10 ARGONAUTAE.
To move the purpose of a thousand years.
‘Go, go!
HERACLES.
Remember! We are met this. day
To call upon the name with praise and prayer
Of great Athena, since our ship is built
With sculptured olive pregnant in the prow,
And all the length of pine is coiled and curled
With the swift serpent’s beauty, and the owl
Sits in huge state upon the midmost bench.
Thus, therefore, by the manifest design,
Joining the wisdom to the power and will,
We build the Argo.
ARGUS.
What a heavy club
We carry! And how well becomes our figure
The lion’s skin!
HERACLES.
Be still, thou art an ass!
ARGUS.
The fabled ass, O Zeus-descended one?
HERACLES.
What ass?
ARGUS.
The one that wore the lion’s skin!
THESEUS.
This fellow were beneath a man’s contempt.
How should a God-born heed him?