, the North Wind. A change came into his face as it turned upon them. One would think that he saw the wonder that these two were endowed with--the wings that grew upon their ankles. It was awhile before he turned his face from them; then he spoke to Jason and said:
"You have come to have counsel with one who has the wisdom of the gods. Others before you have come for such counsel, but seeing the misery that is visible upon me they went without asking for counsel: I would strive to hold you here for a while. Stay, and have sight of the misery the gods visit upon those who would be as wise as they. And when you have seen the thing that is wont to befall me, it may be that help will come from you for me."
Then Phineus, the blind king, left them, and after a while the heroes were brought into a great hall, and they were invited to rest themselves there while a banquet was being prepared for them. The hall was richly adorned, but it looked to the heroes as if it had known strange happenings; rich hangings were strewn upon the ground, an ivory chair was overturned, and the dais where the king sat had stains upon it. The servants who went through the hall making ready the banquet were white-faced and fearful.
Etext
Part I The Voyage to ColchisI. The Youth Jason
II. King Pelias
III. The Golden Fleece
IV. The Assembling of the Heroes and the Building of the Ship
V. The Argo
The Beginnings of Things
VI. Polydeuces' Victory And Heracles' Loss
VII. King Phineas
VIII. King Phineus's Counsel; the Landing in Lemnos
IX. The Lemnian Maidens
Demeter and Persephone
Atalanta's Race
X. The Departure from Lemnos
XI. The Golden Maiden (Pandora)
The Passage Of The Symplegades
XII.The Mountain Caucasus and Prometheus
Part II Return to Greece
King Aeetes
Medea The Sorceress
The Winning Of The Golden Fleece
The Slaying of Apsyrtus
Medea Comes to Circe
In The Land of the Phaeacians
They Come to the Desert Land
The Carrying of the Argo
The Story of Perseus
Part III The Heroes
Atalanta the Huntress
Peleus and His Bride From the Sea
Theseus and the Minotaur
The Life and Labors of Heracles
Admetus
How Orpheus the Minstrel Went Down to the World of the Dead
Jason and Medea
