30 HISTORICAL TALES.

voyagers but for Medea. Talos, like all the invul-
nerable men of legend, had his one weak point.
This her magic art enabled her to discover, and,
as Paris had wounded Achilles in the heel, Medea
killed this vigilant sentinel by striking him in his
vulnerable spot.

The Argonauts now landed and refreshed them-
selves, In the island of Mgina they had to fight to
procure water. Then they sailed along the coasts
of Eubcea and Locris, and finally entered the gulf
of Pagase and dropped anchor at Tolcus, their start-
ing-point,

As to what became of the ship Argo there are
two stories. One is that Jason consecrated his ves-
sel to Neptune on the isthmus of Corinth. Another
is that Minerva translated it to the stars, where it
became a constellation.

So ends the story of this earliest of recorded voy-
ages, whose possible substratum of fact is overlaid
deeply with fiction, and whose geography is similarly
a strange mixture of fact and fancy, Yet though
the voyage is at an end, our story is not. We have
said that it was a tragedy, and the denouement of
the tragedy remains to be given.

Pelias, who had sent Jason on this long voyage
to escape the fate decreed for him by the oracle,
took courage from his protracted absence, and put
to death his father and mother and his infant brother.
On learning of this murderous act Jason determined
onrevenge. But Pelias was too strong to be attacked
openly, so the hero employed a strange stratagem,
suggested by the cunning magician Medea. He and