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Apollonius of RhodesA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The narrator announces that he will take his cue from Apollo to “recall the glorious deeds of men of long ago” who sailed the Argo from Hellas to Colchis to recover the golden fleece (3). Pelias initiated the quest after a prophecy warned him about a man “wearing only one sandal,” which is how the eponymous Jason appears at his court (3). To rid himself of the hero, Pelias sets him the quest, which he assumes will be so full of danger that Jason will not return.
A catalogue of the heroes who join the quest follows, including Herakles, Polymphemos of Elates, Mopsos the Titaresian, who knows how to interpret bird omens, Telamon (whose son Ajax would become famous in the Trojan war), Peleus of Pythia (father of Trojan war hero Achilles), Kastor and Polydeukes of Sparta, swift Euphemos of Tainaron, sons of Boreas Zetes and Kalais, who have wings on their feet and temples, and others. They are called the Argonauts, after their ship, the Argo, which was built with the help of Athena and outfitted with a plank from Zeus’ oracular site of Dodona.
On board the Argo, Jason asks the crew to choose a leader. All immediately turn to Herakles, but he declines, saying the one who gathered the expedition should be the one to lead it. Jason joyfully accepts the role, ordering a sacrifice to Apollo and a feast, after which the ship is brought down to the sea. At the feast, as the men exchange stories, Idas notices Jason pondering anxiously. Idas mocks Jason as cowardly, assuring him he has nothing to fear while Idas is on the quest, since not even a god would dare confront him. Idmon rebukes Idas’ impiety, and the quarrel threatens to escalate, but Orpheus soothes all by singing with his lyre of the earlier generation of gods, when Zeus was still a child.
The following morning, the heroes take their places, loosen the cables, pour libations, and row to the rhythm of Orpheus’ lyre. The gods watch the heroes disembark, as do Cheiron and his wife, who is holding little Achilles so his father Peleus can see him.
The poem traces their journey east, noting the landmarks they pass. Eventually, they arrive at Lemnos. The women there murdered all their menfolk after they brought enslaved women back from a raid and preferred them over their wives. Aphrodite provoked the men to this, to punish them for having failed to honor her. The only man to escape the slaughter was Thoas, the king whose daughter Hypsipyle secretly sent him away. When the Argonauts arrive, Queen Hypsipyle calls an assembly and suggests they send gifts to the men to keep them from disembarking and discovering the “awful deed” the women committed (19). Her elderly nurse Polyxo suggests they instead bring in the men since the younger generation of women will need children to care for them when they grow old. The assembly agrees, and they invite Jason ashore.
The poet describes Jason’s cloak and beauty as he walks through the palace. The sight of him causes Hypsipyle to blush. She promises to give him “a truthful account of the whole story of our misfortune,” telling him how the men rejected their “lawful wives” in favor of the enslaved women but omitting the murder (22). Instead, she claims the men left, and she invites Jason and his Argonauts to come live with them. Aphrodite “roused desire” in the men “for the sake of Hephaistos […] so “his island of Lemnos might be duly populated by men” (23). Herakles and a few of his comrades remain behind at the ship while the others feast in the city with the women.
The Argonauts put off their departure day after day until Herakles finally scolds them. After bidding Hypsipyle farewell and instructing her to send any male child she might have by him to his parents, Jason and the Argonauts set sail again. They stop on an island populated by “[v]iolent and savage” six-armed children of Earth and the Doliones and their king, Kyzikos (25). The Doliones and Kyzikos greet the Argonauts with friendship and hospitality. When the children of Earth attack them, Herakles leads a defense, slaughtering them and enabling the Argonauts to set sail again.
During the night, a fierce wind blows them back to the Doliones' island, and the Argonauts do not realize they have landed in the same place. In the dark, the Doliones also do not recognize the Argonauts and attack them, believing that they are being invaded. Jason kills Kyzikos, and many other Doliones fall to the Argonauts, while survivors flee into the city walls. When the sun comes up, and they realize what has happened, the Argonauts and Doliones lament, giving the king a hero’s burial and holding funeral games. His wife, Kleite, hangs herself. The Argonauts are unable to sail for 12 days but eventually receive a bird omen, interpreted by Mopsos. They make an offering to the Great Mother, Rheia, and set sail again.
