“You have well spoken, cunning uncle of mine!  I love glory, and I dare keep to my word.  I will go and fetch this golden fleece.  Promise me but this in return, and keep your word as I keep mine.  Treat my father lovingly while I am gone, for the sake of the all-seeing Zeus; and give me up the kingdom for my own, on the day that I bring back the golden fleece.”

Then Pelias looked at him and almost loved him, in the midst of all his hate; and said, “I promise, and I will perform.  It will be no shame to give up my kingdom to the man who wins that fleece.”

Then they swore a great oath between them; and afterward both went in, and lay down to sleep.

But Jason could not sleep, for thinking of his mighty oath, and how he was to fulfil it, all alone, and without wealth or friends.  So he tossed a long time upon his bed, and thought of this plan and of that; and sometimes Phrixus seemed to call him, in a thin voice, faint and low, as if it came from far across the sea, “Let me come home to my fathers and have rest.”  And sometimes he seemed to see the eyes of Hera, and to hear her words again, “Call on me in the hour of need, and see if the Immortals can forget.”

And on the morrow he went to Pelias, and said, “Give me a victim, that I may sacrifice to Hera.”  So he went up, and offered his sacrifice; and as he stood by the altar, Hera sent a thought into his mind; and he went back to Pelias, and said: 

“If you are indeed in earnest, give me two heralds, that they may go round to all the princes of the Minuai who were pupils of the Centaur with me, that we may fit out a ship together, and take what shall befall.”

At that Pelias praised his wisdom, and hastened to send the heralds out; for he said in his heart:  “Let all the princes go with him, and like him, never return; for so I shall be lord of all the Minuai, and the greatest king in Hellas.”

PART III

How They Built the Ship Argo in Iolcos

So the heralds went out, and cried to all the heroes of the Minuai, “Who dare come to the adventure of the golden fleece?”

And Hera stirred the hearts of all the princes, and they came from all their valleys to the yellow sands of Pagasai.  And first came Heracles the mighty, with his lion’s skin and club, and behind him Hylas his young squire, who bore his arrows and his bow; and Tiphys, the skilful steersman; and Butes, the fairest of all men; and Castor and Polydeuces the twins, the sons of the magic swan; and Caineus, the strongest of mortals, whom the Centaurs tried in vain to kill, and overwhelmed him with trunks of pine trees, but even so he would not die; and thither came Zetes and Calais, the winged sons of the north wind; and Peleus, the father of Achilles, whose bride was silver-footed Thetis the goddess of the sea.  And thither came Telamon and Oileus, the fathers of the two Aiantes, who fought upon the plains of Troy;