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readallthenewberys2012-07-15 12:29 pm
justice_turtle) wrote in readallthenewberys2012-07-15 12:29 pm
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Newbery Honor: The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles (Padraic Colum)
Weekends are going to be a bit heavier on posting than weekdays, I think, for obvious reasons. Sadly, I cannot find a "scheduled post" function here on Dreamwidth.
Standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, books are not, Newberys belong to the ALA. Commenters, keep the language G-rated, please.
This book is available on Project Gutenberg. Also it is AWESOME, go read it. :D
* Well, the writing style is excellent. "And with eyes that were full of majesty and wisdom and limbs that were full of strength and speed, the king-centaur [Chiron] stood above him." I see why Padraic Colum's retellings are always well spoken of.
* And he ties in the timeframe with Troy, explaining how Priam is still a boy called Podarches. I wouldn't have known any of that if I hadn't started reading the Iliad (I never did finish it), but apparently Jason's father Aeson and uncle Pelias are related to Admetus and Alcestis - I forget how - from another Greek myth, and some close relatives of theirs came to the siege of Troy with twelve black ships. It always kind of boggles me to realize just how tied-together all these ancient Greek stories actually are, the ones I think of as "myth" and the ones I think of as "fact".
* Huh, and Jason has the favor of Hera. I can't recall any other Greek heroes who did; they're mostly Zeus's bastard sons, whom she hates. (I remember she sent snakes to kill Heracles in his crib and he strangled them.) I should have remembered that, but I didn't.
* I wonder if roses actually grow in Greece or if "everywhere there were baskets heaped with roses white and red" is a bit of poetic license?
* Padraic Colum does a good job of characterizing the young Jason; it makes sense, the way he tells it, that Jason would volunteer to seek the Golden Fleece without having to be an idiot who doesn't notice his uncle is trying to get rid of him. Excellent work, sir.
* ...this is giving Pollux's name as Polydeuces. I know this is quite, quite wrong - Wiki tells me it means "much sweet wine", and that Pollux is the Latin form of the Greek name - but I somehow translated that in my head as "two-fisted". Apparently some part of me accurately remembered that Castor and Pollux were in fact known as boxers in their own day. :D
* Yay, Orpheus! Orpheus is important to the quest for the Golden Fleece. Man, it has been about twenty years since I read this story in anything but summary form.
* Wait, Atalanta's one of the Argonauts? THIS IS COOL. Even if it isn't from the original story it's cool. (I've never seen a complete list of the Argonauts; this one is more detailed than most, but I don't think it has all fifty.) I tentatively approve of Padraic Colum a lot.
* Hi Nestor! I need to finish the Iliad someday. In the part I read, Nestor was the most sensible of the entire Greek army. (Also the oldest, and brought the most men after Agamemnon. An excellent leader, by all accounts.)
* Hee, and here are Achilles's father and Telamon, the father of Ajax the Greater or Ajax Telamon. I had no idea Ajax Telamon and Achilles were first cousins! SO MUCH AWESOME. I am learning all the things about how Greek myths fit together! Why do the retellings anthologies not usually mention this stuff? I know it would be kind of Silmarilliony and require genealogies, but it rather does anyway; they just don't give you them. ;-)
* And the sons of the North Wind bring Theseus with them. Do you know, I can never remember the difference between Perseus and Theseus? Theseus kills the Minotaur and Perseus the Gorgon, am I right?
* Ooh, good transitional work, good pacing. He gets the Argo all ready to sail, and then while the Argonauts wait for the morning, Jason's mother tells her ladies-in-waiting the story of Helle (who was drowned in the Hellespont) and her brother Phrixus, and how they were saved from their wicked stepmother by the ram with the golden fleece, and how the ram took Phrixus to Colchis and died there, and Phrixus gave its fleece to King Aeetes and married one of the Colchian princesses, and went back to Thebes. And it's all framed as Jason's mom worrying about him and telling why he'll have such a hard time getting the fleece from Aeetes. Very good storytelling.
* And now the Argo has sailed and Orpheus is singing of the beginning of the Greek pantheon: the birth of Zeus, the wars of the gods, and all. And it's some of the best English epic prose-poetry I have ever heard. "As far as Earth is from Heaven so is Tartarus from Earth. A brazen anvil falling down from Heaven to Earth nine days and nine nights would reach the earth upon the tenth day. And again, a brazen anvil falling from Earth nine nights and nine days would reach Tartarus upon the tenth night. Around Tartarus runs a fence of bronze and Night spreads in a triple line all about it, as a necklace circles the neck."
* Seriously, I keep having to not quote the whole book. Yay for Project Gutenberg! *g*
* And now Heracles broke his oar from rowing too hard, and they landed so he could make a new one, and the king of the place came down to the shore and said one of the Argonauts had to win a boxing match with him before they could leave. So Pollux is going to box with him.
