The Argonauts did not stay long with Phineus. They hurried on. The Argo rushed quickly across the waves of the sea. Suddenly a distant noise was heard ahead. This noise is becoming clearer and louder. It is like the roar of an approaching storm, at times drowned out as if by peals of thunder. The Symplegadi rocks appeared. The heroes saw the rocks disperse and again hit each other with a terrible roar. The sea bubbled around them, spray flying high with every collision of rocks. When the rocks parted again, the waves rushed between them and swirled in a frantic whirlpool.
The heroes remembered Phineus’s advice to send a dove forward between the rocks; if a dove flies by, then the Argo will sail unharmed past Symplegades. The Argonauts leaned on the oars. Now they are already at the very rocks. The rocks collided with thunder and separated again. Then the hero Euphem released a dove. A dove flies like an arrow between the rocks. Here the rocks closed again with such thunder that the sky seemed to tremble. Salty spray doused the Argonauts, and the Argo spun among the waves, as if caught in a whirlwind. The dove flew unharmed between the rocks, only the tip of its tail was torn out from it by the colliding rocks. The Argonauts cried out joyfully and leaned on the oars together. The rocks parted. A huge wave with a foamy crest picked up the Argo and threw it into the strait. Another wave rushes towards us, it threw the Argo back. The waves boil and bubble around. The oars bend. "Argo" crackles, as if groaning from the pressure of the waves. Another wave rose, high, like a mountain; it fell on the Argo, and it began to spin like a fragile shuttle. The rocks are already approaching. Now they will collide. Death is inevitable. Then the beloved daughter of Zeus, Pallas Athena, came to the aid of the Argonauts. She held one of the rocks with her mighty hand, and with the other she pushed the Argo with such force that it was carried out of the strait like an arrow. Only the end of the rudder was crushed by the closed rocks. The rocks parted again and stood, forever motionless, on the sides of the strait. The decree of fate was fulfilled that only then would the Symplegades be motionless when a ship sailed between them. The Argonauts rejoiced - they had escaped the most terrible danger. Now they could be sure that they would end their campaign happily.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru