250 



ARGONAUTS AHGYLE. 



golden fleece. All three lal>ours lie was U) accom- 

 plish in a single day. To rescue ihr hero, Juno anil 

 Minerva, who had instructed Medea, the daughter 

 of ^Eetes, in magic, infused into her an ardent love 

 for Jason, and, in return for a promise to conduct her 

 Home as his bride, she gave him a mixture to anoint 

 himself with, a stone to throw among the formidable 

 heroes sprung from the serpent's teeth. ami herbs and 

 a drink to lull to sleep the dragon- Thus equipped, 

 in tin- sight nt the king and assembled people, Jason 

 yoked the formidable bulls, and ploughed with them 

 the fatal field, sowed the serpents' teeth, and threw 

 among the armed host that arose the stone given him 

 by Medea ; upon which they turned their weapons 

 against one another, and, in a furious conflict, all 

 perished. /Ketes, terrified, commanded him to delay 

 the last adventure. Contriving another plan, he 

 resolved to murder Ja?on and his companions, and 

 to bum the sacred Argo. Being informed, by 

 Medea, of the king's design, Jason, hastened, by 

 night, to the consecrated grove, lulled to sleep the 

 dragon, by a magic potion, and took the golden fleece 

 from the oak on which it hung ; thence lie retired in 

 haste, with Medea and his companions, to his ship. 

 The next day, ^Eetes, perceiving the robbery of the 

 grove, and the flight of the strangers, embarked on 

 board a vessel to pursue them. At the mouth of the 

 Danube, they were within sight of one another. 

 Here, also, Medea averted the threatening danger, 

 by killing her brother, Absyrtus, and strewing on the 

 shore his mangled limbs. The melancholy sight de- 

 tained t In- unhappy father, who quitted the pursuit to 

 collect the bloody limbs of his beloved son. As 

 J'hineus had advised the Argonauts to return another 

 way, they now sailed up the Danube, carried the 

 lightly-built Argo many miles over mountains and 

 valleys, to the shore of the Adriatic sea, and here 

 again embarked. Then the veice of an oracle sound- 

 ed from the Dodonean mast of the Argo " You 

 shall not kiss the shores of your country, till Jason 

 and Medea have atoned for the murder of Absyrtus, 

 and appeased the goddesses of vengeance.'' Upon 

 Ui is, they directed their course to the port of ^Eea, to 

 Circe, sister of ./Eetes. She, however, refused them 

 expiation, but directed them to the promontory of 

 Malea, where they might obtain it. On their voyage, 

 they encountered the frightful Scylla and Charybdis, 

 the alluring Sirens, and a fearful storm not far from 

 the coast of Libya. Then they came to Crete, where 

 the giant Talos, who guarded tlie island, opposed 

 their landing. A single vein ran from his head to 

 his heel, and was closed below by a brass nail. 

 Medea gave him an intoxicating potion, and opened 

 the vein, that he might bleed to death. At last, they 

 reached the long- wished for promontory of Malea ; 

 their crime was expiated, and, without further 

 misfortune, the Argo arrived at the port of lolcos. 

 On the isthmus of Corinth, Jason consecrated his 

 ship to Neptune, and it afterwards shone as a constel- 

 lation in the southern part of the heavens. Thus the 

 expedition terminated gloriously. But, before the 

 heroes parted, they agreed to aid one another in war, 

 and resolved, at certain times, to celebrate public 

 games in honour of Jupiter. These were the begin- 

 ning of the Olympic games. The further fortunes of 

 Medea and Jason are mentioned under those articles. 

 The tales describing the return of the Argonauts 

 differ very essentially. Several poets of antiquity 

 have celebrated this adventurous undertaking, which 

 is placed in the middle of the 13th century B.C. We 

 still have, under the name of Orpheus, a. poem on 

 this subject ; another by Apollonius of Rhodes, and 

 one by Valerius Flaccus. 



