Jason and the Argonauts (33 page)

1.1322
Jason's Way
:
An
aetion
that marks the importance of mythohistory in Greek thinking about the past.

1.1380
Just as he joined
:
Cyzicus is killed at the moment of beginning a career as a heroic warrior, just as Jason's first act as a heroic warrior is to slay his host.

1.1425
fastening a noose around her neck
:
Cleite, in the manner of many female characters in Greek tragedy, hangs herself. On the tragic convention of women hanging themselves, see Loraux 1987.

1.1460
Mother of the Blessed Gods
:
The role of the Mother of the Gods (often figured as Rhea, or Cybele, or a combination of the two divinities) prefigures her role in
Aeneid
9.

1.1559
broke his oar
:
Heracles' superhuman strength is ill-adapted to a cooperative effort like rowing—again his nature as a solitary figure sets him apart from the other heroes.

1.1600
after dire Orion
:
The simile is a particularly fitting one, since Orion, the solitary hunter, is cast apart from humanity (as a constellation), just as Heracles will shortly be separated from the Argonauts, and his solitary journey will appear around the periphery of the poem.

1.1607
Hylas
:
This figure appears in treatments by Apollonius' contemporaries Theocritus (
Idyll
13) and Callimachus (
Aetia
frr. 24–25 Pf.), as well as the Roman poets Propertius (1.22) and Valerius Flaccus. In Apollonius' treatment, unlike Theocritus', the relationship of Heracles and Hylas is not specifically an erotic one.

1.1637
how flush with beauty
:
A recurrent feature in Apollonius' poem is the female erotic gaze, here of the water nymph on first catching sight of Hylas. Apollonius has a marked interest in the female psyche, which he develops to the greatest extent in his treatment of Medea in the third and fourth books of the poem.

1.1648
so her right hand tugged
:
A scene, oft repeated in Western art, of transference between two worlds, a motif with which Ovid was to excel in the
Metamorphoses
. The initial mirror scene in
Alice Through the Looking-Glass
would be a well-known modern parallel.

1.1686
goaded by a gadfly
:
The gadfly (Gr.
myops
) image recurs in the appearance of Eros at Aeëtes' palace in
Argonautica
3. The simile here in
Argonautica
1 is thus a very subtle suggestion on the poet's part of the relationship of Heracles and Hylas.

1.1746
Glaucus
:
This part-wondrous figure appears to “interpret” the gods' will to the heroes of the
Argo;
the Greek term
hypophetes,
“interpreter,” recalls the poet's address to the Muses in the opening of the poem, and creates an understated moment of almost ring composition.

1.1818
they rowed ashore
:
Although there is no proem to the second book of the
Argonautica
(unlike Books 3 and 4), Jason's moment of landing forms a metapoetic closure to the first book. The second book likewise concludes with such a moment of disembarking.

BOOK 2

2.1
Haughty Amycus
:
The savage Bebrycian king is the antithesis of the correct host, and so takes on something of the role of the Cyclops Polyphemus in
Odyssey
9. Apollonius' contemporary poet Theocritus also narrates the boxing match of Amycus and Polydeuces in
Idyll
22 (see Introduction).

2.13
who they might be
:
Inquiring of a guest's origin and purpose is one of the standard features of correct
xenia,
or guest-friendship, a central social relationship in ancient mythology (and one that ensures safe travel). Cyzicus is, tragically, a correct host: Amycus is the opposite. Both come to terrible ends, the latter deservedly.

2.27
Polydeuces
:
Polydeuces is the immortal brother and twin of Castor (their sisters are Helen and Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon). He answers to the call to engage in a brutal athletic combat, rather than Jason, another moment where the narrative problematizes Jason's role as leader of the Argonauts.

2.46
they had found a spot
:
Boxing is an ancient sport for which there were contests at Pan-Hellenic games, and which was celebrated in ancient art and literature. Here, however, “civilized” athletic competition is turned into mortal combat.

2.55
like the star of heaven
:
Heroic comparisons to celestial bodies, a standard feature of heroic vocabulary, usually refer to Jason in the
Argonautica
. The comparison of Polydeuces, as the subsequent description of his youthful appearance, again casts him in a role of something of a substitute for Jason.

2.90
On a choppy sea
:
This simile, which compares the forceful combat of the two fighters to the struggle of a ship and a powerful wave, is particularly effective given the surrounding narrative of the
Argo
and its struggle with forces of nature.

2.129
Castor was first
:
The combat between superheroes being over, Polydeuces' mortal brother, Castor, then enters the limelight. Castor and Polydeuces, the
Dioscuri,
are important gods in Alexandria, and they figure prominently in the promotion of Ptolemaic cult iconography.

2.164
And as when beekeepers
:
A remarkable juxtaposition of similes, one from herding, one from beekeeping, that have earlier epic antecedents but also reflect a vivid Hellenistic interest in didactic poetry, of which some lost examples include Nicander's
Georgics
.

2.184
if Zeus had somehow left us Heracles
:
Once Heracles has left the
Argo
's enterprise, he will reappear in a variety of ways on the periphery of the narrative, in comparisons, missed sightings, and future references. Heracles' constantly present absence is one of the most striking features of Apollonius' “modern” epic.

2.203
sang a victory ode
:
A reference at once to the performed poetic art of
epinician
(poems sung in celebration of athletic victory) and to Hellenistic inheritance of the genre as both performed art and text; among the extant models of the
Argonautica
is Pindar's fourth
Pythian Ode,
composed in honor of Archesilaus IV, king of Cyrene.

2.225
Phineus the son of Agenor
:
The story of Phineus, his commission of sacrilege and his blinding, bears strong resemblances to that of the Theban seer Tiresias. As in
Odyssey
11, the seer's revelation, here of the course of the
Argo
through the Black Sea to Colchis, follows upon his being nourished, here by the Argonauts driving off the Harpies. There are also marked parallels with Callimachus
Hymn
5, which tells of the blinding of Tiresias.

2.237
Harpies
:
These make a vivid reappearance in the third book of Virgil's
Aeneid,
where Virgil figures them specifically (lines 212–13) in their post-Phinean (and so post-Apollonian) existence.

2.312
As soon as Zetes
:
A fragment of the lyric poet Simonides (fr. 3 W.) may suggest (the text is very fragmentary) that Simonides treated of the brothers Zetes and Calais in his
Plataea Elegy.
This receives some support from a
scholion
(ancient commentary note) to Apollonius 1.211–15 (on Zetes and Calais) that notes that Simonides narrated the birth of the two heroes in his (now lost)
Sea Battle
.

2.364
when their muzzles near the quarry's haunches
:
The simile recalls something of the description of the golden brooch that the real (but disguised) Odysseus tells Penelope that he once saw Odysseus wearing (
Odyssey
19.226–31).

2.372–73
had not / swift Iris seen them
:
In general, divine intervention in the
Argonautica
is rare, and markedly different from divine intervention in Homer (where gods appear to mortals in disguised form). Iris, the divine version of the rainbow, is something of an exception here, although again her appearance is rare.

2.398
as people do in dreams
:
One of several moments in the poem where Apollonius reflects a contemporary interest in the psychology of dreams.

2.406
but what they do permit I shall reveal
:
Phineus in his most Tiresias-like role. However, Tiresias foretells to Odysseus the future only
upon
his successfully reaching the island where the cattle of the Sun are pastured. The journey up to that point, beginning with the Sirens and the Clashing Rocks, is revealed rather by Circe at the opening of
Odyssey
12, including her reference to the successful passage of the
Argo
(lines 70–72).

2.450
into the Pontic Sea
:
The geography of the Black Sea reflects Ptolemaic imperial interests in the area, and is dependent on a wide variety of models, among them Xenophon's
Anabasis
.

2.510
everything from start to finish
:
One of many moments of “Callimachean” metapoetics in the
Argonautica
. The poet, or here his spokesman Phineus, eschews a purely linear narrative in favor of an episodic one, with more attention to particular episodes.

2.543
a second endless journey
:
By this subtle sleight of hand, Apollonius introduces the possibility that the return journey will be by a different route than the outward one.

2.554
the goddess Cypris
:
Cypris (Aphrodite) plays a major role in bringing about the action of the third and fourth books of the
Argonautica,
but particularly the third. The reference to a second journey, and to Aphrodite's role in the fulfillment of the quest, thus introduces the themes of the third and fourth books, interestingly, in reverse order.

2.576–77
if only light could shine / again
:
It is worth noting that Jason's wish, as Phineus observes in his response, invokes an impossibility, what is often referred to as a poetic
adynaton
. This is another surprisingly awkward moment in Jason's portrayal.

2.596
Paraebius
:
The narrative (on first reading seemingly superfluous) of the figure Paraebius effects a remarkable parallel with Apollonius' contemporary poet Callimachus. Paraebius' father sacrilegiously cuts down a tree in which a nymph dwelt, as does Erysichthon, the mortal sinner of Callimachus
Hymn
6 (to Demeter). The juxtaposition of Phineus and Paraebius reflects the heroes of Callimachus
Hymns
5 and 6, and suggests that Apollonius knew these hymns in that order. See further in the Introduction.

2.619
he had been paying
:
In Greek religious thought,
miasma
(pollution, sin) can be inherited as well as earned. Agamemnon in Aeschylus' play of that name is a classic example of a figure who both inherits the pollution of others and also brings about pollution by his own actions.

2.652
the Etesian Winds arose
:
The Etesian Winds figure in Callimachus'
Aetia
(fr. 75), as does a mythographical history of the island of Ceos; the rape of Cyrene figures in Callimachus'
Hymn
2. Cyrene will also appear at the end of
Argonautica
4. Apollonius seems to be framing the Medea/Jason episode in a variety of ways.

2.678
Dog Star Sirius
:
On his approach to Medea at
Argonautica
3.1239–1243, Jason is compared to this destructive image. This is one of several moments of intratextual recall in the poem.

2.705
Euphemus was the one
:
Euphemus recurs at the end of
Argonautica
4, where again he holds a crucial element of future discovery in his hand, in the latter case a clod of earth from Libya that will transform into the island of Thera.

2.708
Nor did Athena fail
:
One of the rare moments of divine intervention in the poem, mirrored by the action of the nymphs in
Argonautica
4. Here, as will be true later in the book when the heroes catch sight of Apollo, the god appears in divine form.

2.791
just as the gods had fated
:
An
aetion
that places the episode within a larger canvass of divine Fate. There is a striking parallel for this in the Phaeacians becoming stone on returning from delivering Odysseus safely to Ithaca in
Odyssey
13.