* Pollux won the boxing match (of course), but Heracles's boyfriend Hylas was kidnapped by the nymphs living in a spring. I've seen a Pre-Raphaelite painting of that, I think. That's a different person from the guy who fell in love with his own reflection, right? And Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, had to come and tell Heracles to leave the island and go on with the Argonauts, and also tell Telamon - who's about as pigheaded as his son Ajax - to stop fussing at Jason over nearly leaving Heracles behind. This stuff makes so much more SENSE when you know who's related to whom.
* Now they want to sail through the Clashing Rocks if they can, instead of hauling the Argo on land all the way to the sea that Colchis borders. (He keeps calling it the "Sea of Pontus", but doesn't the "pont" in Hellespont MEAN "sea"? I am confused.) So they go to ask a very wise king called Phineus for help.
* Phineus is plagued by the Harpies, who steal his food because he was as wise as the gods and they weren't happy about it. But the two flying sons of the North Wind chase the Harpies until Zeus has to send his messenger Iris to promise that they won't come back and plague Phineus anymore, just please don't kill them. *g* And then Phineus tells them how to send a dove through the Clashing Rocks and follow it close behind.
* But first they wander around a bit and lose their navigator to snakebite, and wind up back on an island they already passed called Lemnos, which is populated entirely by ladies, and spend the winter there because the queen decided they could do with having some men around before the ladies all get old and have no next generation to take care of them. And they only like to hear stories about ladies, so Orpheus tells the tale of Demeter and Persephone.
* (I am amazed to note how many, many, many of the stories in our "Ancient Greece" storybooks don't exist yet. Here on the ship is Arcus, not yet the Little Bear, and Admetus who has not yet married Alcestis; none of the Trojan War stories have happened, I don't think most of the labors of Heracles have happened, certainly none of the later tales like Salamis or the Peloponnesian War have happened. And Orpheus is still the best singer and storyteller of the known world. Wouldn't you like to hear all the stories he knows that we've now forgotten? ^_^)
* Okay, there are TWO Atalantas! ...are there? *checks Wiki* No, but in this retelling there are. Presumably so the author can fit the story of Atalanta's footrace in without having to explain why Atalanta the huntress is also on the Argo. Anyway, Atalanta is telling the story of Atalanta's footrace, because of reasons. :D
* Heracles, still grieving for Hylas, stayed on the Argo when the other Argonauts went ashore, but now he's getting cranky and wants them to leave and go find the Golden Fleece already. So they get ready to go, and on their last night on Lemnos, Castor and Pollux tell the story of Pandora's Box. This is a very well-structured bundle of Greek myths, I do think.
* Pandora means "having all gifts". I did not know that. I could have known it had I thunk, but I didn't.
* ...oookay, that's the most interesting retelling of Pandora's Box I have ever heard. Instead of Pandora herself opening the box, which in this story is sent along with her as her dowry to Epimetheus - instead, Epimetheus takes her to visit the race of men, bringing the box along because it's her dowry and it should go with her. And the women are jealous of how much the men admire her beauty and they open the box, thinking it has her cosmetics inside! So instead of curiosity and Ignoring Teh Menz being the vice that brings trouble upon the earth, it's selfishness and jealousy against other women. Huh. FASCINATING. I approve, Mr Colum. I think I approve.
* Heh, and - I never thought of this before, but he explains why there WERE any vices around to make anyone open the box! In this version, Epimetheus, being a klutz, bumped the box while he was carrying it, and let the vice of "Self-thought" slip out. Instead of, you know, women just being naturally curious and irresponsible, without any vices to set them at it.
* But Heracles is bored, and he makes a speech about the ladies of Lemnos being Pandoras to send the heroes forgetfulness of their honor, and c'mon let's go find the Golden Fleece already. And then the Argo herself cries out and calls them, so they leave. But the queen gives Jason a dove to send through the Clashing Rocks. This is a very well-done bundle of stories.
* The telling of the Clashing Rocks isn't the clearest part of this - I've seen it better done - and afterwards the way to Colchis seems just a tad bit touristy, with brief references to several untold tales. Finally they pass by Mount Caucasus where Prometheus is chained, prompting Orpheus to tell the story of Prometheus and the gift of fire. It's rather expanded, including the Four Ages (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Iron) and the flood with Deucalion and Pyrrha, before the actual bringing-of-fire. Incidentally, I rather like that the Greek analogue of Mrs Noah has a name.
Anyway, Heracles leaves the ship here, to kill the eagle that eats Prometheus's liver and set Prometheus free. At least, I assume that's what he's doing, although I thought Prometheus was stuck there for another while; it's only stated that Heracles has a labor to do here.