The Argonauts stop on Kios, where they are welcomed warmly and provided with supplies. After sending his companion Hylas to fetch water from a spring, Herakles finds a tree to fashion himself a new oar. At the spring, Hylas’ beauty captivates a nymph, who pulls him under the water to kiss him. Polyphemos hears him cry out and rushes to help him, running into Herakles, who becomes distraught searching for but unable to find him.
Meanwhile, the Argonauts set sail, accidentally leaving Polyphemos and Herakles behind. When they realize it, Telamon furiously berates Jason, accusing him of leaving the two great heroes behind on purpose. Telamon wants to go back for Herakles, but the sons of Boreas restrain him verbally, for which Herakles later punishes them. Glaukos emerges from the sea and instructs the Argonauts to “[w]aste no regrets upon” Herakles or Polyphemos (34). Both have destinies to fulfill away from the quest, Herakles to perform his labors and Polyphemos to found a city, and the nymph has made Hylas her husband. After Glaukos returns to the depths, Jason and Telamon apologize and make amends, and the Argo continues its journey. After a day of traveling, they row towards a coastline.
The Hellenic myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece dates back to the eighth century BCE. It begins with the flight of Phrixos and his sister Helle from their home in Hellas to the eastern city of Colchis (modern-day Georgia). Phrixos and Helle are the children of Athamas, who ruled in Boeotia, a region in Thessaly. When their stepmother conspires against them, a golden ram is sent to Phrixos and Helle to spirit them to safety. As they fly over a stretch of sea, Helle slips off the ram (the area of the sea where she falls is named the Hellespont after her). Phrixos reaches Colchis, where he sacrifices the ram to Zeus and gives its fleece to the local king, Aietes, brother of Kirke and son of Helios, and marries Aietes' daughter, Chalkiope. Aietes nails the fleece to a tree in the sacred grove of Ares, where it is protected by a dragon.
Apollonius references Homerian epics in ways that his Hellenistic audience would recognize. In the opening stanza, Apollonius' narrator appeals to a divine voice for guidance, but it is Apollo, the god of poetry and prophecy, rather than the Muse, one of the goddesses of memory, whose inspiration is sought in Homer. Whereas Homer asks the Muse to sing through him about the anger of Achilles in the Iliad, Apollonius’ narrator asks Apollo to help him “recall the glorious deeds of men of long ago” (3). From the outset, then, Apollonius creates separation between himself and not only his source of inspiration but also his subject matter. He presents himself as a self-conscious storyteller, more like a character than a bard through whom sacred memory is channeled. The verb “recall” that Apollonius uses in his opening stanza is mimnisko in Greek, the same verb that Phoenix uses In Iliad book nine to introduce a story he tells from ancient times (3).
After introducing the context of his epic, Apollonius provides a catalogue of heroes, another reference to Homer. The Iliad presents a catalogue of ships, identifying them with the regions they come from and who led them. In Homer's epic, the leaders are figureheads who represent a place and people. In Apollonius' epic, the personality of the individual hero (and perhaps his father and/or son) and the prestige he brings to the quest, rather than where he comes from, are most important. The Argonauts are storied heroes: Telamon and Peleus, who demonstrate dynamic qualities on Jason’s quest and whose sons will become famed for their exploits at Troy; Orpheus, whose divine musical abilities have the power to soothe and protect the heroes; and Herakles, one of the best known heroes of Greek myth.
Events throughout Book 1 recall similar moments in the Iliad and Odyssey. Before the journey, Orpheus resolves the quarrel between Idas and Idmon so that the heroes' quest can begin, while the Iliad’s narrative launches from a quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon. Kyzikos welcomes the Argonauts hospitably, but their interaction still ends in war, even if accidentally; the Odyssey presents hospitality as a means for maintaining peace and stability. Like Homer’s heroes, Apollonius’ Argonauts are on a quest of recovery, but the golden ram led Thessaly on a mission of protection, while Helen is removed from Sparta for a destructive purpose, to end the age of heroes. In both the Iliad and Jason and the Golden Fleece, love and desire are forces of motivation and destruction. And in both the Odyssey and Jason and the Golden Fleece, women (notably Kirke and Hypsipyle respectively) distract the heroes with carnal pleasures, and their companions must galvanize the heroes to continue on their quest.