40. When the king of the country, whose name was Æetes, heard of their arrival, he instantly summoned Jason to court. The king was stern and cruel looking; and, though he put on as polite and hospitable an expression as he could, Jason did not like his face a whit better than that of the wicked King Pelias, who dethroned his father.
41. "You are welcome, brave Jason," said King Æetes. "Pray, are you on a pleasure voyage?—or do you meditate the discovery of unknown islands?—or what other cause has procured me the happiness of seeing you at my court?"
42. "Great sir," replied Jason, "I have come hither with a purpose which I now beg your majesty's permission to execute. King Pelias, who sits on my father's throne (to which he has no more right than to the one on which your excellent majesty is now seated), has engaged to come down from it and to give me his crown and scepter provided I bring him the Golden Fleece. This, as your majesty is aware, is now hanging on a tree here at Colchis, and I humbly solicit your gracious leave to take it away."
43. In spite of himself, the king's face twisted itself into an angry frown; for, above all things else in the world, he prized the Golden Fleece, and was even suspected of having done a very wicked act in order to get it into his own possession. It put him into the worst possible humor, therefore, to hear that the gallant Prince Jason and forty-nine of the bravest young warriors of Greece had come to Colchis with the sole purpose of taking away his chief treasure.
44. "Do you know," asked King Æetes, eying Jason very sternly, "what are the conditions which you must fulfill before getting possession of the Golden Fleece?"
"I have heard," rejoined the youth, "that a dragon lies beneath the tree on which the prize hangs, and that whoever approaches him runs the risk of being devoured at a mouthful."
45. "True," said the king, with a smile that did not look particularly good-natured. "Very true, young man; but there are other things as hard, or perhaps a little harder, to be done before you can even have the privilege of being devoured by the dragon. For example, you must first tame my two brazen-footed and brazen-lunged bulls which Vulcan, the wonderful blacksmith, made for me.
46. "There is a furnace in each of their stomachs, and they breathe such hot fire out of their mouths and nostrils that nobody has hitherto gone nigh them without being instantly burned to a small, black cinder. What do you think of this, my brave Jason?"
"I must encounter the peril," answered Jason, "since it stands in the way of my purpose."
47. "After taming the fiery bulls," continued King Æetes, who was determined to scare Jason if possible, "you must yoke them to a plow, and must plow the sacred earth in the Grove of Mars, and sow some of the dragon's teeth from which Cadmus raised a crop of armed men. You and your nine and forty Argonauts, my bold Jason, are hardly strong enough to fight with such a host as will spring up."