Collected Works (Vol. II)

THE ARGONAUTS* 1904 ARGONAUTAE. ACTUS PRIMUS. JASON. PELIAS, JASON. Semz-chorus of Lolchian Men. Sewmz-chorus of Lolchian Women. SCENE: The Throne-chamber of KING PELIAS. SEMI-CHORUS OF MEN. THE prophecies are spoken in vain, The auguries vainly cast, Since twenty years of joyous reign In peace are overpast ; And those who cursed our King’s desires Are branded in the brow for liars. SEMI-CHORUS OF WOMEN. We heard the aged prophet speak The doom of woe and fear. We wait with blanched and icy cheek The one-and-twentieth year : For Justice lies, as seeds lie, dead, But lifts at last a Gorgon head ! MEN. What fear can reach our Thessaly? What war disturb our peace? Long stablished is young amity Maid-blushing over Greece : And fair Iolchus stands sublime, A monument to lesson time. WOMEN. But if such fear were come indeed, Who reads the riddle dread Spoken in frenzy by the seer Against the royal head? We know the Rhyme’s involving spell— Its purport? Irresolvable ! MEN. We heard his foolish maundering : But, bred in wiser ways, We have forgotten: do ye sing The rune of ancient days ! To-day his curse cacophonous Shall earn at least a laugh from us! WOMEN. ‘*O! when the arméd hand is nigh, Tolchus shall not see Peace shining from Athena’s sky Until the Fleece be free; Until the God of War shall scorn The sting, and trust him to the horn. ‘Until the Sun of Spring forsake His eastern home, and rise Within our temple-walls and make One glory of the skies— Until the King shall die and live, Athena never shall forgive.” MEN, Surely, O friends, at last ’tis clear The man was mad indeed ! Such nonsense we did never hear As this prophetic screed ! More, as ’tis never like this land Should ever see an arméd hand. * This play, written when Crowley was studying Hindu religion, derives much of its colour and philosophical import from Pataiyali, the Upanishads and Sankarachariya’s commentary, Shaivite mysticism, the Bhagavat Purana, Bhagavat Gita, and Vedantist literature in general.