The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles by Padraic Colum Page A

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, 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 becoming 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 becomingstrengthless, 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.
    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 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
.

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he
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    A ND 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