THE SECOND VATICAN MYTHOGRAPHER
(Mythographus Vaticanus secundus)
Uncertain date; sometime after Mythographer I
The Vatican mythographers are so named because their three books of mythology were found bound together in the Vatican archive. The second of these documents, the SECOND VATICAN MYTHOGRAPHER, is believed to have written at an uncertain date sometime after the First Mythographer, perhaps during the Carolingian period. The author is anonymous and copies much of the first Mythographer nearly word for word, with additional information added in from other sources. I have made the translation of five chapters devoted to the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece from the 1803 first edition and 1834 corrected printing of the Latin text of the Mythographer, including variant spellings and mistakes the Mythographer made in his storytelling. Note, for example, that the author confuses the dragon whose teeth Jason sewed and the dragon Jason killed. Additional references to incidents touching on the Argonauts' journey occur in the work, but the following chapters are those that deal primarily with Jason.
Translation © 2011 Jason Colavito. All rights reserved.
134. On King Athamas
King Athamas, son of Aeolus and brother of Creteius, had a wife called Nubes or Nephele, from whom he received Phrixus and Helle. When therefore Nubes, stirred up by the madness of Father Liber, had made for the woods and did not want to return to her husband’s hearth, Athamas put over his children a stepmother named Ino, who, with a stepmother’s hatred and plotting the death of the children, asked the matrons to destroy the grain to be sown. Because of this deed, a famine arose. Moreover, when the community sent to Apollo for a consultation, Ino bribed him who had been sent to report that the oracle said Nubes’ children were to be sacrificed. For and in fact she had said they had set the grain on fire. In truth, their father, fearing the hatred of the people, handed over his children to the judgment of their stepmother: When their hostile stepmother was pursuing them as they were wandering in the woods, it is said their mother came to them and presented to them a ram distinguished by Golden Fleece. Under the compulsion of Juno, she ordered the aforementioned children to climb up on the ram and to go over to the island of Colchis, to King Oeta, son of the Sun, and there to sacrifice the aforementioned ram. Obeying their mother’s command, the ram carried them over the sea. Helle, as a girl of the weaker sex, slipped off and gave her name to the Hellespont. Phrixus arrived at Colchis, and there, obeying his mother’s order, he sacrificed the ram and consecrated its Golden Fleece in the temple of Mars, where it is said he placed an always watchful dragon as guardian.
135. On Pelias
An oracular response was given to Pelias, son of Neptune, who possessed the summit of Iolcus, that he would be deprived of his citadel by one who would arrive there with one bare foot at the same time as he (Pelias) was making a sacrifice to Neptune. Therefore, when he was making the annual sacrifice to his father Neptune, Jason the son of Aeson, having lost one sandal in the mud of the River Anaurus, came to him wearing a sandal on only one foot. Pelias observed him, and remembering the oracles, he sent him under the appearance of glory, yet with the intention that a dragon would kill him on account of him seeking the Golden Fleece from King Oeta in Colchis. But an oracle had been made to Oeta that he would be able to remain in his kingdom only so long as the Golden Fleece remained in the temple of Mars. Eager to acquire the Golden Fleece, Jason assembled the courageous men of Greece: He received Hercules and Castor with his brother [Pollux]. And after a ship called Argo was built, whence they were called Argonauts, Tiphis was made helmsman, and Jason set out to enter a formerly untried sea.
136. On Jason
Moreover, when the ship Argo was built on Mount Pelius in Thessaly, the earth, grieving that the previously untouched sea had become traversable, hurled rocks into the sea. Because those who were building the ship saw this, they sent her unfinished into the sea. Thus Lucan: “Carried away with smaller stern, the Argo is hauled down the mountain”: for indeed the whole ship is not formed in the sky [as the constellation Argo Navis] but only from the helm to the mast. Moreover, when they had come to Colchis, Jason, welcomed by King Oeta, fell in love with the king’s daughter Medea and had sons by her. But Oeta, after receiving an answer from oracles to beware of death from a stranger from the family of Aeolus, killed Phrixus, whose sons boarded a boat to cross over to their grandfather Athamas. They were received by Aeson after being shipwrecked. Moreover, Jason, although eager to remove the Golden Fleece, feared the ever watchful dragon he saw. King Oeta conceded him the opportunity to carry off the Fleece under this condition: if he would yoke bulls that breathed fire from their nostrils and were untamable by the Colchians and then sow the teeth of the dragon. Although this seemed difficult to him, Medea the magical daughter of King Oeta, taking pleasure in his strength, loved him. Medea cast a spell over the serpent and put it to sleep; at once Jason killed it and took its teeth. After he had yoked the bulls breathing fire from their nostrils by Medea’s wiles, he crossed into the field and sowed. On the third day an armed army rose up from that place and made an attack on Jason. Then by Medea’s arts they were inflamed against themselves and killed each other with mutual wounds. Jason, receiving victory, seized the Fleece and took it away. Then Medea, abandoning Colchis and following Jason, is said to have reached Italy, and she taught remedies against snakes to the people living around Lake Fucinum; and also by these people she was called Anguisha because the snakes were vexed (anguished) by her magical formulae.
137. On Medea
After Jason led Medea to Greece, he had sex with her as he had promised her marriage. Having seen her clever skills in many things before, eventually he asked her to transform his father Aeson into young manhood. She had not yet put aside the love she had for him. Boiling in a bronze cauldron plants whose power she knew, obtained from diverse regions, she cooked the slain Aeson with warm herbs and restored him to his original vigor.
