παραλελοίπαμεν. περὶ δὲ τῶν Ἀργοναυτῶν, ἐπειδὴ τούτοις Ἡρακλῆς συνεστράτευσεν, οἰκεῖον ἂν εἴη διελθεῖν περὶ αὐτῶν. Ἰάσονα γενέσθαι λέγουσιν υἱὸν μὲν Αἴσονος, ἀδελφιδοῦν δὲ Πελίου τοῦ Θετταλῶν βασιλέως, ῥώμῃ δὲ σώματος καὶ ψυχῆς λαμπρότητι διενέγκαντα τῶν ἡλικιωτῶν ἐπιθυμῆσαί τι πρᾶξαι μνήμης ἄξιον.
ὁρῶντα δὲ τῶν πρὸ αὐτοῦ Περσέα καὶ τινας ἄλλους διὰ τὰς ὑπερορίους στρατείας καὶ τὸ παράβολον τῶν ἄθλων δόξης ἀειμνήστου τετευχότας, ζηλῶσαι τὰς προαιρέσεις αὐτῶν. διὸ καὶ τὴν ἐπιβολὴν ἀνακοινωσάμενον τῷ βασιλεῖ ταχέως λαβεῖν αὐτὸν συγκάταινον, οὐχ οὕτω τοῦ Πελίου σπεύδοντος προαγαγεῖν εἰς ἐπιφάνειαν τὸν νεανίσκον ὡς ἐλπίζοντος ἐν ταῖς παραβόλοις στρατείαις διαφθαρήσεσθαι·
αὐτὸν μὲν γὰρ ἐκ φύσεως ἐστερῆσθαι παίδων ἀρρένων, τὸν δʼ ἀδελφὸν εὐλαβεῖσθαι μήποτε συνεργὸν ἔχων τὸν υἱὸν ἐπίθηται τῇ βασιλείᾳ. κρύπτοντα δὲ τὴν ὑποψίαν ταύτην, καὶ τὰ πρὸς τὴν στρατείαν χρήσιμα χορηγήσειν ἐπαγγειλάμενον, παρακαλεῖν ἆθλον τελέσαι στειλάμενον τὸν πλοῦν εἰς Κόλχους ἐπὶ τὸ διαβεβοημένον τοῦ κριοῦ δέρος χρυσόμαλλον.
τὸν δὲ Πόντον κατʼ ἐκείνους τοὺς χρόνους περιοικούμενον ὑπὸ ἐθνῶν βαρβάρων καὶ παντελῶς ἀγρίων ἄξενον προσαγορεύεσθαι, ξενοκτονούντων τῶν ἐγχωρίων τοὺς καταπλέοντας.
Ἰάσονα δὲ δόξης ὀρεγόμενον καὶ τὸν ἆθλον δυσέφικτον μέν, οὐ κατὰ πᾶν δʼ ἀδύνατον κρίνοντα, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μᾶλλον αὐτὸν ἐπιφανέστερον ἔσεσθαι διαλαμβάνοντα, παρασκευάσασθαι τὰ πρὸς τὴν ἐπιβολήν.
As for the Argonauts, since Heracles joined them in their campaign, it may be appropriate to speak of them in this connection.
This is the account which is given: — Jason was the son of Aeson and the nephew through his father of Pelias, the king of the Thessalians, and excelling as he did above those of his years in strength of body and nobility of spirit he was eager to accomplish a deed worthy of memory. And since he observed that of the men of former times Perseus and certain others had gained glory which was held in everlasting remembrance from the campaigns which they had waged in foreign lands and the hazard attending the labours they had performed, he was eager to follow the examples they had set. As a consequence he revealed his undertaking to the king and quickly received his approval. It was not so much that Pelias was eager to bring distinction to the youth that he hoped that in the hazardous expeditions he would lose his life; for he himself had been deprived by nature of any male children and was fearful that his brother, with his son to aid him, would make an attempt upon the kingdom. Hiding, however, this suspicion and promising to supply everything which would be needed for the expedition, he urged Jason to undertake an exploit by sailing to Colchis after the renowned golden-fleeced skin of the ram. The Pontus at that time was inhabited on all its shores by nations which were barbarous and altogether fierce and was called “Axenos,” since the natives were in the habit of slaying the strangers who landed on its shores. Jason, who was eager for glory, recognizing that the labour was difficult of accomplishment and yet not altogether impossible, and concluding that for this very reason the greater renown would attach to himself, made ready everything needed for the undertaking.
