4 ARGONAUTAE
Remember all the tasks impossible
This hero hath already done, before
He ever touched this sounding coast of thine.
AEETES,
Alas! but now his weird is loneliness!
CHORUS.
Was that from Destiny, or will of thine?
AEETES.
I love him little. Yet my words were true,
Nor would it skill him aught if myriad men
Bucklered his back and breast. For when a man
Batters with sword-hilt at the frowning gates
That lead to the Beyond, not human force—
Hardly the favour of the gods themselves—
Shall stead him in that peril.
CHORUS.
Yet we know
Courage may conquer all things.
AEETES.
Such a man
Is greater than the gods!
CHORUS.
If only he
Know who he is—that all these gods and men
And things are but the shadows of himself!
AEETES.
I cannot give you hope. Await the end.