And they thronged to the assembly in arms; and countless as the waves of the stormy sea when they rise crested by the wind, or as the leaves that fall to the ground from the wood with its myriad branches in the month when the leaves fall--who could reckon their tale ?--so they in countless number poured along the banks of the river shouting in frenzy; and in his shapely chariot Aeetes shone forth above all with his steeds, the gift of Helios, swift as the blasts of the wind.

In his left hand he raised his curved shield, and in his right a huge pine-torch, and near him in front stood up his mighty spear.

And Apsyrtus held in his hands the reins of the steeds.

But already the ship was cleaving the sea before her, urged on by stalwart oarsmen, and the stream of the mighty river rushing down.

But the king in grievous anguish lifted his hands and called on Helios and Zeus to bear witness to their evil deeds; and terrible threats he uttered against all his people, that unless they should with their own hands seize the maiden, either on the land or still finding the ship on the swell of the open sea, and bring her back, that so he might satisfy his eager soul with vengeance for all those deeds, at the cost of their own lives they should learn and abide all his rage and revenge.
(ll.