καὶ πρῶτον μὲν περὶ τὸ Πήλιον ναυπηγήσασθαι σκάφος, πολὺ τῷ μεγέθει καὶ τῇ λοιπῇ κατασκευῇ τὴν τότε συνήθειαν ὑπερβάλλον, διὰ τὸ σχεδίαις πλεῖν τοὺς τότε ἀνθρώπους καὶ μικροῖς παντελῶς ἀκατίοις. διὸ καὶ τῶν ἰδόντων αὐτὸ τότε καταπληττομένων, καὶ τῆς φήμης διαδοθείσης κατὰ τὴν Ἑλλάδα περί τε τοῦ ἄθλου καὶ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ναυπηγίαν ἐπιβολῆς, οὐκ ὀλίγους τῶν ἐν ὑπεροχαῖς νεανίσκων ἐπιθυμῆσαι μετασχεῖν τῆς στρατείας.
Ἰάσονα δὲ καθελκύσαντα τὸ σκάφος καὶ κοσμήσαντα πᾶσι τοῖς ἀνήκουσι πρὸς ἔκπληξιν λαμπρῶς, ἐκλέξαι τῶν ὀρεγομένων τῆς αὐτῆς προαιρέσεως τοὺς ἐπιφανεστάτους ἀριστεῖς, ὥστε σὺν αὐτῷ τοὺς ἅπαντας εἶναι πεντήκοντα καὶ τέτταρας. τούτων δʼ ὑπάρχειν ἐνδοξοτάτους Κάστορα καὶ Πολυδεύκην, ἔτι δʼ Ἡρακλέα καὶ Τελαμῶνα, πρὸς δὲ τούτοις Ὀρφέα καὶ τὴν Σχοινέως Ἀταλάντην, ἔτι δὲ τοὺς Θεσπίου παῖδας καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν στελλόμενον τὸν πλοῦν ἐπὶ τὴν Κολχίδα.
τὴν δὲ ναῦν Ἀργὼ προσαγορευθῆναι κατὰ μέν τινας τῶν μυθογράφων ἀπὸ τοῦ τὸ σκάφος ἀρχιτεκτονήσαντος Ἄργου καὶ συμπλεύσαντος ἕνεκα τοῦ θεραπεύειν ἀεὶ τὰ πονοῦντα μέρη τῆς νεώς, ὡς δʼ ἔνιοι λέγουσιν ἀπὸ τῆς περὶ τὸ τάχος ὑπερβολῆς, ὡς ἂν τῶν ἀρχαίων ἀργὸν τὸ ταχὺ προσαγορευόντων. τοὺς δʼ οὖν ἀριστεῖς συνελθόντας ἑλέσθαι σφῶν αὐτῶν στρατηγὸν Ἡρακλέα,
First of all, in the vicinity of Mount Pelion he built a ship which far surpassed in its size and in its equipment in general any vessel known in those days, since the men of that time put to sea on rafts or in very small boats. Consequently those who saw the ship at the time were greatly astonished, and when the report was noised about throughout Greece both of the exploit of the enterprise of building the ship, no small number of the youths of prominence were eager to take part in the expedition. Jason, then, after he had launched the ship and fitted it out in brilliant fashion with everything which would astonish the mind, picked out the most renowned chieftains from those who were eager to share his plan, with the result that the whole number of those in his company amounted to fifty-four. Of these the most famous were Castor and Polydeuces, Heracles and Telamon, Orpheus and Atalantê the daughter of Schoeneus, and the sons of Thespius, and the leader himself who was setting out on the voyage to Colchis. The vessel was called Argo after Argus, as some writers of myths record, who was the master-builder of the ship and went along on the voyage in order to repair the parts of the vessel as they were strained from time to time, but, as some say, after its exceeding great swiftness, since the ancients called what is swift Argos. Now after the chieftains had gathered together they chose Heracles to be their general, preferring him because of his courage.
προκρίναντας κατʼ ἀνδρείαν. ἔπειτʼ ἐκ τῆς Ἰωλκοῦ τὸν ἔκπλουν ποιησαμένους, καὶ παραλλάξαντας τόν τε Ἄθω καὶ Σαμοθρᾴκην, χειμῶνι περιπεσεῖν, καὶ προσενεχθῆναι τῆς Τρῳάδος πρὸς Σίγειον. ἐνταῦθα δʼ αὐτῶν τὴν ἀπόβασιν ποιησαμένων, εὑρεθῆναί φασι παρθένον δεδεμένην παρὰ τὸν αἰγιαλὸν διὰ τοιαύτας αἰτίας.
λέγεται τὸν Ποσειδῶνα διὰ τὴν μυθολογουμένην τῶν Τρωικῶν τειχῶν κατασκευὴν μηνίσαντα Λαομέδοντι τῷ βασιλεῖ κῆτος ἀνεῖναι ἐκ τοῦ πελάγους πρὸς τὴν χώραν· ὑπὸ δὲ τούτου τούς τε παρὰ τὸν αἰγιαλὸν διατρίβοντας καὶ τοὺς γεωργοῦντας τὴν παραθαλάττιον παραδόξως συναρπάζεσθαι· πρὸς δὲ τούτοις λοιμὸν ἐμπεσεῖν εἰς τὰ πλήθη καὶ καρπῶν παντελῆ φθοράν, ὥστε πάντας ἐκπλήττεσθαι τὸ μέγεθος τῆς περιστάσεως.
διὸ καὶ συντρεχόντων τῶν ὄχλων εἰς ἐκκλησίαν καὶ ζητούντων ἀπαλλαγὴν τῶν ἀτυχημάτων, λέγεται τὸν βασιλέα πέμψαι πρὸς τὸν Ἀπόλλω τοὺς ἐπερωτήσοντας περὶ τῶν συμβεβηκότων. ἐκπεσόντος οὖν χρησμοῦ μῆνιν ὑπάρχειν Ποσειδῶνος, καὶ τότε ταύτην λήξειν ὅταν οἱ Τρῶες τὸ λαχὸν τῶν τέκνων ἑκουσίως παραδῶσι βορὰν τῷ κήτει, φασὶν ἁπάντων εἰς τὸν κλῆρον ἐμβαινόντων ἐπανελθεῖν εἰς Ἡσιόνην τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως θυγατέρα·
διόπερ τὸν Λαομέδοντα συναναγκασθέντα παραδοῦναι τὴν παρθένον καὶ δεσμοῖς καταλαβόμενον ἀπολιπεῖν παρὰ τὸν αἰγιαλόν.
ἐνταῦθα δὲ τὸν μὲν Ἡρακλέα μετὰ τῶν Ἀργοναυτῶν τὴν ἀπόβασιν ποιησάμενον, καὶ μαθόντα παρὰ τῆς κόρης τὴν περιπέτειαν, ἀναρρῆξαι μὲν τοὺς περὶ τὸ σῶμα δεσμούς, ἀναβάντα δʼ εἰς τὴν πόλιν ἐπαγγείλασθαι τῷ βασιλεῖ διαφθερεῖν τὸ κῆτος.
After they had sailed from Iolcus, the account continues, and had gone past Athos and Samothrace, they encountered a storm and were carried to Sigeium in the Troad. When they disembarked there, it is said, they discovered a maiden bound in chains upon the shore, the reason for it being as follows. Poseidon, as the story runs, became angry with Laomedon the king of Troy in connection with the building of its walls, according to the mythical story, and sent forth from the sea a monster to ravage the land. By this monster those who made their living by the seashore and the farmers who tilled the land contiguous to the sea were being surprised and carried off. Furthermore, a pestilence fell upon the people and a total destruction of their crops, so that all the inhabitants were at their wits’ end because of the magnitude of what had befallen them. Consequently the common crowd gathered together into an assembly and sought for a deliverance from their misfortunes, and the king, it is said, dispatched a mission to Apollo to inquire of the god respecting what had befallen them. When the oracle, then, became known, which told that the cause was the anger of Poseidon and that only then would it cease when the Trojans should of their free will select by lot one of their children and deliver him to the monster for his food, although all the children submitted to the lot, it fell upon the king’s daughter Hesionê. Consequently Laomedon was constrained by necessity to deliver the maiden and to leave her, bound in chains, upon the shore. Here Heracles, when he had disembarked with the Argonauts and learned from the girl of her sudden change of fortune, rent asunder the chains which were about her body and going up to the city made an offer to the king to slay the monster.
τοῦ δὲ Λαομέδοντος ἀποδεξαμένου τὸν λόγον καὶ δωρεὰν δώσειν ἐπαγγειλαμένου τὰς ἀνικήτους ἵππους, φασὶ τὸ μὲν κῆτος ὑφʼ Ἡρακλέους ἀναιρεθῆναι, τῇ δʼ Ἡσιόνῃ δοθῆναι τὴν ἐξουσίαν εἴτε βούλοιτο μετὰ τοῦ σώσαντος ἀπελθεῖν εἴτε μετὰ τῶν γονέων καταμένειν ἐν τῇ πατρίδι. τὴν μὲν οὖν κόρην ἑλέσθαι τὸν μετὰ τοῦ ξένου βίον, οὐ μόνον τὴν εὐεργεσίαν τῆς συγγενείας προκρίνασαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ φοβουμένην μὴ πάλιν φανέντος κήτους πρὸς τὴν ὁμοίαν ὑπὸ τῶν πολιτῶν ἐκτεθῇ τιμωρίαν.
τὸν δʼ Ἡρακλέα δώροις καὶ τοῖς προσήκουσι ξενίοις λαμπρῶς τιμηθέντα τὴν Ἡσιόνην καὶ τὰς ἵππους παραθέσθαι τῷ Λαομέδοντι, συνταξάμενον μετὰ τὴν ἐκ Κόλχων ἐπάνοδον ἀπολήψεσθαι, αὐτὸν δʼ ἀναχθῆναι μετὰ τῶν Ἀργοναυτῶν κατὰ σπουδὴν ἐπὶ τὸν προκείμενον ἆθλον.
When Laomedon accepted the proposal and promised to give him as his reward his invincible mares, Heracles, they say, did slay the monster and Hesionê was given the choice either to leave her home with her saviour or to remain in her native land with her parents. The girl, then, chose to spend her life with the stranger, not merely because she preferred the benefaction she had received to the ties of kinship, but also because she feared that a monster might again appear and she be exposed by citizens to the same fate as that from which she had just escaped. As for Heracles, after he had been splendidly honoured with gifts and the appropriate tokens of hospitality, he left Hesionê and the mares in keeping with Laomedon, having arranged that after he had returned from Colchis, he should receive them again; he then set sail with all haste in the company of the Argonauts to accomplish the labour which lay before them.
ἐπιγενομένου δὲ μεγάλου χειμῶνος, καὶ τῶν ἀριστέων ἀπογινωσκόντων τὴν σωτηρίαν, φασὶν Ὀρφέα, τῆς τελετῆς μόνον τῶν συμπλεόντων μετεσχηκότα, ποιήσασθαι τοῖς Σαμόθρᾳξι τὰς ὑπὲρ τῆς σωτηρίας εὐχάς.
εὐθὺς δὲ τοῦ πνεύματος ἐνδόντος, καὶ δυοῖν ἀστέρων ἐπὶ τὰς τῶν Διοσκόρων κεφαλὰς ἐπιπεσόντων, ἅπαντας μὲν ἐκπλαγῆναι τὸ παράδοξον, ὑπολαβεῖν δὲ θεῶν προνοίᾳ τῶν κινδύνων ἑαυτοὺς ἀπηλλάχθαι. διὸ καὶ τοῖς ἐπιγινομένοις παραδοσίμου γεγενημένης τῆς περιπετείας, ἀεὶ τοὺς χειμαζομένους τῶν πλεόντων εὐχὰς μὲν τίθεσθαι τοῖς Σαμόθρᾳξι, τὰς δὲ τῶν ἀστέρων παρουσίας ἀναπέμπειν εἰς τὴν τῶν Διοσκόρων ἐπιφάνειαν.
οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ τότε λήξαντος τοῦ χειμῶνος ἀποβῆναι μὲν τοὺς ἀριστεῖς τῆς Θρᾴκης εἰς τὴν ὑπὸ Φινέως βασιλευομένην χώραν, περιπεσεῖν δὲ δυσὶ νεανίσκοις ἐπὶ τιμωρίᾳ διωρυγμένοις καὶ μάστιξι πληγὰς συνεχεῖς λαμβάνουσι· τούτους δʼ ὑπάρχειν Φινέως υἱοὺς καὶ Κλεοπάτρας, ἥν φασιν ἐξ Ὠρειθυίας τῆς Ἐρεχθέως γεννηθῆναι καὶ Βορέου, διὰ μητρυιᾶς τόλμαν καὶ διαβολὰς ψευδεῖς τυγχάνοντας ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀδίκως τῆς προειρημένης τιμωρίας·
τὸν γὰρ Φινέα γεγαμηκότα Ἰδαίαν τὴν Δαρδάνου τοῦ Σκυθῶν βασιλέως θυγατέρα, καὶ διὰ τὸν πρὸς αὐτὴν ἔρωτα πάντα χαριζόμενον, πιστεῦσαι διότι τῇ μητρυιᾷ βίαν ἐφʼ ὕβρει προσήγαγον οἱ πρόγονοι, βουλόμενοι τῇ μητρὶ χαρίζεσθαι.