* At last they arrive at the city of Aea in Colchis, the realm of King Aeetes, where the Golden Fleece is. There's a long digression that seems to imply Colchis should be identified with Sumer - saying its civilization is older than Egypt's and that its priests worshipped the moon goddess, identified here as Hecate. I don't think it's the most accurate retelling in the world in all particulars, but it's certainly very pretty?
* There's an odd digression about the sons of Phrixus (the guy who brought the golden ram to Colchis) being shipwrecked and rescued by the Argonauts; more about that if it ever settles out into making any sense. Right now it's just confusing.
* The writing of Aeetes's daughter Medea is excellent, though - using an external POV and still managing to convey right off how she's fallen for Jason and wants to help him against her father. I'm not sure about the "dark skin and golden hair" thing, though, especially since her brother is described as looking "like a Phoenician merchant", black beard and swarthy face. I know Medea's a witch, but that's a bit specific thing to change... idk.
* Ah. The subplot with the sons of Phrixus, who are also the sons of Medea's sister / Aeetes's daughter, gives us a bit more character motivation for Medea beyond Twu Wuv. She's torn between helping Jason and going against her father, till her sister asks her to help the Argonauts so the boys can leave with them and be safely away from Aeetes. So that tips the scale for her.
* So Medea makes the charm of invulnerability for Jason so he can complete the labors Aeetes sets him, and they go and get the Golden Fleece hastily in secret because Aeetes really doesn't want to let it go, and then Medea runs off with Jason.
* But her brother catches them up, and holds a parley where his and Jason's claims are judged by a council of the brother's allies. And the allies agree that the Argonauts won the Golden Fleece fair and square, but they say Medea should be sent to stay on the island of Artemis, rather than going back to face Aeetes's wrath or staying with the Argonauts.
* So Medea secretly plots with Jason to go to the island and then have him rescue her later on, but her brother is also plotting to turn up later and fetch her back to Aea as per his orders. o_O Of course the two guys run into each other, and fight, and Jason kills Medea's brother. :P
* Okay, and so now the Argonauts have to "wander forever over the gulfs of the sea" unless Medea can find Circe and be cleansed of her brother's blood. Not Jason - Medea. o_O The retelling makes this very literal, with Medea's veil being actually splashed in blood, but it's still kind of awkward. But they go and get that sorted in the space of a chapter or so, without much suspense.
* Next up: the Sirens and Orpheus have a sing-off, the Sirens trying to lure the Argonauts to shore where they'll be wrecked and killed, Orpheus trying to encourage them and keep them on course. And he wins. I love how Orpheus is not only the best singer ever, but gets to demonstrate against so many opponents; this retelling has Medea singing the sleepless serpent to sleep where it guards the Golden Fleece, but I'm pretty sure in another version I've read, that was Orpheus too.
* After a quick sail-by of Thrinacie (Island of the Three Peaks; I used to know what small Greek island that is, from a National Geographic article by Tim Severin about the voyages of Odysseus, but I've forgotten except it begins with an M now), where Apollo keeps the Cattle of the Sun - the Argonauts sensibly do not land there, unlike poor old Odysseus - they arrive in Phaeacia and find the soldiers of Colchis there before them, wanting to take Medea back to Aea. But Medea talks to the queen, who gets the king to take the Argonauts' side and send the Colchians home.
* And after leaving Phaeacia, the Argonauts are cast up on the shore of Libya(?) by a great storm and have to carry the Argo across the desert, where they eventually find the garden of the Hesperides with Atlas holding up the sky. This is getting to be a very long book, and I'm only halfway through.
* So apparently Heracles has already been to the Hesperides and stolen the golden apples and slain the dragon, and also created a spring in the desert because of reasons. And now Orpheus is telling us the story of Perseus, who also crossed the Libyan desert to the Hesperides because near them live the Graiai, the three witches with a single eye among them, who told him how to defeat the Gorgon Medusa, and the nymphs of the Hesperides (in this retelling) guarded the cloak of invisibility and the other things Perseus needed to kill Medusa safely. I'm not sure if the nymphs had those in the last version I read or if Athena gave him the things directly... I think they might have, though.
* Anyway, so Perseus defeats the Gorgon, and rescues Andromeda the daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, from the sea-monster that Poseidon sent to punish her mother Cassiopeia for boasting of being more beautiful than the Nereids. And he goes and turns a lot of people to stone, and saves his mother Danae from having to marry a pushy king, and accidentally kills his grandfather with a discus and fulfills the prophecy, and becomes the ancestor of the Persian people apparently, which is a new one on me but makes sense.
* Seriously, the transitions to and from the told stories in this are the best transitions. Because Athena puts the head of the Gorgon on her shield (the Aegis; this is what "under the aegis of" means) or breastplate, of which the worst translation I have ever heard is "goatskin tippet" quite irrelevantly, and Orpheus finishes up the story with a prayer to Athena to save them out of this terrible desert full of poisonous snakes born from the blood of Medusa when it dripped on the desert sands of Libya while Perseus flew over it to Ethiopia. Very clever work, Padraic Colum. Very clever indeed.
