12 ARGONAUTAE
CHORUS.
Tell me that Jason has achieved the quest.
MESSENGER.
Truth is no handmaid unto happiness.
CHORUS.
What terror dost thou fill my heart withal?
MEDEA.
O timorous heroes! Let the herald speak!
Who meets fear drives her back; who flees from fear
Stumbles ; who cares not, sees her not. Speak on!
THE MESSENGER.
Terrible bellowings as of angry bulls
Broke from the stable as the first swift shaft
Of dawn smote into it: and stampings fierce
Resounded, shaking the all-mother earth.
Whereunto came the calm and kingly man,
Smiling as if a sweet dream still beguiled
His waking brows; not caring any more
For spring or summer; heeding least of all
That tumult of ox-fury. Suddenly
A light sprang in his face; the great hand shot
Forth, and broke in the brass-bound door; the day
Passed with him inwards; then the brazen hoofs
Beat with a tenfold fury on the stone.
But Jason, swiftly turned, evaded these,
And chose two oxen from that monstrous herd
To whose vast heads he strode, and by the horns