Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

In the Propontis the Argonauts landed among the Doliones, whose young king Cyzicus son of Aeneus welcomed them with friendship and gifts. An oracle had warned Cyzicus to be kind to strangers. The heroes helped the Doliones against earthborn giants (Gegeines) who attacked from the hinterland; Heracles and others slew many. After feasting, the Argo put out, but a night wind and contrary currents drove them back unseen to the same shore. In the dark the Doliones took the returning ship for a pirate raid. Cyzicus armed and led his people out. The Argonauts, not recognizing their hosts, fought hard. Jason himself killed Cyzicus in the melee. Only at dawn did both sides see the disaster: friend had slain friend. Cleite, Cyzicus’s bride, hanged herself in grief; the nymphs’ tears (or Cleite’s) were said to have made a spring. The Argonauts mourned, raised a tomb, offered sacrifice, and held funeral games. Storms detained them until they propitiated the mother of the gods (Rhea/Cybele) on Mount Dindymon as the seer Mopsus advised. Then fair weather returned and they sailed on. Apollodorus’s shorter account matches the core: night return, mistaken battle, Cyzicus slain by Jason, Cleite’s suicide. The episode is the voyage’s first pure tragedy of error—hospitality inverted by night and storm—and binds the crew in shared guilt before the harder trials ahead.