But Medeia stood watching all from under her steep black brows, with a cunning smile upon her lips, and a cunning plot within her heart. At last she spoke, 'I know this giant. Iheard of him in the East. Hephaistos the Fire King made him in his forge in AEtna beneath the earth, and called him Talus, and gave him to Minos for a servant, to guard the coast of Crete. Thrice a day he walks round the island, and never stops to sleep; and if strangers land he leaps into his furnace, which flames there among the hills; and when he is red-hot he rushes on them, and burns them in his brazen hands.'
Then all the heroes cried, 'What shall we do, wise Medeia?
We must have water, or we die of thirst. Flesh and blood we can face fairly; but who can face this red-hot brass?'
'I can face red-hot brass, if the tale I hear be true. For they say that he has but one vein in all his body, filled with liquid fire; and that this vein is closed with a nail: but I know not where that nail is placed. But if I can get it once into these hands, you shall water your ship here in peace.'
Then she bade them put her on shore, and row off again, and wait what would befall.
And the heroes obeyed her unwillingly, for they were ashamed to leave her so alone; but Jason said, 'She is dearer to me than to any of you, yet I will trust her freely on shore; she has more plots than we can dream of in the windings of that fair and cunning head.'
So they left the witch-maiden on the shore; and she stood there in her beauty all alone, till the giant strode back red-hot from head to heel, while the grass hissed and smoked beneath his tread.
And when he saw the maiden alone, he stopped; and she looked boldly up into his face without moving, and began her magic song:-'Life is short, though life is sweet; and even men of brass and fire must die. The brass must rust, the fire must cool, for time gnaws all things in their turn. Life is short, though life is sweet: but sweeter to live for ever; sweeter to live ever youthful like the Gods, who have ichor in their veins - ichor which gives life, and youth, and joy, and a bounding heart.'
Then Talus said, 'Who are you, strange maiden, and where is this ichor of youth?'
Then Medeia held up a flask of crystal, and said, 'Here is the ichor of youth. I am Medeia the enchantress; my sister Circe gave me this, and said, "Go and reward Talus, the faithful servant, for his fame is gone out into all lands."So come, and I will pour this into your veins, that you may live for ever young.'
And he listened to her false words, that simple Talus, and came near; and Medeia said, 'Dip yourself in the sea first, and cool yourself, lest you burn my tender hands; then show me where the nail in your vein is, that I may pour the ichor in.'
Then that simple Talus dipped himself in the sea, till it hissed, and roared, and smoked; and came and knelt before Medeia, and showed her the secret nail.
And she drew the nail out gently, but she poured no ichor in;and instead the liquid fire spouted forth, like a stream of red-hot iron. And Talus tried to leap up, crying, 'You have betrayed me, false witch-maiden!' But she lifted up her hands before him, and sang, till he sank beneath her spell.
And as he sank, his brazen limbs clanked heavily, and the earth groaned beneath his weight; and the liquid fire ran from his heel, like a stream of lava, to the sea; and Medeia laughed, and called to the heroes, 'Come ashore, and water your ship in peace.'
So they came, and found the giant lying dead; and they fell down, and kissed Medeia's feet; and watered their ship, and took sheep and oxen, and so left that inhospitable shore.
At last, after many more adventures, they came to the Cape of Malea, at the south-west point of the Peloponnese. And there they offered sacrifices, and Orpheus purged them from their guilt. Then they rode away again to the northward, past the Laconian shore, and came all worn and tired by Sunium, and up the long Euboean Strait, until they saw once more Pelion, and Aphetai, and Iolcos by the sea.
And they ran the ship ashore; but they had no strength left to haul her up the beach; and they crawled out on the pebbles, and sat down, and wept till they could weep no more.
For the houses and the trees were all altered; and all the faces which they saw were strange; and their joy was swallowed up in sorrow, while they thought of their youth, and all their labour, and the gallant comrades they had lost.
And the people crowded round, and asked them 'Who are you, that you sit weeping here?'
'We are the sons of your princes, who sailed out many a year ago. We went to fetch the golden fleece, and we have brought it, and grief therewith. Give us news of our fathers and our mothers, if any of them be left alive on earth.'
Then there was shouting, and laughing, and weeping; and all the kings came to the shore, and they led away the heroes to their homes, and bewailed the valiant dead.
Then Jason went up with Medeia to the palace of his uncle Pelias. And when he came in Pelias sat by the hearth, crippled and blind with age; while opposite him sat AEson, Jason's father, crippled and blind likewise; and the two old men's heads shook together as they tried to warm themselves before the fire.
And Jason fell down at his father's knees, and wept, and called him by his name. And the old man stretched his hands out, and felt him, and said, 'Do not mock me, young hero. My son Jason is dead long ago at sea.'
'I am your own son Jason, whom you trusted to the Centaur upon Pelion; and I have brought home the golden fleece, and a princess of the Sun's race for my bride. So now give me up the kingdom, Pelias my uncle, and fulfil your promise as Ihave fulfilled mine.'
Then his father clung to him like a child, and wept, and would not let him go; and cried, 'Now I shall not go down lonely to my grave. Promise me never to leave me till Idie.'
