The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1895-10-18

at the cost you mention. Not SO much
as one day shall be taken from your
life, but Aeson shall livew
She ceased, and as he thanked her all
the fire of her being seemed to vanish.
She was as sweet and gentle as the sum-
mer wind. TO look at her no one would
have believed her capable Of an evil
thought, much less of a deed of horror.
Then she went from his apartment.
When the next full moon occurred,
at midnight, when all were wrapt in
slumber Medea stepped forth from the
palace. She was attired in black, and
she strobe swiftly till she came to the
center Of a forest. Great rocks cast
deep shadows, and the trees rustled and
their murmurings were reverberated
from the caverns. Passing quickly from
this dense foliage, she came to a clear
ing, circular in shape, on which the
moon and stars shone with wonderful
clearness.
For moment the enchantress stood
with face upturned and arms raised,
silent, and not a sound of living or
moving creatures could be heard. Then
she addressed her incantations to the
moon and the stars, to Hecate, the god
dess of the underworld: to Tellus, the
goddess of the earth, by whose power
herbs full Of charm and potent for en-
chantment grow. She called upon the
gods of land and sea; she invoked the
power of river stream, lake, wood and
cavern; she called upon the mountains
and the valleys, upon the mighty winds
and upon the vapors.
Then she implored Pluto and Prosper
pine to spare the life that she wished
to prolong; and as she spoke the stars
shone brighter, the winds began to sigh
and moan, the leaves Of the trees to
rustic. And suddenly from on high a
chariot of gold and precious gems de-
scended to her, borne by winged SER
penis. Medea entered her car, and In
a moment more was out OF sight OF
Thessaly.
The chariot bore her to distant lands,
where man had never put his foot,
where nature had unbounded sway.
There she gathered herbs, such as she
knew how to use, and for nine days
she was so occupied. During this time
she entered no dwelling and spoke to
no mortal being. Then she returned to
Thessaly, to the clearing in the woods.
There she erected two affairs, one to
Hecate, the other to Hebe, the goddess
of youth.
A black sheep was then sacrificed,
and libations of milk and wine were
forth, and having thrown him into
deep sleep by charm, Medea laid him
upon bed of herbs.
With flowing hair she moved three
times around the affairs, calling upon
the gods Of the underworld. and dip
ping burning twigs into the blood on
the affairs and leaving them there to
burn. The caldron with its magic con-
tents was then prepared. She put in it
the magic herbs that she had gathered,
seeds and flowers. stone from the far
East and sand from the shore of Ocean.
Then she added hoar-frost, gathered by
moonlight; the head and wings of a
screech owl; the entrails Of a wolf;
fragments of shells OF tortoises: the
liver Of stays and the head and beak of
n crow.
All these things, frora animals ten
acious or life and things that never die,
and many more dark. secret concoc-
tions were pat. into the caldron, till at
last, the contents boiling over, the grass
around took on the vivid green of early
spring, and the dry oiive-twig with
which the mixture was stirred began to
grow green, and to shoot forth leaves,
and suddenly was heavy with ripe
olives.
Then, when Medea saw that all was
ready, she approached King Aeson.
Taking her knife, the same that had
slain her brother, she cut the throat OF
the aged king, and when the blood had
run out she poured into the wound the
contents from the caldron. Quickly the
wound healed, leaving no traces behind.
In few moments the white hair grew
dark, the blood surged to the cheeks,
the emaciated looks disappeared and
Aeson rose, a young man.
This is one of the good deeds that
Medea performed, but she soon coun-
terbalanced 1t with evil, and disap-
peared forever from Thessaly.
It happened in this way. When the
daughters of Pelias, the usurper of ia
sons throne. saw Aeson restored to
youth, they begged Medea to do the
same for their father. She consented,
and they were overjoyed to obey her
| instructions.
One night, while Pelias slept, they
entered his room stealthily, and when
Medea commanded them to strike him,
| they hesitated. But when she told
them the promised reward Of youth,
they were dazzled. and turning away
their faces struck Pelias, with random
strokes. The father awoke and cried
out, and the daughters would have de-
sisted, but Medea sprung forward and
dealt him a mortal wound
Then she prepared caldron, but put
in it only water and few simple herbs.
Placing the body of Pelias in the boil
ing concoction. she clapped her hands
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