Symplegades

The Argonauts did not stay long at Phineas. They hurried on. The Argo was rushing fast over the waves of the sea. Suddenly, a distant noise was heard ahead. The noise is getting clearer and louder. It is like the roar of an approaching storm, sometimes drowned out as if by thunderclaps. Here appeared and Symplegad rocks. The heroes saw the rocks break apart and hit each other again with a terrible roar. The sea bubbled around them, the spray flew high with each collision of rocks. When the rocks parted again, the waves between them rushed and whirled in a frenzied whirlpool.

The heroes remembered Phineas' advice to let a pigeon go ahead between the rocks; if a pigeon flies, then the Argo will sail unharmed past the Symplegades. The Argonauts leaned on the oars. Here they are already at the very rocks. The rocks collided with the thunder and again diverge. Then the hero released Euphemism pigeon. A dove flies like an arrow between the rocks. Here the rocks closed again with such a thunder that the sky seemed to shake. Salt spray doused the Argonauts, and the Argo whirled among the waves, as if caught up in a whirlwind. The pigeon flew unharmed between the rocks, only the tip of the tail was torn from him by the colliding rocks. The Argonauts shouted joyfully and pulled together at the oars. The rocks parted. A huge wave with a foaming crest picked up the Argo and threw it into the strait. Another wave is rushing towards us, it has thrown back the "Argo". The waves are boiling and bubbling around. The oars bend. "Argo" cracks, as if groaning from the pressure of the waves. Then another wave rose, high, like a mountain; it crashed down on the Argo, and it whirled like a fragile canoe. The rocks are already approaching. Now they will collide. Death is imminent. Then the Argonauts were helped by the beloved daughter of Zeus, Athena-Pallas. With a mighty hand she held one of the rocks, and with the other she pushed the Argo with such force that it flew out of the strait like an arrow. Only the end of the rudder was crushed by the closing rocks. The rocks parted again and stopped, forever motionless, on the sides of the strait. The decree of fate has been fulfilled, that only then will the Symplegades be motionless when a ship sails between them. The Argonauts rejoiced - they avoided the most terrible danger. Now they could be sure that they would end their campaign happily.