138. On the Nurses of Liber
When Father Liber noticed that Aeson’s old age had been expelled by Medea’s medicines, he entreated Medea to change his nurses back to the vigor of youth. Agreeing to his request, she established a pledge of eternal benefit with him by restoring his nurses to the vigor of youth by giving them same medicines that rejuvenated Aeson. But when Jason, spurning her, took in Glauce, the daughter of Creon, Medea gave his mistress a tunic laced with poison and garlic: When she put it on, she began to burn alive by fire. Then Medea, not putting up with the soul of Jason raging against her, did away with her and Jason’s sons and fled on a winged serpent.
Translation © 2011 Jason Colavito. All rights reserved.
134. On King Athamas
King Athamas, son of Aeolus and brother of Creteius, had a wife called Nubes or Nephele, from whom he received Phrixus and Helle. When therefore Nubes, stirred up by the madness of Father Liber, had made for the woods and did not want to return to her husband’s hearth, Athamas put over his children a stepmother named Ino, who, with a stepmother’s hatred and plotting the death of the children, asked the matrons to destroy the grain to be sown. Because of this deed, a famine arose. Moreover, when the community sent to Apollo for a consultation, Ino bribed him who had been sent to report that the oracle said Nubes’ children were to be sacrificed. For and in fact she had said they had set the grain on fire. In truth, their father, fearing the hatred of the people, handed over his children to the judgment of their stepmother: When their hostile stepmother was pursuing them as they were wandering in the woods, it is said their mother came to them and presented to them a ram distinguished by Golden Fleece. Under the compulsion of Juno, she ordered the aforementioned children to climb up on the ram and to go over to the island of Colchis, to King Oeta, son of the Sun, and there to sacrifice the aforementioned ram. Obeying their mother’s command, the ram carried them over the sea. Helle, as a girl of the weaker sex, slipped off and gave her name to the Hellespont. Phrixus arrived at Colchis, and there, obeying his mother’s order, he sacrificed the ram and consecrated its Golden Fleece in the temple of Mars, where it is said he placed an always watchful dragon as guardian.
135. On Pelias
An oracular response was given to Pelias, son of Neptune, who possessed the summit of Iolcus, that he would be deprived of his citadel by one who would arrive there with one bare foot at the same time as he (Pelias) was making a sacrifice to Neptune. Therefore, when he was making the annual sacrifice to his father Neptune, Jason the son of Aeson, having lost one sandal in the mud of the River Anaurus, came to him wearing a sandal on only one foot. Pelias observed him, and remembering the oracles, he sent him under the appearance of glory, yet with the intention that a dragon would kill him on account of him seeking the Golden Fleece from King Oeta in Colchis. But an oracle had been made to Oeta that he would be able to remain in his kingdom only so long as the Golden Fleece remained in the temple of Mars. Eager to acquire the Golden Fleece, Jason assembled the courageous men of Greece: He received Hercules and Castor with his brother [Pollux]. And after a ship called Argo was built, whence they were called Argonauts, Tiphis was made helmsman, and Jason set out to enter a formerly untried sea.
136. On Jason
Moreover, when the ship Argo was built on Mount Pelius in Thessaly, the earth, grieving that the previously untouched sea had become traversable, hurled rocks into the sea. Because those who were building the ship saw this, they sent her unfinished into the sea. Thus Lucan: “Carried away with smaller stern, the Argo is hauled down the mountain”: for indeed the whole ship is not formed in the sky [as the constellation Argo Navis] but only from the helm to the mast. Moreover, when they had come to Colchis, Jason, welcomed by King Oeta, fell in love with the king’s daughter Medea and had sons by her. But Oeta, after receiving an answer from oracles to beware of death from a stranger from the family of Aeolus, killed Phrixus, whose sons boarded a boat to cross over to their grandfather Athamas. They were received by Aeson after being shipwrecked. Moreover, Jason, although eager to remove the Golden Fleece, feared the ever watchful dragon he saw. King Oeta conceded him the opportunity to carry off the Fleece under this condition: if he would yoke bulls that breathed fire from their nostrils and were untamable by the Colchians and then sow the teeth of the dragon. Although this seemed difficult to him, Medea the magical daughter of King Oeta, taking pleasure in his strength, loved him. Medea cast a spell over the serpent and put it to sleep; at once Jason killed it and took its teeth. After he had yoked the bulls breathing fire from their nostrils by Medea’s wiles, he crossed into the field and sowed. On the third day an armed army rose up from that place and made an attack on Jason. Then by Medea’s arts they were inflamed against themselves and killed each other with mutual wounds. Jason, receiving victory, seized the Fleece and took it away. Then Medea, abandoning Colchis and following Jason, is said to have reached Italy, and she taught remedies against snakes to the people living around Lake Fucinum; and also by these people she was called Anguisha because the snakes were vexed (anguished) by her magical formulae.
137. On Medea
After Jason led Medea to Greece, he had sex with her as he had promised her marriage. Having seen her clever skills in many things before, eventually he asked her to transform his father Aeson into young manhood. She had not yet put aside the love she had for him. Boiling in a bronze cauldron plants whose power she knew, obtained from diverse regions, she cooked the slain Aeson with warm herbs and restored him to his original vigor.
138. On the Nurses of Liber
When Father Liber noticed that Aeson’s old age had been expelled by Medea’s medicines, he entreated Medea to change his nurses back to the vigor of youth. Agreeing to his request, she established a pledge of eternal benefit with him by restoring his nurses to the vigor of youth by giving them same medicines that rejuvenated Aeson. But when Jason, spurning her, took in Glauce, the daughter of Creon, Medea gave his mistress a tunic laced with poison and garlic: When she put it on, she began to burn alive by fire. Then Medea, not putting up with the soul of Jason raging against her, did away with her and Jason’s sons and fled on a winged serpent.
