Other editions of book "The Argonautica" Of Apollonius Rhodius: Translated Into English Prose From the Text of R. Merkel

Apollonius Rhodius’s Argonautica, composed in the 3rd century BCE, is the epic retelling of Jason’s quest for the golden fleece. Along with his contemporaries Callimachus and Theocritus, Apollonius refashioned Greek poetry to meet the interests and aesthetics of a Hellenistic audience, especially that of Alexandria in the Ptolemaic period following Alexander’s death. In this carefully crafted work of 5,835 hexameter verses in four books, the author draws on the preceding literary traditions of epic (Homer), lyric (Pindar), and tragedy (especially Euripides) but creates an innovative and complex narrative that includes geography, religion, ethnography, mythology, adventure, exploration, human psychology, and, most of all, the coming of age and love affair of Jason and Medea. It greatly influenced Roman authors such as Catullus, Virgil, and Ovid, and was imitated by Valerius Flaccus.This new edition of the first volume in the Loeb Classical Library offers a fresh translation and improved text.

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Apollonius was a Greek grammarian and epic poet of Alexandria in Egypt and lived late in the 3rd century and early in the 2nd century BCE. While still young he composed his extant epic poem of four books on the story of the Argonauts. When this work failed to win acceptance he went to Rhodes where he not only did well as a rhetorician but also made a success of his epic in a revised form, for which the Rhodians gave him the 'freedom' of their city; hence his surname. On returning to Alexandria he recited his poem again, to applause. In 196 Ptolemy Epiphanes made him the librarian of the Museum (the university) at Alexandria. Apollonius's Argonautica is one of the better minor epics, remarkable for originality, powers of observation, sincere feeling, and depiction of romantic love. His Jason and Medea are natural and interesting, and did much to inspire Virgil (in a very different setting) in the fourth book of the Aeneid.

“The Argonautica” is the best known work by the 3rd Century BCE Hellenistic poet and scholar, Apollonius Rhodius (Apollonius of Rhodes). It is an epic poem in the style of Homer, and tells the story of Jason and the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. But it is Greek epic poetry updated for the tastes of a more discerning and rational Hellenistic audience. Little regarded in ancient times, it has since come to be recognised for its own intrinsic merit, and for its influence on later Latin poets."The Argonautica" has impacted our culture from the Aeneid to Star Trek. The Golden Fleece has become a byword for 'an unobtainable object.' And who can forget Ray Harryhausen's classic stop motion animation in the 1963 film "Jason and the Argonauts"?

The Argonautica (Greek: Ἀργοναυτικά Argonautika) is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from remote Colchis. Their heroic adventures and Jason's relationship with the dangerous Colchian princess/sorceress Medea were already well known to Hellenistic audiences, which enabled Apollonius to go beyond a simple narrative, giving it a scholarly emphasis suitable to the times. It was the age of the great Library of Alexandria, and his epic incorporates his researches in geography, ethnography, comparative religion, and Homeric literature. However, his main contribution to the epic tradition lies in his development of the love between hero and heroine – he seems to have been the first narrative poet to study "the pathology of love". His Argonautica had a profound impact on Latin poetry: it was translated by Varro Atacinus and imitated by Valerius Flaccus; it influenced Catullus and Ovid; and it provided Virgil with a model for his Roman epic, the Aeneid.

The Argonautica (also Argonautika) is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BCE. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the mythical land of Colchis. Another, much less-known Argonautica, using the same body of myth, was composed by Valerius Flaccus during the time of Vespasian. The Argonautica differs in some respects from traditional or Homeric Greek epic, though Apollonius used Homer as his principal model. The Argonautica is much shorter than Homer’s epics, with four books totaling less than 6,000 lines, while the Iliad runs to more than 15,000. Apollonius may have been influenced here by Callimachus' advocacy of brevity, or by Aristotle’s demand for "poems on a smaller scale than the old epics, and answering in length to the group of tragedies presented at a single sitting" (Poetics). Argonautica meets Aristotle's requirements; each of the Argonautica's four books are around the same length as a tragedy. Tragedies were traditionally performed in groups of four, three tragedies and a satyr play, whose total length was very nearly that of the Argonautica. Though critics have concentrated on Homeric echoes in Argonautica, direct borrowings from tragedy, such as Euripides' Medea, can be found. Apollonius’ epic also differs from the more traditional epic in its weaker, more human protagonist Jason J.F. Carspecken noted his character traits, which are more characteristic of the genre of realism than epic, in that he was: "chosen leader because his superior declines the honour, subordinate to his comrades, except once, in every trial of strength, skill or courage, a great warrior only with the help of magical charms, jealous of honor but incapable of asserting it, passive in the face of crisis, timid and confused before trouble, tearful at insult, easily despondent, gracefully treacherous in his dealings with the love-sick Medea..." Argonautica is often placed in a literary tradition that leads to the Hellenistic novel. It is also unlike the archaic Epic tradition in its many discursions into local custom, aetiology, and other popular subjects of Hellenistic poetry. Apollonius also chooses the less shocking versions of some myths, having Medea, for example, merely watch the murder of Absyrtus instead of murdering him herself. The gods are relatively distant and inactive throughout much of the epic, following the Hellenistic trend to allegorize and rationalize religion. Heterosexual loves such as Jason’s are more emphasized than homosexual loves such as that of Heracles and Hylas, another trend in Hellenistic literature, as heterosexual love gained prestige. Many critics name the love of Jason and Medea in this book as the best and most beautiful part of the Argonautica, inspiring some of Apollonius' finest writing: So Love the Destroyer Blazed in a coil around her heart, her mind's keen anguish Now flushed her soft cheeks, now drained them of all color.