* And then they lose another navigator to snakebite - seriously, guys? Wow - and then Triton the merman, son of Nereus, shows them the way out of the salt lake they were on to the open sea, and they finally head toward Greece.
* But before they reach Greece they reach Crete. A man of bronze, Talos, throws rocks at them to keep them offshore, but Medea kills him by magic, and they land for the night.
* Then finally they come to Thessaly and to Iolcus, but the Argo warns them not to enter the harbor or the city. The Argonauts are understandably saddened by this, especially Jason - but as Admetus points out, at least they're back in Greece. So they go instead to Corinth, and join the hunt for the Calydonian boar; after that, all except Jason and Medea go home to their own cities. But Jason learns that his parents are dead and his uncle Pelias is still ruling harshly in Iolcus, and he cannot go home yet.
* Book III tells in more detail of the hunt for the Calydonian boar, and of Meleager's unrequited love for Atalanta the huntress. Meleager kills the boar after Atalanta wounds it, and tries to give her its tusks, but his uncles are so angry with him for not keeping it himself that he kills them, and in revenge his mother throws into the fire a billet of wood that holds his life within it and kills him.
* Next is the tale of Peleus the father of Achilles, and how he met and captured and wedded Thetis the sea nymph against her will. Eventually he leaves her alone, not liking to be hated in his own house, and for some reason helps Heracles build the walls for the city of Troy. Then another nymph who hates him for stealing Thetis, Psamathe, sends a monster to ravage the lands of the people who give him shelter, but he prays and Thetis turns it into stone; after which he returns home and Thetis has forgiven him. The end, until the Trojan War. *g*
* Then we have the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. All of these are way better-told than I'm making clear, here; it really is an excellent set of stories, if not completely accurate (for example, Achilles's invulnerability has nothing to do with the river Styx, although the variant explanation does cover "why on earth didn't she dip his heel afterwards?")
* And it's very detailed, not oversimplified, including all the little stories like Theseus versus Procrustes either on the way to the big story or on the way home afterward. So you get pretty much the complete story of all the heroes Mr Colum includes on the Argo, which is why I didn't shorten the ridiculously long title: it's not just the book of the Golden Fleece, by a long shot.
* Here we have all the Labors of Heracles, for crying out loud! And not only the great Labors but the rest of his story. Apparently Deianira the wife of Heracles is the sister of Meleager.
* Ajax means eagle; I didn't know that.
* Good grief, all the stories. Heracles has now captured a pair of robbers who tried to rob him while he was asleep, and as he is carrying them along tied by their heels, one robber starts telling the other a story! About the battle between the frogs and the mice, a story I don't think I know.
* Okay, so the prince of the mice comes down to the pond to drink, and the king of the frogs offers to take him across the pond to his palace on land and show him around. But halfway across the pond a water-snake tries to eat them both, and the frog dives and the mouse is drowned. And so the mice declare war on the frogs, and put on all this armor made of bean-shells and needles and what-all, and the frogs arm themselves as well. And the frogs are being defeated, so Zeus creates the crabs to fight for them against the mice. And Heracles thinks the story is so funny - because it is HILARIOUS, the way Padraic Colum tells it - that he lets the robbers go on promise of good behavior.
* Then we have the story of Admetus and Alcestis, and how Heracles fought Death and brought Alcestis back after she died in Admetus's place; and directly afterwards, the story of Orpheus attempting to bring his wife Eurydice back from the dead. I think this is the only time someone else succeeded at something Orpheus tried to do but failed.
* And now we're back with Jason and Medea. Medea makes her plot to kill Pelias so Jason can return to Iolcus, and it works, but Jason no longer loves her, so she kills his new girlfriend. But then she leaves and Jason becomes a wise and prosperous king, the end. Hm; I could've sworn there was more to the story than that, but this is all there is in the book.
Standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, books are not, Newberys belong to the ALA. Commenters, keep the language G-rated, please.
This book is available on Project Gutenberg. Also it is AWESOME, go read it. :D
* Well, the writing style is excellent. "And with eyes that were full of majesty and wisdom and limbs that were full of strength and speed, the king-centaur [Chiron] stood above him." I see why Padraic Colum's retellings are always well spoken of.
* And he ties in the timeframe with Troy, explaining how Priam is still a boy called Podarches. I wouldn't have known any of that if I hadn't started reading the Iliad (I never did finish it), but apparently Jason's father Aeson and uncle Pelias are related to Admetus and Alcestis - I forget how - from another Greek myth, and some close relatives of theirs came to the siege of Troy with twelve black ships. It always kind of boggles me to realize just how tied-together all these ancient Greek stories actually are, the ones I think of as "myth" and the ones I think of as "fact".
* Huh, and Jason has the favor of Hera. I can't recall any other Greek heroes who did; they're mostly Zeus's bastard sons, whom she hates. (I remember she sent snakes to kill Heracles in his crib and he strangled them.) I should have remembered that, but I didn't.
* I wonder if roses actually grow in Greece or if "everywhere there were baskets heaped with roses white and red" is a bit of poetic license?
* Padraic Colum does a good job of characterizing the young Jason; it makes sense, the way he tells it, that Jason would volunteer to seek the Golden Fleece without having to be an idiot who doesn't notice his uncle is trying to get rid of him. Excellent work, sir.
* ...this is giving Pollux's name as Polydeuces. I know this is quite, quite wrong - Wiki tells me it means "much sweet wine", and that Pollux is the Latin form of the Greek name - but I somehow translated that in my head as "two-fisted". Apparently some part of me accurately remembered that Castor and Pollux were in fact known as boxers in their own day. :D
* Yay, Orpheus! Orpheus is important to the quest for the Golden Fleece. Man, it has been about twenty years since I read this story in anything but summary form.
* Wait, Atalanta's one of the Argonauts? THIS IS COOL. Even if it isn't from the original story it's cool. (I've never seen a complete list of the Argonauts; this one is more detailed than most, but I don't think it has all fifty.) I tentatively approve of Padraic Colum a lot.
* Hi Nestor! I need to finish the Iliad someday. In the part I read, Nestor was the most sensible of the entire Greek army. (Also the oldest, and brought the most men after Agamemnon. An excellent leader, by all accounts.)
* Hee, and here are Achilles's father and Telamon, the father of Ajax the Greater or Ajax Telamon. I had no idea Ajax Telamon and Achilles were first cousins! SO MUCH AWESOME. I am learning all the things about how Greek myths fit together! Why do the retellings anthologies not usually mention this stuff? I know it would be kind of Silmarilliony and require genealogies, but it rather does anyway; they just don't give you them. ;-)
* And the sons of the North Wind bring Theseus with them. Do you know, I can never remember the difference between Perseus and Theseus? Theseus kills the Minotaur and Perseus the Gorgon, am I right?
* Ooh, good transitional work, good pacing. He gets the Argo all ready to sail, and then while the Argonauts wait for the morning, Jason's mother tells her ladies-in-waiting the story of Helle (who was drowned in the Hellespont) and her brother Phrixus, and how they were saved from their wicked stepmother by the ram with the golden fleece, and how the ram took Phrixus to Colchis and died there, and Phrixus gave its fleece to King Aeetes and married one of the Colchian princesses, and went back to Thebes. And it's all framed as Jason's mom worrying about him and telling why he'll have such a hard time getting the fleece from Aeetes. Very good storytelling.
* And now the Argo has sailed and Orpheus is singing of the beginning of the Greek pantheon: the birth of Zeus, the wars of the gods, and all. And it's some of the best English epic prose-poetry I have ever heard. "As far as Earth is from Heaven so is Tartarus from Earth. A brazen anvil falling down from Heaven to Earth nine days and nine nights would reach the earth upon the tenth day. And again, a brazen anvil falling from Earth nine nights and nine days would reach Tartarus upon the tenth night. Around Tartarus runs a fence of bronze and Night spreads in a triple line all about it, as a necklace circles the neck."
* Seriously, I keep having to not quote the whole book. Yay for Project Gutenberg! *g*
* And now Heracles broke his oar from rowing too hard, and they landed so he could make a new one, and the king of the place came down to the shore and said one of the Argonauts had to win a boxing match with him before they could leave. So Pollux is going to box with him.
* Pollux won the boxing match (of course), but Heracles's boyfriend Hylas was kidnapped by the nymphs living in a spring. I've seen a Pre-Raphaelite painting of that, I think. That's a different person from the guy who fell in love with his own reflection, right? And Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, had to come and tell Heracles to leave the island and go on with the Argonauts, and also tell Telamon - who's about as pigheaded as his son Ajax - to stop fussing at Jason over nearly leaving Heracles behind. This stuff makes so much more SENSE when you know who's related to whom.
* Now they want to sail through the Clashing Rocks if they can, instead of hauling the Argo on land all the way to the sea that Colchis borders. (He keeps calling it the "Sea of Pontus", but doesn't the "pont" in Hellespont MEAN "sea"? I am confused.) So they go to ask a very wise king called Phineus for help.
* Phineus is plagued by the Harpies, who steal his food because he was as wise as the gods and they weren't happy about it. But the two flying sons of the North Wind chase the Harpies until Zeus has to send his messenger Iris to promise that they won't come back and plague Phineus anymore, just please don't kill them. *g* And then Phineus tells them how to send a dove through the Clashing Rocks and follow it close behind.
