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Quotation from The Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes
“And fast did her heart throb within her breast, as a sunbeam quivers upon the walls of a house when flung up from water, which is just poured forth in a caldron or a pail may be; and hither and thither on the swift eddy does it dart and dance along; even so the maiden’s heart quivered in her breast.”
The Argonautica, Book III, Medea's sleepless night, trans. R. C. Seaton (1912)
The famous simile for Medea's agitation as she lies awake deciding whether to give Jason the drug that will save him.
Citation: "And fast did her heart throb within her breast, as a sunbeam quivers upon the walls of a house when flung up from water, which is just poured forth in a caldron or a pail may be; and hither and thither on the swift eddy does it dart and dance along; even so the maiden’s heart quivered in her breast." — Apollonius of Rhodes, The Argonautica, Book III, Medea's sleepless night, trans. R. C. Seaton (1912). (id argonautica-q4)
Portrait: Apollonius, This has been described as an illustration from "The Universal Historical Dictionary" by George Crabb (Baldwin, 1825)., Public domain.
