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152 rather in a series of tableaux, each designed to bring out Pindar's conception of Jason as the ideal king, attaching men's minds to himself by the magical force of his innate royalty, "strong without rage," gentle, but irresistible. He draws the noblest heroes of Greece to join his expedition. They come, constrained, as it were, by a magic spell:—

None might endure

To chew eld's cud, and lonely bide in safety at his mother's side!"

The very powers of nature minister to the young hero. The thunder roars approval as he quits the port; favouring winds bear him to the "inhospitable Euxine's mouth;" the clashing rocks, that stood as sentinels to destroy all entering ships, thenceforth remain fixed and harmless for ever. He reaches Colchos, and Medea, the weird daughter of Æëtes, succumbs to the same irresistible charm which everywhere attends the hero's progress.

Æëtes consented to restore the golden fleece, but, like Pelias, he coupled his consent with hard conditions. Jason must first yoke a team of magic fire-breathing bulls, and force them to plough a field. The king believed that the attempt to fulfil this condition would at once rid him of his unwelcome guest, but he knew not that his daughter's magic had made the guest invulnerable:—

Then his plough of adamant Æëtes midst them sets,

While from his bulls the flames burst panting in yellow jets,