"You need not die," said Jason to the witch-maiden. "Flee home with us across the sea. Show us but how to win the fleece, and come with us and you shall be my queen, and rule over the rich princes in Iolcos by the sea."
And all the heroes pressed round and vowed to her that she should be their queen.
Medeia wept and hid her face in her hands. "Must I leave my home and my people?" she sobbed. "But the lot is cast: I will show you how to win the Golden Fleece. Bring up your ship to the woodside, and moor her there against the bank. And let Jason come up at midnight and one brave comrade with him, and meet me beneath the wall."
Then all the heroes cried together, "I will go—and I—and I!"
But Medeia calmed them and said, "Orpheus shall go with Jason, and take his magic harp."
And Orpheus laughed for joy and clapped his hands, because the choice had fallen on him.
So at midnight they went up the bank and found Medeia, and she brought them to a thicket beside the War-god's gate.
And the base of the gate fell down and the brazen doors flew wide, and Medeia and the heroes ran forward, and hurried through the poison wood, guided by the gleam of the Golden Fleece, until they saw it hanging on one vast tree in the midst.
Jason would have sprung to seize it, but Medeia held him back and pointed to the tree-foot, where a mighty serpent lay, coiled in and out among the roots.