The son of Aeson saw that she had fallen into a ruin sent by heaven, and coaxing her, he said: "Why, maiden, do you fear me so, alone as I am? I am not one of the braggarts other men are, and I was not before, not even when I lived in my own country. So do not be too shy before me, girl, to ask whatever you like or to say anything.

Jason reads her at once: she has fallen into ἄτη, the blindness or ruin a god sends, and θευμορίῃ says it is sent by heaven. Mooney explains the rare word as a Doric form of θεομορίη, "god-allotted," and finds it again in an epigram of Callimachus (30.4); the idea that an affliction like this comes from a god is Homeric (Odyssey 9.411). He speaks ὑποσσαίνων, "coaxing her," a verb LSJ uses first of dogs fawning. His opening is all reassurance: he is no braggart, and never was. LSJ cites this line alone for δυσαυχής, "idly boasting," and for ὑπεραιδέομαι, "feel great shame before." παρεξερέεσθαι, "to ask," Mooney notes was missing from Liddell and Scott in his day; the 1940 LSJ lists it, citing this line.