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pelled Medea, and espoused the young princess. Medea, furious at this treatment; called to witness all the gods, who were conusant of the vows, which Jason had sworn. She uttered the bitterest reproaches against his ingratitude and perjury; and sent an envenomed robe, as a present to his bride; which she had no sooner put on, than she and her father, who stood near her, were consumed in a devouring flame. Medea then killed the children, Mermerus and Pheres, which she had borne to Jason; and, having obtained from Phebus, a chariot drawn by fiery dragons, she mounted it; and fled to Athens. In this flight, as some relate, she left her infant children, as suppliants, at the altar of Juno Aerea; but the Corinthians dragged them from this asylum; and killed them, with reiterated wounds.

Medea, having escaped to Athens, espoused Egeus; and produced a son by him, who was called Medon ; but, having insidiously endeavoured to destroy Theseus, the son of Egeus, by a former marriage, she was banished from Athens with her child. Medon, her son, having, in process of time, obtained extensive sway, among the barbarous people of Asia; the kingdom of Media was called after his name.-He, having engaged in a war against the people of Media, perished in the undertaking. Medea returned privately to Colchos; where she found her father Eetes expelled from the throne, by the treacherous practices of his brother, Perseus; and restored him to the possession of his crown.

END OF THE FIRST BOOK OF THE BIBLIOTHECA OF APOLLODORUS.

NAMES

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In making Atalanta and Theseus, two of the compa nions of Jason, he differs expressly from Apollonius ; who says, that Jason declined taking Atalanta with him, though she desired to go, lest her beauty should excite disorder among the adventurers. And that The seus was actually a prisoner, in the infernal regions, at the time of the enterprize.

CATALOGUE OF THE ARGONAUTS,

ACCORDING TO APOLLONIUS RHODIUS.

Those, whose names are marked with an Asterisk, are not mentioned by Apollodorus.

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TRANSLATION

OF PART OF THE

ARGONAUTICS OF ORPHEUS.

THE account of Orpheus, or whoever was the ancient poet, whether Onomacritus, or any other, who composed the account of the Argonautic expedition, which has reached us, and is certainly of very remote anti. quity, and borrowed in great measure from the Orphic fables and traditions, differs, in many circumstances, from the narrative of Apollonius; and particularly with respect to the route, which the adventurers pursued, on their return from Colchis to Greece.The reader will not be displeased to see this account, as it is given by the venerable author.

Arg. v. 1020.-. -Hetes suddenly heard from his servants, that Medea was borne away, and presently ordered Absyrtus to assemble the people, and go in quest of his sister. The youth, without loss of time, hastened to the banks of the river, to the vessel of the heroes; and there he found the unhappy virgin. Night, meantime, adorned with stars, had performed half her course, when the horrid fraud, the black and portentous deed of Medea, was perpetrated on Absyrtus, at the suggestion of love. For she, and her accomplices, killing him, cast the pieces of his mangled body towards the banks, of the rapid river, which, being agitated by a powerful wind, hurried him away. The remains of the unhappy youth, were borne to the sea, and cast, at

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length, upon certain islands, which still retain the name of Absyrtus.—This cruel deed did not pass unnoticed, by all-seeing Jove and Nemesis.

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After the Argonauts had embarked on board their vessel, and cut the halsers on each side, from the banks of the river, and bending more and more on their swift oars, cut the river; we were not borne strait forward, to the fishy sea, through the mouth of the broad Phasis, but were borne about afar, by a wide deviation, perpetually sailing back. The cities of the Colchians were left behind, without the knowledge of the Minya; for a black and overshadowing night was diffused around. Thus labouring and astray, not knowing whither we went, we ran through the mid channel of the stream.The people, who dwell around, are, the Gymni, the Buonoma, the tribe of the Corcetici, and the clownish Arcyes, with the ferocious Sindi.-Here the Argonauts thought to pass among the habitations of the Charandai, near the ridges of Caucasus, through the narrow pass of Erythia. But, when morn appeared, delighting man, with her beams, we touched at a grassy island, sur rounded by two rivers, whose streams are not navigable, the expansive Phasis, and the smoothly flowing Saran gis. The lake Maotis inundating the land, sends the latter, through the reedy grass and sedge, resounding to the sea. Then, plying our oars, we sailed day and night-by two outlets of the lake we arrive at the Bos porus-through the midst of this, Titan, mounted on a mighty bull, past, with the oxen which he had stolen, dividing the passage from the lake.t-Here, worn-out with the fatigue of rowing, through the weary length of day, we first arrive at the seats of the Maota, softly

*The Cimmerian Bosporus.

The Palus Maotis, now called the sea of Zabach.

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