When the Argo entered the open sea, a fair wind blew. The heroes spread their sails, and the Argo quickly rushed along the waves of the Euxine Pontus. The heroes sailed for three days. Finally, the shores of Scythia appeared in the distance. The Argonauts decided to sail upstream of the Istra, and then go down one of its branches into the Adriatic Sea. When the Argonauts sailed to the mouth of the Ister, they saw that its entire mouth and all the islands were occupied by the army of the Colchians, who sailed there on their ships by the shortest route. Seeing the large army of Colchians, the heroes were convinced that they could not defeat him; there were too few of them to decide to fight thousands of well-armed warlike Colchians. The Argonauts decided to resort to cunning. They entered into negotiations with the leader of the enemy army, Absyrtus, and promised him to imprison Medea in the temple and hand her over if the king of the neighboring city decided that Medea should return to Colchis, while the golden fleece was to remain with the Argonauts, since Jason performed exactly the feat for which Eet promised to give him the fleece. But all these negotiations were conducted only to gain time. Medea promised Jason to lure Absyrtus to one of the islands in the temple.
Jason sent rich gifts to Absyrtus, as if from Medea, and ordered him to ask him to come to a secluded temple to see Medea there. Absyrtus came to the temple, but as soon as he appeared at the door of the temple, Jason rushed at him with a drawn sword, and Absyrtus fell to the ground, struck to death. Jason and Medea committed a terrible crime: they killed the unarmed Absyrtus in the temple. Having cut the body of Absyrtus into pieces, Jason threw it into the waves of Istra. The Colchians were horrified, they rushed to collect parts of the body of their leader, while the Argonauts quickly sailed up the Istru.
The Argonauts sailed for a long time, and finally they descended along the Istra arm into the Adriatic Sea to the shores of Illyria. A terrible storm arose there. Foam-covered ramparts rise like mountains. The winds, as if broken from chains, rush over the sea and tear the sail from the Argo. The Argo groans under the pressure of the waves, its sides bend, the oars break in the hands of the mighty rowers. Argo's waves carry you like a piece of wood. Death threatens the Argonauts. Then a voice came from the stern. It came from a piece of sacred oak inserted into the stern of the Argo, which grew in Dodona. The voice commanded the Argonauts to go to the sorceress Kirke, so that she would cleanse Jason and Medea from the murder of Absyrtus, who had defiled them. As soon as the Argonauts turned the Argo to the north, the storm subsided, and everyone realized that this was the will of the gods.
Through Eridanus and then along Rodan, the Argonauts descended into the Tyrrhenian Sea and sailed along it for a long time, until they finally sailed to the magical island of Kirk, sister of Eet. The pickaxe cleansed Medea and Jason from the taint of murder. She made a sacrifice to Zeus, who cleanses the filth of murder, doused Jason’s hands with sacrificial blood and begged the Erinyes at the altar not to pursue the murderers with her anger. Kirk did not refuse to cleanse Medea from the terrible crime, since the sorceress recognized from the sparkle of her eyes that Medea, like herself, comes from the family of the sun god Helios.
The Argonauts set off on their further journey. They still had to overcome many dangers. They sailed between Skilla and Charybdis, where certain death would have awaited them if the great wife of Zeus, Hera, had not helped them. They sailed past the island of the sirens and heard their alluring singing, which with invincible force drew them to the sirens. But the singer Orpheus struck the strings of the golden cithara, and his song defeated the spell of the songs of the sirens. Finally, the Argonauts sailed to Plankta, a narrow strait above which huge rocks rose like an arch. The sea beat between the rocks, the waves swirled under the arch in a terrible whirlpool, at times rising to the very top of the arch. Even the pigeons that brought ambrosia to Zeus did not fly unharmed under this arch, and every day one of them died. But even here Hera helped the Argonauts; she begged Amphitrite to calm the waves at Plankt, and the Argonauts passed them unharmed.
