The Minyae, Arete Crew of Argo,

Manning her goddess-fingered oars,

Proud-born chieftains,

Pulling for babble-spoken shores:

Came Polyphemus, kentaur-slayer [1] of old, limbs weighted with age,

Iphiklus, Jason’s loyal uncle,

Admetus, King of Sheep, who would not linger on his high-city peak,

Koronus, son of unbowed, Kentaur-slayer, [1] Gyrton—bold as his sire,

Aethalides, kinsman of the Sons of Hermes,

And doomed Mopsus, the bird-seer, blessed by The Shinning One [2] with far sight.

Came Eurydamas, guardian of Stranger-lake,

Menoetius, a son of King Aktor, joining the company of chiefs,

Eurytion, a son of Irus,

Eribotes, a son of Aktor,

And bold Oileus, brave dasher, breaker of enemy ranks.

Came Kanthus, doomed by Fate to die with Mopsus, perishing as far from home as the Sun travels in a day,

Klytius and Iphitus, sons of Cruel Eurytus, guardians of his domain,

Telamon and Peleus, sons of Aeakus, ostracized killers of their brother,

With Battle-loving Butes,

Phalerus, of the stout, ashen spear,

And Typhys, peerless helmsman, sent by Thought-Lady to pilot her peerless craft.

Came Phlias, pleasure-living prince of Asopus,

The proud sons of Bias, both Talaus and Areius,

Leodokus, of the crushing shield and sundering spear, their brother too,

With Nauplius, of the line of First-Chief, [3]

The two strong Sons of Aphareus,

Keen-eyed Lynkeus seer into the underworld,

And insolent Idas, courageous with spear.

Came Periklymenus, enormously strong, able to take beastly form in the battle-press,

Amphidamas [4] and Kepheus, sons of Aleus of Tegea,

With Ankaeus, their cousin, only son of Lykurgus, desirous of glory for his bloodline,

Asterius and Amphion, sons of Hyperasius, King of cliff-crowning Pellene

Valiant Meleager, son of Oeneus and his half-brother, Laokoon, son of a slave girl

With Iphikles, guardian uncle of Meleager,

Iphitus, son of Jason’s host while consulting the oracle of The Shinning One at Python, [5]

And Akastus, son of Jason’s malefactor, King Pelias, upholding the honor of his Bloodline.

Came craft-handed Argus, guided by Thought-Lady’s all-seeing eye, who would sail too, though he would bequeath the steering beam to Typhus, first among sea-faring men, for Thought-Lady had decreed that the crafter of Argo, the Ship Most Excellent, be honored among her crew of Arete.

And Jason, proudest of chiefs, most excellent among heroes, took the deck, cursed to sail the wine-dark seas of doom, blessed to toil to the world’s edge when the kingdoms of men were in first bloom.

1. Kantor was the half horse son of Apollo, who we can take to represent a final wave of mounted Arуan barbarians, closely related in myth to Amazons and historically to the Skythian nomads. A breed of heroes known as Lapithes, were famed for having fought heroically against the Kentaurs, which, in this reader’s view, represents a battle between nomadic invaders [Kantor] and the descendants of an earlier wave of Arуan savages [Apollo], who is represented on the Piedmont of the Temple of Zeus [Thunder-chief] punching a centaur, the straight punch representing civilized achievement.

2. The predominant cult name for Apollo was Helios, or The Shinning One. He was also the god of prophecy, plague, birds, archery, boxing, music and wolves.

3. Proteus, or [First-chief] is most likely a deified ancestor.

4. Damas means subdue and is a common heroic attribution.

5. In the sacred city of Delphi [Dolphins], in the temple of Pytho, where Apollo defeated the ancient serpent, his Oracle, in the person of the Pythia, two long braids made from her uncut hair gracing her shoulders, who spoke Apollo’s will, entranced above a fissure in the temple floor [where gas was emitted until an earthquake in late antiquity cut the gas supply], was consulted by ambassadors and heroes, come to receive direction from the oracle of the god whose arts had long ago overcome the primal wisdom of Python.