The mythology of ancient Greece and Italy

474 MYTHOLOGY OF GREECE.
the island. Sailing thence, the Argo was assailed by a tremendous
storm which drove it to the Syrtes on the coast of
Libya. After being detained there for some time they proceeded
on their homeward voyage and came to Crete, where
the brazen man, Talos, prohibited their landing ; but Medeia
by her art deprived him of life. On leaving Crete the night
came on so black and dark that they knew not where they
were ; but Apollo, taking his stand on the rocks called the Me-
lantian Necks, shot an arrow into the sea : the arrow flashed
a vivid light, and they beheld an island, on which they landed.
As this isle had appeared {ave^varo) so unexpectedly, they
named it Anaphe a . Here they erected an altar to Apollo
^Egletes (Lightner), and offered sacrifices ; they thence pro-
ceded to ^Egina, where they watered; and they finally arrived
at Iolcos after an absence of four months.
When Pelias in Pindar b is urging Iason to this celebrated
adventure, he says that a dream and the response of the Del-
phic oracle had directed him to go to iEaea and fetch back the
soul of Phrixos and the e thick-wooled 5
skin of the ram which
had saved him. From various circumstances it seems clear
that the Argonautics were mysteriously connected with the
worship of the Laphystian Zeus c ;
Minyans and to them alone ;
that they belonged to the
that Heracles, Theseus, and the
other heroes who did not belong to this people were added to
the cycle in the progress of time by the poets and by the va-
nity of those whose patron-heroes they were. It may also
have been that the commercial voyages of the Minyans were
united with the mythic expedition. If the gold-mines of Thasos
or Pangaeos were wrought so early, their produce may
have given its golden hue to the fleece. This however is no
essential part of the mythe, as it is also said to be ivhite or
purple^.
There can be little doubt that the direction of this mythic
voyage was north-east, for Lemnos and Samothrace occur in
a Anaphe was one of the Sporades. It and the Melantian Necks were near
Thera.
b Pyth. iv. 283. seq.
c Above, p. 334.
d Simonides and Acusilaiis ap. Sch. Apoll. Rh. iv. 177. 1 147. Sch. Eur. Med. 5.
Purple (-rroptpvpios) is simply Iriyht (from irvp).