The Argonautica
by Apollonius Rhodius
Originally written in Ancient Greek sometime in the 3rd Century B.C. by theAlexandrian poet Apollonius Rhodius (“Apollonius the Rhodian”).Translation by R.C. Seaton, 1912.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY: ORIGINAL TEXT—
Seaton, R.C. (Ed. & Trans.): “Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica”(Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1912). Original Greek text withside-by-side English translation.
OTHER TRANSLATIONS—
Rieu, E.V. (Trans.): “Apollonius of Rhodes: The Voyage of the Argo”(Penguin Classics, London, 1959, 1971).
RECOMMENDED READING—
Euripides: “Medea”, “Hecabe”, “Electra”,and “Heracles”, translated by Philip Vellacott (Penguin Classics,London, 1963). Contains four plays by Euripides, two of which concerncharacters from “The Argonautica”.
Contents
| INTRODUCTION |
| THE ARGONAUTICA |
| BOOK I |
| BOOK II |
| BOOK III |
| BOOK IV |
| ENDNOTES |
INTRODUCTION
Much has been written about the chronology of Alexandrian literature and thefamous Library, founded by Ptolemy Soter, but the dates of the chief writersare still matters of conjecture. The birth of Apollonius Rhodius is placed byscholars at various times between 296 and 260 B.C., while the year of his deathis equally uncertain. In fact, we have very little information on the subject.There are two “lives” of Apollonius in the Scholia, both derivedfrom an earlier one which is lost. From these we learn that he was ofAlexandria by birth,[1] that he lived in the time of thePtolemies, and was a pupil of Callimachus; that while still a youth he composedand recited in public his Argonautica, and that the poem wascondemned, in consequence of which he retired to Rhodes; that there he revisedhis poem, recited it with great applause, and hence called himself a Rhodian.The second “life” adds: “Some say that he returned toAlexandria and again recited his poem with the utmost success, so that he washonoured with the libraries of the Museum and was buried withCallimachus.” The last sentence may be interpreted by the notice ofSuidas, who informs us that Apollonius was a contemporary of Eratosthenes,Euphorion and Timarchus, in the time of Ptolemy Euergetes, and that hesucceeded Eratosthenes in the headship of the Alexandrian Library. Suidas alsoinforms us elsewhere that Aristophanes at the age of sixty-two succeededApollonius in this office. Many modern scholars deny the“bibliothecariate” of Apollonius for chronological reasons, andthere is considerable difficulty about it. The date of Callimachus’Hymn to Apollo, which closes with some lines (105-113) that areadmittedly an allusion to Apollonius, may be put with much probability at 248or 247 B.C. Apollonius must at that date have been at least twenty years old.Eratosthenes died 196-193 B.C. This would make Apollonius seventy-two toseventy-five when he succeeded Eratosthenes. This is not impossible, it istrue, but it is difficult. But the difficulty is take