• Written in Alexandria in about 250 BCE, at the time of the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt
• The intellectual life of the Mediterranean was centered in Alexandria, the home of artists, scientists, scholars
• The famous library there had up to 200,000 rolls
• We know little about the life of Apollonius, except that he was Alexandrian and lived in Rhodes for a time, and that the poem has two versions. He wrote several other poems that have not survived. There are further traditions about his life:
• The first version of the poem was ridiculed by the public and especially by Callimachus, a rival poet.
• The Rhodians liked the second version so well that Appolonius lived in Rhodes as a citizen.
• He eventually returned to Alexandria, where his poem had become highly regarded.
• He may have been a tutor to Ptolemy III Euergetes, who reigned from 246-221 BCE.
• He may have been Director of the famous Library of Alexandria.

Voyage of the Argo:

• The book is an epic poem like those of Homer, consciously imitating his style. Therefore you will see similes, adventures, heroes.
• The poem, however, does differ from those of Homer.
• The story was well known and ancient, with two concerns:
  1. Colchis and the Phrixus story
  2. Iolcos and the Pelias story

• The poem is episodic, but connected by the Quest and other elements or themes:
  1. Betrayal
  2. Host-Guest relationships
  3. Respect for the gods and crimes against the gods
  4. Love
  5. Solidarity of the Argonauts
  6. The character of Jason: he and his situation are described by the poet as amechanos, not resourceful, helpless. This is opposed to Odysseus, whom Homer gives the epithet of polymechanos, very resourceful. Jason is also isolated, easily despairing or depressed, and less than morally perfect.

What follows is an outline of the book.

Book I

• Short introduction
• Catalog of Argonauts (groups from Thessaly, Attica; fathers of Trojan war heroes such as Peleus and Telamon; Castor and Polydeuces; the Boreads)
• Selection of leader (Heracles or Jason?)
• Departure up the coast of Thessaly
• The Lemnian vacation (Hypsipyle and the other Lemnian women)
• Cyzicus, their young host of the Doliones (at Cyzicus)
• Chytus, where Heracles and the Argonauts fight monsters
• Accidental return to Cyzicus at night, when they kill their host
• Loss of Hylas and Heracles in Asia Minor; prophecy of Glaucus
• Try to see how the themes are brought out in these episodes

Book II

• Bebrycians: Amycus is violent and arrogant; Polydeuces fights him
• Phineus, his story; the Harpies; they are chased by the Boreads
• Prophecy of Phineus for their sea journey and that they will have an ally in Aphrodite
• The dove and the Symplegades (northern Bosporus)
• Epiphany of Apollo
• Mariandyni: their king, Lycus, sends his son Dascylus with them
• Chance deaths of Idmon (by a boar)and Tiphys (sickness)
• Despair of Jason at the loss of the helmsmen
• Further travel: past the Amazons; past historical peoples
• Birds who shoot feathers
• They meet the shipwrecked sons of Phrixus

Book III

• Invocation to Erato
• Here, Athena, and Aphrodite scheme
• Jason's embassy to Aeëtes: he at first refuses, then proposes the tasks
• Medea is shot by Eros; after much torment, she decides to help Jason
• Everyone (except Idas) from the goddesses to the sons of Phrixus to the Argonauts think their only hope is Medea.
• Jason meets Medea: he promises to marry her; she gives him the potion to withstand the fire and advises him about how to face the soldiers.
• The tasks: yoke the fire-breathing bulls, plough the dragon's teeth, and fight the soldiers who rise. Jason accomplishes them.

Book IV

• Aeëtes discovers Medea's treachery; she flees to the Argonauts
• Jason promises to marry Medea; she gets him the fleece
• Flight of Argonauts and pursuit by the Colchians
• From the Black Sea to the Adriatic via the Danube(!)
• Stalemate in the Adriatic islands
• Jason and Medea murder Apsyrtus
• Purification by Circe
• Odyssean adventures: Scylla, Charybdis, Sirens, Planctae, Phaeacians
• Decision of Alcinous, marriage of Jason and Medea
• African Journey: Libya, portage of the Argo
• The Hesperides, robbed by Heracles the day before
• Deaths of Canthus and Caphaurus
• Triton helps them leave Africa
• Crete and Talos (how Medea kills him)
• Aegina; return to Iolcos.