Hi there, you're listening to the Hellenistic Age podcast.

Episode 83, Hellenistic literature, Apollonius of Rhodes, and the Argonautica.

When we last met, I gave in the account of some of the most important poets working in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC, but neglected to name one last figure.

Joining the vaunted ranks of Calamachus and Theocritus

is a man named Apollonius of Rhodes. His most famous work, the Argonautica, is the only surviving

Hellenistic epic, recounting the story of the hero Jason and the Argonauts as they pursue the

golden fleece. While Homer and Virgil are the definitive authors of Greek and Latin epic Jason and the Argonauts as they pursue the Golden Thleas.

While Homer and Virgil are the definitive authors of Greek and Latin epic poetry, Apollonius

falls in the middle of these intellectual giants, his work often being viewed as a curious

experiment bridging the gap between the two.

In this episode, we will analyze the Argonautica, comparing and contrasting it with the works

of Homer to see how Apollonius was able to challenge the traditional models of heroism and the

epic, creating a poem which exemplified the characteristics of Alexandrian scholarship during this period.

For this episode, I will be citing passages from the translation of Peter Green,

published under University of California Press in 1997, and it contains a fair bit of useful

supplementary materials that have aided my research and understanding.

Music Starting from you, Phoebus, the deeds of those old-time mortals I shall relate, who by way of the Black Sea's mouth and through the cobalt dark rocks at King Pellius' commandment,

in search of the golden fleece, drove tight-thwarted Argo. So begins the opening lines of the Argonautica,

Apollonius's magnum opus and the only epic of the Hellenistic period to survive in its entirety.

Arranged in four books in total and measuring out just under 6,000 lines, it is quite small in

comparison to both the Odyssey and especially the Iliad, the latter being more than double the

length of the Argonautica.

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