Jason and the Clashing Rocks
Jason Stop 2 of 2
In brief
- The only way into the Black Sea ran between two floating cliffs that drove together on anything trying to pass.
- On the blind seer Phineus's advice the Argonauts sent a dove through ahead of them, and it came out with nothing worse than a clipped tail.
- They rowed through in the moment the rocks drew back; the Argo lost the tip of her stern, and the rocks have stood still ever since.
Before the Argonauts reached the strait they stopped for Phineus, a blind seer who was being starved by the Harpies: every meal set in front of him was snatched away or fouled before he could eat it. Two of the crew, sons of the north wind and able to fly, drove the creatures off for good. Phineus ate a full meal for the first time in years and then told them what was waiting at the mouth of the Bosphorus.
The Symplegades were not fixed. They drifted, and when anything came between them they closed with enough force to crush a ship to splinters and open again as though nothing had happened. There was no way around and no way of timing it from a distance.
His instruction was to send a dove through first. If the bird got clear, the Argo could follow; if it did not, they were to turn back and give up the voyage. They released it at the entrance. The rocks came together on its tail feathers and took those, and the bird went on.
They put their backs into the oars in the instant the cliffs drew apart, and Athena is said to have held one of them off with her hand while they passed. The rocks closed on the very end of the stern ornament and took it off. Having failed once, they were fixed in place permanently, and the sea road to Colchis has been open ever since.