* But first they wander around a bit and lose their navigator to snakebite, and wind up back on an island they already passed called Lemnos, which is populated entirely by ladies, and spend the winter there because the queen decided they could do with having some men around before the ladies all get old and have no next generation to take care of them. And they only like to hear stories about ladies, so Orpheus tells the tale of Demeter and Persephone.
* (I am amazed to note how many, many, many of the stories in our "Ancient Greece" storybooks don't exist yet. Here on the ship is Arcus, not yet the Little Bear, and Admetus who has not yet married Alcestis; none of the Trojan War stories have happened, I don't think most of the labors of Heracles have happened, certainly none of the later tales like Salamis or the Peloponnesian War have happened. And Orpheus is still the best singer and storyteller of the known world. Wouldn't you like to hear all the stories he knows that we've now forgotten? ^_^)
* Okay, there are TWO Atalantas! ...are there? *checks Wiki* No, but in this retelling there are. Presumably so the author can fit the story of Atalanta's footrace in without having to explain why Atalanta the huntress is also on the Argo. Anyway, Atalanta is telling the story of Atalanta's footrace, because of reasons. :D
* Heracles, still grieving for Hylas, stayed on the Argo when the other Argonauts went ashore, but now he's getting cranky and wants them to leave and go find the Golden Fleece already. So they get ready to go, and on their last night on Lemnos, Castor and Pollux tell the story of Pandora's Box. This is a very well-structured bundle of Greek myths, I do think.
* Pandora means "having all gifts". I did not know that. I could have known it had I thunk, but I didn't.
* ...oookay, that's the most interesting retelling of Pandora's Box I have ever heard. Instead of Pandora herself opening the box, which in this story is sent along with her as her dowry to Epimetheus - instead, Epimetheus takes her to visit the race of men, bringing the box along because it's her dowry and it should go with her. And the women are jealous of how much the men admire her beauty and they open the box, thinking it has her cosmetics inside! So instead of curiosity and Ignoring Teh Menz being the vice that brings trouble upon the earth, it's selfishness and jealousy against other women. Huh. FASCINATING. I approve, Mr Colum. I think I approve.
* Heh, and - I never thought of this before, but he explains why there WERE any vices around to make anyone open the box! In this version, Epimetheus, being a klutz, bumped the box while he was carrying it, and let the vice of "Self-thought" slip out. Instead of, you know, women just being naturally curious and irresponsible, without any vices to set them at it.
* But Heracles is bored, and he makes a speech about the ladies of Lemnos being Pandoras to send the heroes forgetfulness of their honor, and c'mon let's go find the Golden Fleece already. And then the Argo herself cries out and calls them, so they leave. But the queen gives Jason a dove to send through the Clashing Rocks. This is a very well-done bundle of stories.
* The telling of the Clashing Rocks isn't the clearest part of this - I've seen it better done - and afterwards the way to Colchis seems just a tad bit touristy, with brief references to several untold tales. Finally they pass by Mount Caucasus where Prometheus is chained, prompting Orpheus to tell the story of Prometheus and the gift of fire. It's rather expanded, including the Four Ages (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Iron) and the flood with Deucalion and Pyrrha, before the actual bringing-of-fire. Incidentally, I rather like that the Greek analogue of Mrs Noah has a name.
Anyway, Heracles leaves the ship here, to kill the eagle that eats Prometheus's liver and set Prometheus free. At least, I assume that's what he's doing, although I thought Prometheus was stuck there for another while; it's only stated that Heracles has a labor to do here.
* At last they arrive at the city of Aea in Colchis, the realm of King Aeetes, where the Golden Fleece is. There's a long digression that seems to imply Colchis should be identified with Sumer - saying its civilization is older than Egypt's and that its priests worshipped the moon goddess, identified here as Hecate. I don't think it's the most accurate retelling in the world in all particulars, but it's certainly very pretty?
* There's an odd digression about the sons of Phrixus (the guy who brought the golden ram to Colchis) being shipwrecked and rescued by the Argonauts; more about that if it ever settles out into making any sense. Right now it's just confusing.
* The writing of Aeetes's daughter Medea is excellent, though - using an external POV and still managing to convey right off how she's fallen for Jason and wants to help him against her father. I'm not sure about the "dark skin and golden hair" thing, though, especially since her brother is described as looking "like a Phoenician merchant", black beard and swarthy face. I know Medea's a witch, but that's a bit specific thing to change... idk.
* Ah. The subplot with the sons of Phrixus, who are also the sons of Medea's sister / Aeetes's daughter, gives us a bit more character motivation for Medea beyond Twu Wuv. She's torn between helping Jason and going against her father, till her sister asks her to help the Argonauts so the boys can leave with them and be safely away from Aeetes. So that tips the scale for her.