After a long journey, the Argonauts arrived at the island of the Phaeacians. There they were warmly received by King Alcinous. The Argonauts could rest from the dangers of the journey, but they had not spent even a day with the Phaeacians when a Colchian fleet appeared near the island and they demanded that Medea be handed over to them. A bloody battle would have begun if Alkinoi had not separated the enemies. Alcinous decided that Medea should be handed over to the Colchians if she was not Jason’s wife. At night, Alcinous’s wife, Arete, sent a messenger to Jason so that the messenger would inform him of Alcinous’s decision. That same night, the wedding rites were performed by Jason and Medea, and the next day Jason swore a solemn oath before the assembled Phaeacians and Colchians that Medea was his wife. Alcinous then decided that Medea should stay with her husband, and the Colchians had to return to Eetus without taking possession of Medea.
Having rested with the hospitable Phaeacians, the Argonauts moved on. They sailed safely for a long time. Now the shores of the Peloponnese appeared in the blue distance of the sea. Suddenly a terrible whirlwind arose and rushed the Argo into the sea. The whirlwind carried the Argo for a long time across the boundless sea and finally threw the Argo onto a deserted shore. The Argo got stuck deep in the mud of the bay, completely covered with algae. Despair gripped the Argonauts. The helmsman Lynceus sat at the stern with his head down, having lost hope of returning to Greece. The sad Argonauts wandered along the shore, as if they had lost all their strength, all their courage. Everyone saw death in front of them. Nymphs came to Jason's aid. They revealed to Jason that a whirlwind had carried the Argo into Libya and that the Argonauts must carry the Argo on their shoulders across the Libyan desert, lifting it from the mud when Amphitrite unharnessed the horses from her chariot. But when does Amphitrite unharness his horses from the chariot? The Argonauts did not know this. Suddenly they saw a snow-white horse run out of the sea and quickly rush through the desert. The Argonauts realized that this was Amphitrite’s horse. The Argonauts lifted the Argo onto their shoulders and carried it across the desert for twelve days, exhausted from heat and thirst. Finally they reached the country of the Hesperides. There the Hesperides showed them a source knocked out of the rock by Hercules. The heroes quenched their thirst, stocked up on water and set off on their way to their homeland. But the Argonauts could not find a way out to sea. They were not in the sea, but in Lake Triton. But with the advice of Orpheus, they dedicated a tripod to the god of the lake. A beautiful young man appeared before the Argonauts. He gave the hero Euphem a lump of earth as a sign of hospitality and showed the Argonauts the exit to the sea. The Argonauts sacrificed a ram. The god Triton himself appeared in front of the Argo and led the Argo past the white rocks, through the whirlpool into the open sea. From Lake Triton, the Argonauts sailed to the island of Crete and wanted to stock up on water there for further navigation. But the copper giant Talos, given to Minos by the thunderer Zeus himself, did not allow them to the shore of Crete. Talos guarded the possessions of Minos, running around the entire island. But Medea put Talos to sleep with her spell. Talos fell to the ground, and a copper nail fell out, which closed the only vein through which Talos’ blood flowed. The blood of Talos poured onto the ground, like molten lead, and the giant died. The Argonauts could now freely land on the shore and stock up on water.
On the way from Crete to Greece, the hero Euphem dropped a lump of earth given to him by Triton into the sea, and from this lump an island was formed, called Callista by the Argonauts. This island was subsequently settled by the descendants of Euphem, and it became known as Feroi.
After this, a storm overtook the Argonauts at sea. A storm raged on a dark night. The Argonauts were afraid every minute of running into an underwater rock or crashing on the coastal rocks. Suddenly a golden arrow flashed over the sea with a bright light and illuminated everything around, followed by another and a third. It was the god Apollo who illuminated the path of the Argonauts with his arrows. They landed on the island of Anafa and waited out the storm. The storm finally subsided, the waves of the sea calmed, and a fair wind blew. "Argo" calmly rushed across the azure sea. The Argonauts encountered no more dangers on their way and soon arrived at the desired harbor of Iolka.
When the Argonauts arrived in Iolcus, they made a rich sacrifice to the gods, who helped during the dangerous voyage. Everyone in Iolka rejoiced and celebrated the return of the Argonauts; everyone praised the great heroes and their leader Jason, who obtained the Golden Fleece.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru