The first stop along the way was the Isle of Lemnos, where the women had murdered all their husbands in their sleep and now were desperate for male companionship. 1 Heracles was against consorting with them, but Jason shrewdly pointed out he didn’t plan to sleep with any of them. Jason may have once been told by a woman, “Not if you were the last man on earth,” and this was his chance. I’m not sure what Atalanta did during this episode. Probably just stayed onboard and sulked. After a time – or a couple of times, anyway – the men sailed past Lemnos to the island of the Doliones. 2 There, the men went foraging on Bear Mountain where they met a race of six-armed giants. 3 Jason’s men managed to defeat the giants, but meanwhile Heracles’ little buddy Hylas, who was out gathering wood, drew the attention of some water nymphs who pulled him into a stream. (They only wanted to play with him.) Heracles was distraught and refused to go any further, and so Jason sailed without him to Salymdesus, where they found King Phineas beset by harpies. Each time his servants laid a feast before him, harpies would swoop down and gobble it up. Whatever they couldn’t gobble up, they pooped on. By the time Jason and his men got there, Phineas was so emaciated, he was just about ready to eat harpy poop, but fortunately, among Jason’s crew were the winged sons of the North Wind, and they chased the harpies away for good. 4 Phineas begged the Argonauts to stay and enjoy his hospitality, but Jason pointed out that between killing harpies and six-armed giants, and hunting for Hylas, and not sleeping with Lemnians and so forth, they were already between schedule, so they set off once more for towards Colchis and the Golden Fleece.
1. They really should have thought about that before.
2. The Mediterranean is lousy with islands, you can't throw a rock without hitting one.
3. The name Bear Mountain isn't very helpful is it? They should have called it Six-Armed-Giant Mountain.
4. They came in handy after all.