* So Medea makes the charm of invulnerability for Jason so he can complete the labors Aeetes sets him, and they go and get the Golden Fleece hastily in secret because Aeetes really doesn't want to let it go, and then Medea runs off with Jason.
* But her brother catches them up, and holds a parley where his and Jason's claims are judged by a council of the brother's allies. And the allies agree that the Argonauts won the Golden Fleece fair and square, but they say Medea should be sent to stay on the island of Artemis, rather than going back to face Aeetes's wrath or staying with the Argonauts.
* So Medea secretly plots with Jason to go to the island and then have him rescue her later on, but her brother is also plotting to turn up later and fetch her back to Aea as per his orders. o_O Of course the two guys run into each other, and fight, and Jason kills Medea's brother. :P
* Okay, and so now the Argonauts have to "wander forever over the gulfs of the sea" unless Medea can find Circe and be cleansed of her brother's blood. Not Jason - Medea. o_O The retelling makes this very literal, with Medea's veil being actually splashed in blood, but it's still kind of awkward. But they go and get that sorted in the space of a chapter or so, without much suspense.
* Next up: the Sirens and Orpheus have a sing-off, the Sirens trying to lure the Argonauts to shore where they'll be wrecked and killed, Orpheus trying to encourage them and keep them on course. And he wins. I love how Orpheus is not only the best singer ever, but gets to demonstrate against so many opponents; this retelling has Medea singing the sleepless serpent to sleep where it guards the Golden Fleece, but I'm pretty sure in another version I've read, that was Orpheus too.
* After a quick sail-by of Thrinacie (Island of the Three Peaks; I used to know what small Greek island that is, from a National Geographic article by Tim Severin about the voyages of Odysseus, but I've forgotten except it begins with an M now), where Apollo keeps the Cattle of the Sun - the Argonauts sensibly do not land there, unlike poor old Odysseus - they arrive in Phaeacia and find the soldiers of Colchis there before them, wanting to take Medea back to Aea. But Medea talks to the queen, who gets the king to take the Argonauts' side and send the Colchians home.
* And after leaving Phaeacia, the Argonauts are cast up on the shore of Libya(?) by a great storm and have to carry the Argo across the desert, where they eventually find the garden of the Hesperides with Atlas holding up the sky. This is getting to be a very long book, and I'm only halfway through.
* So apparently Heracles has already been to the Hesperides and stolen the golden apples and slain the dragon, and also created a spring in the desert because of reasons. And now Orpheus is telling us the story of Perseus, who also crossed the Libyan desert to the Hesperides because near them live the Graiai, the three witches with a single eye among them, who told him how to defeat the Gorgon Medusa, and the nymphs of the Hesperides (in this retelling) guarded the cloak of invisibility and the other things Perseus needed to kill Medusa safely. I'm not sure if the nymphs had those in the last version I read or if Athena gave him the things directly... I think they might have, though.
* Anyway, so Perseus defeats the Gorgon, and rescues Andromeda the daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, from the sea-monster that Poseidon sent to punish her mother Cassiopeia for boasting of being more beautiful than the Nereids. And he goes and turns a lot of people to stone, and saves his mother Danae from having to marry a pushy king, and accidentally kills his grandfather with a discus and fulfills the prophecy, and becomes the ancestor of the Persian people apparently, which is a new one on me but makes sense.
* Seriously, the transitions to and from the told stories in this are the best transitions. Because Athena puts the head of the Gorgon on her shield (the Aegis; this is what "under the aegis of" means) or breastplate, of which the worst translation I have ever heard is "goatskin tippet" quite irrelevantly, and Orpheus finishes up the story with a prayer to Athena to save them out of this terrible desert full of poisonous snakes born from the blood of Medusa when it dripped on the desert sands of Libya while Perseus flew over it to Ethiopia. Very clever work, Padraic Colum. Very clever indeed.
* And then they lose another navigator to snakebite - seriously, guys? Wow - and then Triton the merman, son of Nereus, shows them the way out of the salt lake they were on to the open sea, and they finally head toward Greece.
* But before they reach Greece they reach Crete. A man of bronze, Talos, throws rocks at them to keep them offshore, but Medea kills him by magic, and they land for the night.
* Then finally they come to Thessaly and to Iolcus, but the Argo warns them not to enter the harbor or the city. The Argonauts are understandably saddened by this, especially Jason - but as Admetus points out, at least they're back in Greece. So they go instead to Corinth, and join the hunt for the Calydonian boar; after that, all except Jason and Medea go home to their own cities. But Jason learns that his parents are dead and his uncle Pelias is still ruling harshly in Iolcus, and he cannot go home yet.
