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The following is the story as it is commonly told. When Jason had
finished building the Argo at the foot of Mount Pelion, he took on
board the usual hecatomb, and moreover a brazen tripod. Thus
equipped, he set sail, intending to coast round the Peloponnese, and
so to reach Delphi. The voyage was prosperous as far as Malea; but
at that point a gale of wind from the north came on suddenly, and
carried him out of his course to the coast of Libya; where, before he
discovered the land, he got among the shallows of Lake Tritonis. As
he was turning it in his mind how he should find his way out, Triton
(they say) appeared to him, and offered to show him the channel, and
secure him a safe retreat, if he would give him the tripod. Jason
complying, was shown by Triton the passage through the shallows;
after which the god took the tripod, and, carrying it to his own
temple, seated himself upon it, and, filled with prophetic fury,
delivered to Jason and his companions a long prediction. "When a
descendant," he said, "of one of the Argo's crew should seize and
carry off the brazen tripod, then by inevitable fate would a hundred
Grecian cities be built around Lake Tritonis." The Libyans of
that region, when they heard the words of this prophecy, took away the
tripod and hid it.
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