A RGOX.NE ; a former province of France, between 

 the rivers Mi-use, Marne and Aisne. St Menehold 



was the capital. Argnnnc, vood of, runs through 

 Upper Champagne and I^ower Bar, and is mostly 

 mountainous. It was MI desert, that the prince of 

 Conde, who received it, in Kij?, as an apanage, and 

 his successors, used it only as a hunting-ground, and 

 place for felling wood, and it became a resort of the 

 smugglers of salt. In order to expel them from the 

 place, the crown purchased the wood, in 178-1, for 

 <>5U,000 livres. This wood became too well known 

 in the unhappy campaign of Prussia, in 1792. 



ARGOS. See Argolis. 



ARGUIM, or ARGUIN ; an island on the coast of 

 Africa, not far from cape Blanco, scarcely two miles 

 long. Notwithstanding its insignificance, the pos- 

 session of it was violently disputed, for eighty-seven 

 years, between the Portuguese, Dutch, F.nglih. and 

 French. After a variety of fortune, it has been at 

 last totally abandoned. 



ARGCMENTUM AD HOMINKM ; an argument which 

 presses a man with consequences drawn from his own 

 principles and concessions, or his own conduct. 



ARGUS, in fabulous history, was the son of Arestor, 

 or Agenor, or Inachns and Ismene, and had a 

 hundred eyes. According to some, his whole body 

 was covered with eyes (hence he was called Panop- 

 tes), half of which were always awake, while the rest 

 were closed in sleep. The jealous Juno made him 

 keeper of the unhappy lo (q. v.) ; but Mercury lulled 

 him to sleep with the sound of his flute, and cut 

 off his head; hence Mercury is called Argiphontes 

 Juno afterwards took his eyes to adoni the tail 

 of the peacock. 



ARGYLE, an extensive county in the south-western 

 extremity of the Highlands of Scotland, partly com- 

 posed of a number of peninsulas on the mainland, and 

 partly of an archipelago of small islands scattered 

 along its margin, and in the bosom of its lakes, with 

 others of larger dimensions divided from it by straits 

 and sounds. The mainland is situated between 55 f 

 21' and 57 north latitude, and between 1 22> and 

 3 25f of longitude west from F.dinburgh. The 

 greatest length of Argyleshire is 115 miles, its 

 breadth above 68 ; and from the windings of the 

 numerous bays and creaks with which the land is 

 every where indented, it is supposed to have more 

 than 600 miles of sea-coast. The population .f the, 

 county amounts to 101,425. Argyle is popularly 

 divided into five great districts, viz. Cowal, Lorn or 

 Argyle proper, Cantire or Kintyre, Morven, and 

 Siinart. Of these there are various subdivisions, such 

 as Appin, Glenorchy, Ardnamurchan,and Knapdale. 

 A number of isles are included in the shire, viz. 

 Tyrie, Coll, Mull, Isla, Jura, Staffa, Icolmkill, &c. 

 the more important of which will be found noticed in 

 their proper places. The chief towns of Argyleshire 

 are Inverary, Campbelton (two royal burghs), Ohan, 

 Bowmore, Lochgilphead, Tobermory, and Ballahu- 

 lish. For a long time this shire scarcely formed 

 part of the kingdom of Scotland, having become sub- 

 ject to the Macdonalds of the Isles, who assumed 

 regal and independent authority, until mastered by 

 king Robert Bruce. On the depression of the Mac- 

 donalds, their estates and titles were bestowed on the 

 Campbells, who have ever since retained them. The 

 duke of Argyle, whose seat is at Inverary, is the pro- 

 pr%or or feuar of a large portion of the territory. 

 He is the chief of the numerous family of Campbell. 

 The general features of the county are varied and 

 striking, consisting of lofty mountains, deep glens, 

 and inlets of the sea entering far into the land. To- 

 wards the northern parts, it assumes the wild and 

 savage grandeur so peculiarly characteristic of the 

 Highlands of Scotland, exhibiting mountains piled 

 upon mountains, in great but picturesque irregidarity. 

 The mountain of Ben Cruachan is one of the highest 





