But on the sixth day he began grave speech, and set the whole matter before his kinsmen from the beginning, and they were of one mind with him.

Then quickly he rose up with them from their couches, and they came to Pelias’ hall, and they made haste and entered and stood within.

And when he heard them the king himself came forth to them, even the son of Tyro of the lovely hair.  Then Jason with gentle voice opened on him the stream of his soft speech, and laid foundation of wise words:  ’Son of Poseidon of the Rock, too ready are the minds of mortal men to choose a guileful gain rather than righteousness, howbeit they travel ever to a stern reckoning.  But thee and me it behoveth to give law to our desires, and to devise weal for the time to come.  Though thou knowest it yet will I tell thee, how that the same mother bare Kretheus and rash Salmoneus, and in the third generation we again were begotten and look upon the strength of the golden sun.  Now if there be enmity between kin, the Fates stand aloof and would fain hide the shame.  Not with bronze-edged swords nor with javelins doth it beseem us twain to divide our forefathers’ great honour, nor needeth it, for lo! all sheep and tawny herds of kine I yield, and all the lands whereon thou feedest them, the spoil of my sires wherewith thou makest fat thy wealth.  That these things furnish forth thy house moveth me not greatly; but for the kingly sceptre and throne whereon the son of Kretheus sate of old and dealt justice to his chivalry, these without wrath between us yield to me, lest some new evil arise up therefrom.’

Thus he spake, and mildly also did Pelias make reply:  ’I will be even as thou wilt, but now the sere of life alone remaineth to me, whereas the flower of thy youth is but just burgeoning; thou art able to take away the sin that maketh the powers beneath the earth wroth with us:  for Phrixos biddeth us lay his ghost, and that we go to the house of Aietes, and bring thence the thick-fleeced hide of the ram, whereby of old he was delivered from the deep and from the impious weapons of his stepmother.  This message cometh to me in the voice of a strange dream:  also I have sent to ask of the oracle at Kastalia whether it be worth the quest, and the oracle chargeth me straightway to send a ship on the sacred mission.  This deed do thou offer me to do, and I swear to give thee up the sway and kingly rule.  Let Zeus the ancestral god of thee and me be witness of my oath and stablish it surely in thine eyes.’

So they made this covenant and parted; but Jason straightway bade heralds to make known everywhere that a sailing was toward.  And quickly came three sons of Zeus, men unwearied in battle, whose mothers were Alkmene and Leto of the glancing eyes[12], and two tall-crested men of valour, children of the Earth-shaker, whose honour was perfect as their might, from Pylos and from farthest Tainaros:  hereby was the excellence of their fame established—­even Euphemos’ fame, and thine, wide-ruling Periklymenos.  And at Apollo’s bidding came the minstrel father of song, Orpheus of fair renown.