And thereafter Aeetes questioned the sons of his daughter, addressing them with these words: "Sons of my daughter and of Phrixus, whom beyond all strangers I honoured in my halls, how have ye come returning back to Aea?
Did some calamity cut short your escape in the midst?
Ye did not listen when I set before you the boundless length of the way.

For I marked it once, whirled along in the chariot of my father Helios, when he was bringing my sister Circe to the western land and we came to the shore of the Tyrrhenian mainland, where even now she abides, exceeding far from Colchis.

But what pleasure is there in words?
Do ye tell me plainly what has been your fortune, and who these men are, your companions, and where from your hollow ship ye came ashore." Such were his questions, and Argus, before all his brethren, being fearful for the mission of Aeson's son, gently replied, for he was the elder-born: "Aeetes, that ship forthwith stormy blasts tore asunder, and ourselves, crouching on the beams, a wave drove on to the beach of the isle of Enyalius[1] in the murky night; and some god preserved us.

For even the birds of Ares that haunted the desert isle beforetime, not even them did we find.

But these men had driven them off, having landed from their ship on the day before; and the will of Zeus taking pity on us, or some fate, detained them there, since they straightway gave us both food and clothing in abundance, when they heard the illustrious name of Phrixus and thine own; for to thy city are they faring.