Mine she became.—Her father cursed his child;
But mine she was, whether I would or no.
’Twas she that won me that mysterious Fleece;
She was my guide to that dank horror-cave
Where dwelt the dragon, guardian of the prize,
The which I slew, and bore the Fleece away.
Since then I see, each time I search her eyes,
That hideous serpent blinking back at me,
And shudder when I call her wife!—
At last
We sailed away. Her brother fell.
KING (quickly).
She slew him?
JASON. The gods’ hand smote him down.
Her aged father,
With
curses on his lips for her, for me,
For
all our days to come, with bleeding nails
Dug
his own grave, and laid him down to die,
So
goes the tale—grim victim of his own
Rash
passion.
KING. Dread beginning of your
life
Together!
JASON. Ay, and, as the days wore on,
More
dreadful still.
KING. Thine uncle—what of him?
JASON. For four long years some god made
sport of us
And
kept us wandering far from hearth and home
O’er
land and sea. Meanwhile, pent up with her
Within
the narrow confines of our bark,
Seeing
her face each moment of the day,
The
edge of my first shuddering fear grew blunt.
The
past was past.—So she became my wife.
KING. When home thou camest, what befell thee there?
JASON. Time passed; the memory of those
ghastly days
In
Colchis dimmer grew and mistier.
I,
the proud Greek, now half barbarian grown,
Companioned
by my wife, barbarian too,
Sought
once again my home-land. Joyfully
The
people cried Godspeed! as forth I fared
Long
years agone. Of joyfuller greetings now,
When
I returned a victor, I had dreamed.
But
lo, the busy streets grew still as death
When
I approached, and whoso met me, shrank
Back
in dismay! The tale, grown big with horrors,
Of
all that chanced in Colchis had bred fear
And
hatred in this foolish people’s hearts.
They
fled my face, heaped insults on my wife—
Mine
she was, too; who flouted her, struck me!
This
evil talk my uncle slily fed;
And
when I made demand that he yield up
The
kingdom of my fathers, stolen by him
And