Though success attended the enterprise, it was less owing to valor, than to the assistance of Medēa, daughter of Æētes, who, by her enchantments, laid asleep the dragon, taught Jason to subdue the bulls, and when he had obtained the prize, accompanied him in the night time, unknown to her brother.
The return of the Argonauts is variously related; some contend it was by the track in which they came, and say that the brother of Medēa pursued them as far as the Adriatic, and was overcome by Jason; which occasioned the story that his sister had cut him in pieces, and strewed his limbs in the way, that her father, from solicitude to collect them, might be delayed in the pursuit.
CHAPTER XII.
Other fabulous personages.
GRACES or CHARITES. Among the multitude of ancient divinities, none had more votaries that the Graces. Particular nations and countries had appropriate and local deities, but their empire was universal. To their influence was ascribed all that could please in nature and in art; and to them every rank and profession concurred in offering their vows.
Their number was generally limited, by the ancient poets, to three: Euphrosyne, Thalīa, and Aglaia; but they differed concerning their origin. Some suppose them to have been the offspring of Jupiter and Eunomia, daughter of Oceănus; but the most prevalent opinion is, that they were descended from Bacchus and Venus. According to Homer, Aglaia, the youngest, was married to Vulcan, and another of them to the god of Sleep. The Graces were companions of Mercury, Venus, and the Muses.
Festivals were celebrated in honor of them throughout the whole year. They were esteemed the dispensers of liberality, eloquence, and wisdom; and from them were derived simplicity of manners, a graceful deportment, and gaiety of disposition. From their inspiring acts of gratitude and mutual kindness they were described as uniting hand in hand with each other. The ancients partook of but few repasts without invoking them, as well as the Muses.
SIRENS were a kind of fabulous beings represented by some as sea-monsters, with the faces of women and the tails of fishes, answering the description of mermaids; and by others said to have the upper parts of a woman, and the under parts of a bird. Their number is not determined; Homer reckons only two; others five, namely, Leucosia, Ligeia, Parthenŏpe, Aglaŏphon, and Molpe; others admit only the three first.
The poets represent them as beautiful women inhabiting the rocks on the sea-shore, whither having allured passengers by the sweetness of their voices, they put them to death. Virgil places them on rocks where vessels are in danger of shipwreck; Pliny makes them inhabit the promontory of Minerva, near the island Capreæ; others fix them in Sicily, near cape Pelōrus.