Study Tools for The Voyage of the Argo by Apollonius of Rhodes

• 222 - 181 BCE, Apollonius' career
• worked in the library at Alexandria
• studied with Callimachos but the story of his quarrel with Callimachos is probably fake
• left Alexandria after the epic was first published and strongly criticized
• went to the island of Rhodes where he supposedly revised the poem

The Voyage of the Argo

• an epic poem
• like Homer's epics it was written in dactylic hexameter (- u u / - u u / - u u / - u u / - u u / - - )
• its subject is the hero Jason
• but the poem has distinctive Hellenistic features

Hellenistic qualities of The Voyage of the Argo:

• great interest in the fabulous landscape through which Jason and the heroes travelled
• great interest in the ethnography of that landscape
• conscious reference to earlier poetry
• conscious appreciation of his role as poet, for Apollonius frequently enters the narrative as himself, unlike Homer who almost never enters his narrative
• at the same time, he distances himself from his poem by omitting certain details, such as the prophecy about the man with one sandal which stands behind the opening scene of the poem
• utlizes technique of parody and reversal, for example his book I closes with an invocation to the Muse whereas Homer begins with an invocation to the Muse
• his story requires reading, not recitation

Study Questions for The Voyage of the Argo:

1. Who is the hero of the poem?
2. Why does Herakles leave the poem at the end of book 1? How does this color your view of Jason? Does Herakles reappear in the poem? Why? Why not?
3. What does Jason learn at Lemnos? How does his personification of heroism differ from that extolled in the Iliad?
4. What is the function of love in the poem?
5. What does Jason do in Book 2? Why is he such a passive participant?
6. What allusions to the Underworld does Apollonius include in Book 2? How do these allusions prepare us for the events in Book 3?
7. How does the portrayal of the gods in the poem compare with that in the Iliad?
8. How does Apollonius portray Medea? How does Jason react to her? How do the Argonauts react? Others they meet on their journey?

Suggestions for further reading on The Voyage of the Argo:

• Charles Rowan Beye, Ancient Epic Poetry: Homer, Apollonius, Virgil . (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993) 181-217.
• Peter Green, The Argonautika. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997) 1-41.