* Book III tells in more detail of the hunt for the Calydonian boar, and of Meleager's unrequited love for Atalanta the huntress. Meleager kills the boar after Atalanta wounds it, and tries to give her its tusks, but his uncles are so angry with him for not keeping it himself that he kills them, and in revenge his mother throws into the fire a billet of wood that holds his life within it and kills him.
* Next is the tale of Peleus the father of Achilles, and how he met and captured and wedded Thetis the sea nymph against her will. Eventually he leaves her alone, not liking to be hated in his own house, and for some reason helps Heracles build the walls for the city of Troy. Then another nymph who hates him for stealing Thetis, Psamathe, sends a monster to ravage the lands of the people who give him shelter, but he prays and Thetis turns it into stone; after which he returns home and Thetis has forgiven him. The end, until the Trojan War. *g*
* Then we have the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. All of these are way better-told than I'm making clear, here; it really is an excellent set of stories, if not completely accurate (for example, Achilles's invulnerability has nothing to do with the river Styx, although the variant explanation does cover "why on earth didn't she dip his heel afterwards?")
* And it's very detailed, not oversimplified, including all the little stories like Theseus versus Procrustes either on the way to the big story or on the way home afterward. So you get pretty much the complete story of all the heroes Mr Colum includes on the Argo, which is why I didn't shorten the ridiculously long title: it's not just the book of the Golden Fleece, by a long shot.
* Here we have all the Labors of Heracles, for crying out loud! And not only the great Labors but the rest of his story. Apparently Deianira the wife of Heracles is the sister of Meleager.
* Ajax means eagle; I didn't know that.
* Good grief, all the stories. Heracles has now captured a pair of robbers who tried to rob him while he was asleep, and as he is carrying them along tied by their heels, one robber starts telling the other a story! About the battle between the frogs and the mice, a story I don't think I know.
* Okay, so the prince of the mice comes down to the pond to drink, and the king of the frogs offers to take him across the pond to his palace on land and show him around. But halfway across the pond a water-snake tries to eat them both, and the frog dives and the mouse is drowned. And so the mice declare war on the frogs, and put on all this armor made of bean-shells and needles and what-all, and the frogs arm themselves as well. And the frogs are being defeated, so Zeus creates the crabs to fight for them against the mice. And Heracles thinks the story is so funny - because it is HILARIOUS, the way Padraic Colum tells it - that he lets the robbers go on promise of good behavior.
* Then we have the story of Admetus and Alcestis, and how Heracles fought Death and brought Alcestis back after she died in Admetus's place; and directly afterwards, the story of Orpheus attempting to bring his wife Eurydice back from the dead. I think this is the only time someone else succeeded at something Orpheus tried to do but failed.
* And now we're back with Jason and Medea. Medea makes her plot to kill Pelias so Jason can return to Iolcus, and it works, but Jason no longer loves her, so she kills his new girlfriend. But then she leaves and Jason becomes a wise and prosperous king, the end. Hm; I could've sworn there was more to the story than that, but this is all there is in the book.
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And, yes, there's more to Jason and Medea, but it involves murdering children-- as did the bit about needing to cleanse Medea of her brother's blood-- and Padraic Colum probably thought it was not appropriate for kids. Or something.
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It is amazingly lady-friendly! I AM IMPRESSED. Heck, these are fails we're all casually used to, at least if we know the story, and he still goes out of his way to fix them. Excellent work, Mr Colum. Very excellent work.
Also I am amused how baldfaced he was about doing the minimum necessary bowdlerization on Heracles's relationships with his boyfriends Hylas and Iolaus, treating them exactly the same way as the various short-term het relationships, with the same balance of the words "love" and "friend" and the same very romantic tone. It's pretty sweet.
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Yes, it does. The main body of the sea thereabouts was actually called Pontos Euxeinos, the Hospitable Sea.
Where I think Padraic Colum has got confused is that the region neighbouring Colchis was called Pontus (abbreviated from a longer name meaning "the country on the shore of the Pontos Euxeinos", that being apparently its only distinguishing feature). But the country was named after the sea, not the other way around.
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And of course, this being a book for children, we're never actually told how far the ladies got in their project to secure a next generation -- but I have to say that I raised my eyebrows at the bit about how "this hero or that hero, with her who was his friend amongst the Lemnian maidens" would go wandering about picking flowers and hiding under bushes "so that they might listen to the quick-moving birds that sang in the thickets". Is that what they're calling it nowadays? :)
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I can kind of see it; it was her idea to have Jason come back and sneak away with her after giving his word not to. On the other hand, that seems to imply that once Jason and Apsyrtus met bloodshed was inevitable and not something either of them should bear responsibility for.
And then they lose another navigator to snakebite - seriously, guys?
To lose one navigator to snakebite may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose two the same way looks like carelessness. :)