τῶν δὲ περὶ τὸν Ἡρακλέα παραδόξως ἐπιφανέντων, φασὶ τοὺς μὲν ἐν ταῖς ἀνάγκαις ὄντας ἐπικαλέσασθαι καθάπερ θεοὺς τοὺς ἀριστεῖς, καὶ τὰς αἰτίας δηλώσαντας τῆς τοῦ πατρὸς παρανομίας δεῖσθαι τῶν ἀτυχημάτων αὐτοὺς ἐξελέσθαι.
But there came on a great storm and the chieftains had given up hope of being saved, when Orpheus, they say, who was the only one on shipboard who had ever been initiated in the mysteries of the deities of Samothrace, offered to these deities the prayers for their salvation. And immediately the wind died down and two stars fell over the heads of the Dioscori, and the whole company was amazed at the marvel which had taken place and concluded that they had been rescued from their perils by an act of Providence of the gods. For this reason, the story of this reversal of fortune for the Argonauts has been handed down to succeeding generations, and sailors when caught in storms always direct their prayers to the deities of Samothrace and attribute the appearance of the two stars to the epiphany of the Dioscori.
At that time, however, the tale continues, when the storm had abated, the chieftains landed in Thrace on the country which was ruled by Phineus. Here they came upon two youths who by way of punishment had been shut within a burial vault where they were being subjected to continual blows of the whip; these were sons of Phineus and Cleopatra, who men said was born of Oreithyïa, the daughter of Erechtheus, and Boreas, and had unjustly been subjected to such a punishment because of the unscrupulousness and lying accusations of their mother-in-law. For Phineus had married Idaea, the daughter of Dardanus the king of the Scythians, and yielding to her every desire out of his love for her he had believed her charge that his sons by an earlier marriage had insolently offered violence to their mother-in-law out of a desire to please their mother. And when Heracles and his friends unexpectedly appeared, the youths who were suffering these tortures, they say, made supplication to the chieftains as they would to gods, and setting forth the causes of their father’s unlawful conduct implored that they be delivered from their unfortunate lot.
τὸν δὲ Φινέα πικρῶς ἀπαντήσαντα τοῖς ξένοις παραγγεῖλαι μηδὲν τῶν καθʼ ἑαυτὸν πολυπραγμονεῖν· μηδένα γὰρ πατέρα λαβεῖν παρʼ υἱῶν ἑκουσίως τιμωρίαν, εἰ μὴ τῷ μεγέθει τῶν ἀδικημάτων ὑπέρθοιντο τὴν φυσικὴν
τῶν γονέων εἰς τέκνα φιλοστοργίαν. ἐνταῦθα συμπλέοντας τοῖς περὶ τὸν Ἡρακλέα τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους μὲν Βορεάδας, ἀδελφοὺς δʼ ὄντας Κλεοπάτρας, λέγεται διὰ τὴν συγγένειαν πρώτους ὁρμῆσαι πρὸς τὴν βοήθειαν, καὶ τοὺς μὲν περικειμένους τοῖς νεανίσκοις δεσμοὺς περιρρῆξαι, τοὺς δʼ ἐναντιουμένους τῶν βαρβάρων ἀποκτεῖναι.
ὁρμήσαντος δὲ τοῦ Φινέως πρὸς μάχην, καὶ τοῦ πλήθους τῶν Θρᾳκῶν συνδραμόντος, φασὶ τὸν Ἡρακλέα πάντων ἄριστα διαγωνισάμενον αὐτόν τε τὸν Φινέα καὶ τῶν ἄλλων οὐκ ὀλίγους ἀνελεῖν, τὸ δὲ τελευταῖν, τὸ δὲ τελευταῖον κρατήσαντα τῶν βασιλείων τὴν μὲν Κλεοπάτραν τὴς φυλακῆς προαγαγεῖν, τοῖς δε Φινείδαις ἀποκαταστῆσαι τὴν πατρῴαν ἀρχήν· βουλομένων δʼ αὐτῶν τὴν μητρυιὰν μετʼ αἰκίας ἀποκτεῖναι, πεῖσαι τῆς μὲν τιμωρίας ταύτης ἀποστῆναι, πρὸς δὲ τὸν πατέρα πέμψαντας εἰς τὴν Σκυθίαν ἐκεῖνον παρακαλέσαι τῶν εἰς αὐτοὺς ἀνομημάτων λαβεῖν κόλασιν.
