LP0081 -VII ARGONAUTS- The Trojan Sea-Monster, from Diodorus

Legendary Passages #0081 -VII ARGONAUTS- The Trojan Sea-Monster, from Diodorus. Previously, Jason and the Argonauts set sail from Iolcus, and had several adventures, concluding with Phineas and the Harpies. This passages is similar, but has stories of Troy, the Dioscori, and a very different account of Phineas. After Jason assembles the Argonauts, thankfully only a handful are mentioned this time, they land at Troy and discover a princess bound in chains on the shore's edge. Hercules frees the princess, and they learn that Poseidon had sent a monster to ravage the countryside; and so the Trojans had offered up Princess Hesione as a sacrifice. Hercules agrees to slay the monster, in exchange for some magic horses and the princess herself. Later, after shooting stars fell behind the twin Dioscori, the Argonauts come upon the kingdom of Phineas. Now Phineas was married to Idaea, but had had twin sons with his ex-wife Cleopatra. Queen Idaea unjustly claimed that her stepsons meant to do her harm, so Phineas punished them harshly. The Argonauts rescued the boys, both Phineas and Idaea were killed, and Cleopatra was made queen. The boys joined the Argonauts as they set sail for Colchis. http://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4C.html#1 The Trojan Sea-Monster, a Legendary Passage from, DIODORUS SICULUS, LIBRARY OF HISTORY, BOOK IV. Sections 40 - 44, trans. by C. H. OLDFATHER. [4.40.1] - [4.44.7] JASON AND PELIAS As for the Argonauts, since Heracles joined them in their campaign, it may be appropriate to speak of them in this connection. This is the account which is given:- Jason was the son of Aeson and the nephew through his father of Pelias, the king of the Thessalians, and excelling as he did above those of his years in strength of body and nobility of spirit he was eager to accomplish a deed worthy of memory. And since he observed that men of former times Perseus and certain others had gained glory which was held in everlasting remembrance from the campaigns which they had waged in foreign lands and the hazard attending the labours they had performed, he was eager to follow the examples they had set. As a consequence he revealed his undertaking to the king and quickly received his approval. It was not so much that Pelias was eager to bring distinction to the youth as that he hoped that in the hazardous expeditions he would lose his life. For he himself had been deprived by nature of any male children and was fearful of his brother, with his son to aid him, would make an attempt upon the kingdom. Hiding, however, this suspicion and promising to supply everything which would be needed for the expedition, he urged Jason to undertake an exploit by sailing to Colchis after the renowned golden-fleeced skin of the ram. The Pontus at that time was inhabited on all its shores by nations which were barbarous and altogether fierce and was called “Axenos,” since the natives were in the habit of slaying the strangers who landed on its shores. Jason, who was eager for glory, recognizing that the labour was difficult of accomplishment and yet not altogether impossible, and concluding that for this very reason the greater renown would attach to himself, made ready everything needed for the undertaking. EMBARKATION OF THE ARGONAUTS First of all, in the vicinity of Mount Pelion he built a ship which far surpassed in its size and in its equipment in general any vessel known in those days, since the men of that time put to sea on rafts or in very small boats. Consequently those who saw the ship at the time were greatly astonished, and when the report was noised about throughout Greece both of the exploit and of the enterprise of building the ship, no small number of the youths of prominence were eager to take part in the expedition. Jason, then, after he had launched the ship and fitted it out in brilliant fashion with everything which would astonish the mind, picked out the most renowned chieftains from those who were eager to share his plan, with