Now at last let us propitiate Phoebus with sacrifice and straightway prepare a feast.

And until my thralls come, the overseers of my steading, whose care it is to choose out oxen from the herd and drive them hither, we will drag down the ship to the sea, and do ye place all the tackling within, and draw lots for the benches for rowing.

Meantime let us build upon the beach an altar to Apollo Embasius[1] who by an oracle promised to point out and show me the paths of the sea, if by sacrifice to him I should begin my venture for King Pelias." [Footnote 1: i.e.God of embarcation.] He spake, and was the first to turn to the work, and they stood up in obedience to him; and they heaped their garments, one upon the other, on a smooth stone, which the sea did not strike with its waves, but the stormy surge had cleansed it long before.

First of all, by the command of Argus, they strongly girded the ship with a rope well twisted within,[1] stretching it tight on each side, in order that the planks might be well compacted by the bolts and might withstand the opposing force of the surge.

And they quickly dug a trench as wide as the space the ship covered, and at the prow as far into the sea as it would run when drawn down by their hands.