Island of Lemnos. Years before a curse had fallen upon the people of that island, putting strife between the men and the women. And the women had mastered the men and had driven them away from Lemnos. Since then some of the women had grown old, and the girls who were children when their fathers and brothers had been banished were now of an age with Atalanta, the maiden who went with the Argonauts.They chased the wild beasts of the island, and they tilled the fields, and they kept in good repair the houses that were built
before the banishing of the men. The older women served those who were younger, and they had a queen, a girl whose name was
Hypsipyle.
The women who watched with bows in their hands would have shot their arrows at the Argonauts if Hypsipyle's nurse, Polyxo,
[pg 56] had not stayed them. She forbade them to shoot at the strangers until she had brought to them the queen's commands. She hastened to the palace and she found the young queen weaving at a loom. She told her about the ship and the strangers on
board the ship, and she asked the queen what word she should bring to the guardian maidens.
"Before you give a command, Hypsipyle," said Polyxo, the nurse, "consider these words of mine. We, the elder women, are be-
coming ancient now; in a few years we will not be able to serve you, the younger women, and in a few years more we will have gone into the grave and our places will know us no more. And you, the younger women, will be becoming strengthless, and no more will
be you able to hunt in the woods nor to till the fields, and a hard old age will be before you.
"The ship that is beside our shore may have come at a good time. Those on board are goodly heroes. Let them land in Lemnos, and stay if they will. Let them wed with the younger women so that there may be husbands and wives, helpers and helpmeets, again in Lemnos."
Hypsipyle, the queen, let the shuttle fall from her hands and stayed for a while looking full into Polyxo's face. Had her nurse heard
her say something like this out of her dreams, she wondered? She bade the nurse tell the guardian maidens to let the heroes land in safety, and that she herself would put the crown of King Thoas, her father, upon her head, and go down to the shore to welcome them.
[pg 57]
And now the Argonauts saw people along the shore and they caught sight of women's dresses. The loudest voiced amongst them shouted again, and they heard an answer given in a woman's voice. They drew up the Argo upon the shore, and they set foot upon the land of Lemnos.
Jason stepped forth at the head of his comrades, and he was met by Hypsipyle, her father's crown upon her head, at the head of her maidens. They greeted each other, and Hypsipyle bade the heroes come with them to their town that was called Myrine and to the palace that was there.
Wonderingly the Argonauts went, looking on women's forms and faces and seeing no men. They came to the palace and went
15
within. Hypsipyle mounted the stone throne that was King Thoas's and the four maidens who were her guards stood each side of her. She spoke to the heroes in greeting and bade them stay in peace for as long as they would. She told them of the curse that had fallen upon the people of Lemnos, and of how the menfolk had been banished. Jason, then, told the queen what voyage he and
his companions were upon and what quest they were making. Then in friendship the Argonauts and the women of Lemnos stayed
together--all the Argonauts except Heracles, and he, grieving still for Hylas, stayed aboard the Argo.
[pg 58]
IX. The Lemnian Maidens
AND now the Argonauts were no longer on a ship that was being dashed on by the sea and beaten upon by the winds. They had houses to live in; they had honey-tasting things to eat, and when they went through the island each man might have with him one of the maidens of Lemnos. It was a change that was welcome to the wearied voyagers.
They helped the women in the work of the fields; they hunted the beasts with them, and over and over again they were surprised
at how skillfully the women had ordered all affairs. Everything in Lemnos was strange to the Argonauts, and they stayed day after day, thinking each day a fresh adventure.
Sometimes they would leave the fields and the chase, and this hero or that hero, with her who was his friend amongst the Lemnian
maidens, would go far into that strange land and look upon lakes that were all covered with golden and silver water lilies, or would
gather the blue flowers from creepers that grew around dark trees, or would hide themselves so that they might listen to the quick-
moving birds that sang in the thickets. Perhaps on their way homeward they would see the Argo in the harbor, and they would think of Heracles who was aboard, and they would call to him. But the ship and the voyage they had been on now seemed far away to them, and the Quest of the Golden Fleece [pg 59] seemed to them a story they had heard and that they had thought of, but that they could never think on again with all that fervor.
When Jason looked on Hypsipyle he saw one who seemed to him to be only childlike in size. Greatly was he amazed at the words that poured forth from her as she stood at the stone throne of King Thoas--he was amazed as one is amazed at the rush of rich notes that comes from the throat of a little bird; all that she said was made lightninglike by her eyes--her eyes that were not clear and quiet like the eyes of the maidens he had seen in Iolcus, but that were dark and burning. Her mouth was heavy and this heavy mouth gave a shadow to her face that but for it was all bright and lovely.
Hypsipyle spoke two languages--one, the language of the mothers of the women of Lemnos, which was rough and harsh, a
speech to be flung out to slaves, and the other the language of Greece, which their fathers had spoken, and which Hypsipyle spoke
in a way that made it sound like strange music. She spoke and walked and did all things in a queenlike way, and Jason could see that, for all her youth and childlike size, Hypsipyle was one who was a ruler.
From the moment she took his hand it seemed that she could not bear to be away from him. Where he walked, she walked too;
where he sat she sat before him, looking at him with her great eyes while she laughed or sang.
Like the perfume of strange flowers, like the savor of strange [pg 60] fruit was Hypsipyle to Jason. Hours and hours he would
spend sitting beside her or watching her while she arrayed herself in white or in brightly colored garments. Not to the chase and not
into the fields did Jason go, nor did he ever go with the others into the Lemnian land; all day he sat in the palace with her, watch-
ing her, or listening to her singing, or to the long, fierce speeches that she used to make to her nurse or to the four maidens who
attended her.
In the evening they would gather in the hall of the palace, the Argonauts and the Lemnian maidens who were their comrades. There were dances, and always Jason and Hypsipyle danced together. All the Lemnian maidens sang beautifully, but none of them had any stories to tell.
And when the Argonauts would have stories told the Lemnian maidens