οὗ γενηθέντος τὸν μὲν Σκύθην τῆς θυγατρὸς καταγνῶναι θάνατον, τοὺς δʼ ἐκ τῆς Κλεοπάτρας υἱοὺς ἀπενέγκασθαι παρὰ τοῖς Θρᾳξὶ δόξαν ἐπιεικείας. οὐκ ἀγνοῶ δὲ διότι τινὲς τῶν μυθογράφων τυφλωθῆναί φασι τοὺς Φινείδας ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρός, καὶ τὸν Φινέα τῆς ὁμοίας τυχεῖν συμφορᾶς ὑπὸ Βορέου.
ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τὸν Ἡρακλέα τινὲς παραδεδώκασι πρὸς ὑδρείαν ἐξελθόντα κατὰ τὴν Ἀσίαν ὑπὸ τῶν Ἀργοναυτῶν ἐπὶ τῆς χώρας ἀπολειφθῆναι. καθόλου δὲ τοὺς παλαιοὺς μύθους οὐχ ἁπλῆν οὐδὲ συμπεφωνημένην ἱστορίαν ἔχειν συμβέβηκε·
Phineus, however, the account continues, met the strangers with bitter words and ordered them not to busy themselves with his affairs; for no father, he said, exacts punishment of his sons of his free will, unless they have overcome, by the magnitude of their crimes, the natural love which parents bear towards their children. Thereupon the young men, who were known as Boreadae and were of the company which sailed with Heracles, since they were brothers of Cleopatra, and because of their kinship with the young men, were the first, it is said, to rush to their aid, and they tore apart the chains which encircled them and slew such barbarians as offered resistance. And when Phineus hastened to join battle with them and the Thracian multitude ran together, Heracles, they say, who performed the mightiest deeds of them all, slew Phineus himself and no small number of the rest, and finally capturing the royal palace led Cleopatra forth from out the prison, and restored to the sons of Phineus their ancestral rule. But when the sons wished to put their stepmother to death under torture, Heracles persuaded them to renounce such a vengeance, and so the sons, sending her to her father in Scythia, urged that she be punished for her wicked treatment of them. And this was done; the Scythian condemned his daughter to death, and the sons of Cleopatra gained in this way among the Thracians a reputation for equitable dealing.
I am not unaware that certain writers of myths say that the sons of Phineus were blinded by their father and that Phineus suffered the like fate at the hands of Boreas. Likewise certain writers have passed down the account that Heracles, when he went ashore once in Asia to get water, was left behind in the country by the Argonauts. But, as a general thing, we find that the ancient myths do not give us a simple and consistent story;
διόπερ οὐ χρὴ θαυμάζειν, ἐάν τινα τῶν ἀρχαιολογουμένων μὴ συμφώνως ἅπασι τοῖς ποιηταῖς καὶ συγγραφεῦσι συγκρίνωμεν. οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς Φινείδας λέγεται τὴν βασιλείαν παραδόντας τῇ μητρὶ Κλεοπάτρᾳ συστρατεῦσαι τοῖς ἀριστεῦσιν.
ἀναχθέντας δʼ αὐτοὺς ἐκ τῆς Θρᾴκης καὶ κομισθέντας εἰς τὸν Πόντον προσχεῖν τῇ Ταυρικῇ, τὴν ἀγριότητα τῶν ἐγχωρίων ἀγνοοῦντας· νόμιμον γὰρ εἶναι τοῖς τὴν χώραν ταύτην οἰκοῦσι βαρβάροις θύειν Ἀρτέμιδι Ταυροπόλῳ τοὺς καταπλέοντας ξένους· παρʼ οἷς φασι τὴν Ἰφιγένειαν ἐν τοῖς ὕστερον χρόνοις ἱέρειαν τῆς εἰρημένης θεοῦ κατασταθεῖσαν θύειν τοὺς ἁλισκομένους.
consequently it would occasion no surprise if we find, when we put the ancient accounts together, that in some details they are not in agreement with those given by every poet and historian.
At any rate, according to these ancient accounts, the sons of Phineus turned over the kingdom to their mother Cleopatra and joined with the chieftains in the expedition. And after they had set sail from Thrace and had entered the Pontus, they put in at the Tauric Chersonese, being ignorant of the savage ways of the native people. For it is customary among the barbarians who inhabit this land to sacrifice to Artemis Tauropolus the strangers who put in there, and it is among them, they say, that at a later time Iphigeneia became a priestess of this goddess and sacrificed to her those who were taken captive.
Cite This Text