Hercules , I suppose , had not grown to his full strength , else he might have set her afloat as easily as a little boy launches his boat upon a puddle . But here were these fifty heroes , pushing , and straining , and growing red in the face , without making the Argo start an inch . At last , quite wearied out , they sat themselves down on the shore exceedingly disconsolate , and thinking that the vessel must be left to rot and fall in pieces , and that they must either swim across the sea or lose the Golden Fleece . All at once , Jason bethought himself of the galley 's miraculous figure-head . `` O , daughter of the Talking Oak , '' cried he , `` how shall we set to work to get our vessel into the water ? '' `` Seat yourselves , '' answered the image -LRB- for it had known what had ought to be done from the very first , and was only waiting for the question to be put -RRB- , -- `` seat yourselves , and handle your oars , and let Orpheus play upon his harp . '' Immediately the fifty heroes got on board , and seizing their oars , held them perpendicularly in the air , while Orpheus -LRB- who liked such a task far better than rowing -RRB- swept his fingers across the harp . At the first ringing note of the music , they felt the vessel stir . Orpheus thrummed away briskly , and the galley slid at once into the sea , dipping her prow so deeply that the figure-head drank the wave with its marvelous lips , and rising again as buoyant as a swan . The rowers plied their fifty oars ; the white foam boiled up before the prow ; the water gurgled and bubbled in their wake ; while Orpheus continued to play so lively a strain of music , that the vessel seemed to dance over the billows by way of keeping time to it . Thus triumphantly did the Argo sail out of the harbor , amidst the huzzas and good wishes of everybody except the wicked old Pelias , who stood on a promontory , scowling at her , and wishing that he could blow out of his lungs the tempest of wrath that was in his heart , and so sink the galley with all on board . When they had sailed above fifty miles over the sea , Lynceus happened to cast his sharp eyes behind , and said that there was this bad-hearted king , still perched upon the promontory , and scowling so gloomily that it looked like a black thunder-cloud in that quarter of the horizon . In order to make the time pass away more pleasantly during the voyage , the heroes talked about the Golden Fleece . It originally belonged , it appears , to a Boeotian ram , who had taken on his back two children , when in danger of their lives , and fled with them over land and sea as far as Colchis . One of the children , whose name was Helle , fell into the sea and was drowned . But the other -LRB- a little boy , named Phrixus -RRB- was brought safe ashore by the faithful ram , who , however , was so exhausted that he immediately lay down and died . In memory of this good deed , and as a token of his true heart , the fleece of the poor dead ram was miraculously changed to gold , and became one of the most beautiful objects ever seen on earth . It was hung upon a tree in a sacred grove , where it had now been kept I know not how many years , and was the envy of mighty kings , who had nothing so magnificent in any of their palaces . If I were to tell you all the adventures of the Argonauts , it would take me till nightfall , and perhaps a great deal longer . There was no lack of wonderful events , as you may judge from what you have already heard .
XXXXX a certain island , they were hospitably received by King Cyzicus , its sovereign , who made a feast for them , and treated them like brothers .
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