Argonautica

Apollonius Rhodius

Description

pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. PREPARER'S NOTE: Words in CAPITALS are Greek words transliterated into modern characters.

Informations

• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 27 septembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819929048
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE ARGONAUTICA
by Apollonius Rhodius
(fl. 3rd Century B.C.)
Originally written in Ancient Greek sometime inthe 3rd Century B. C. by the Alexandrian poet Apollonius Rhodius(“Apollonius the Rhodian”). Translation by R. C. Seaton, 1912.
PREPARER'S NOTE: Words in CAPITALS are Greek wordstransliterated into modern characters.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY: ORIGINAL TEXT— Seaton, R. C.(Ed. & Trans. ): “Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica” (HarvardUniversity 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 (PenguinClassics, London, 1963). Contains four plays by Euripides, two ofwhich concern characters from “The Argonautica”.
INTRODUCTION
Much has been written about the chronology ofAlexandrian literature and the famous Library, founded by PtolemySoter, but the dates of the chief writers are still matters ofconjecture. The birth of Apollonius Rhodius is placed by scholarsat various times between 296 and 260 B. C. , while the year of hisdeath is equally uncertain. In fact, we have very littleinformation on the subject. There are two “lives” of Apollonius inthe Scholia, both derived from an earlier one which is lost. Fromthese we learn that he was of Alexandria by birth, 1001 that helived in the time of the Ptolemies, and was a pupil of Callimachus;that while still a youth he composed and recited in public his“Argonautica”, and that the poem was condemned, in consequence ofwhich he retired to Rhodes; that there he revised his poem, recitedit with great applause, and hence called himself a Rhodian. Thesecond “life” adds: “Some say that he returned to Alexandria andagain 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 noticeof Suidas, who informs us that Apollonius was a contemporary ofEratosthenes, Euphorion and Timarchus, in the time of PtolemyEuergetes, and that he succeeded Eratosthenes in the headship ofthe Alexandrian Library. Suidas also informs us elsewhere thatAristophanes at the age of sixty-two succeeded Apollonius in thisoffice. Many modern scholars deny the “bibliothecariate” ofApollonius for chronological reasons, and there is considerabledifficulty about it. The date of Callimachus' “Hymn to Apollo”,which closes with some lines (105-113) that are admittedly anallusion to Apollonius, may be put with much probability at 248 or247 B. C. Apollonius must at that date have been at least twentyyears old. Eratosthenes died 196-193 B. C. This would makeApollonius seventy-two to seventy-five when he succeededEratosthenes. This is not impossible, it is true, but it isdifficult. But the difficulty is taken away if we assume withRitschl that Eratosthenes resigned his office some years before hisdeath, which allows us to put the birth of Apollonius at about 280,and would solve other difficulties. For instance, if the Librarianswere buried within the precincts, it would account for the burialof Apollonius next to Callimachus— Eratosthenes being still alive.However that may be, it is rather arbitrary to take away the“bibliothecariate” of Apollonius, which is clearly asserted bySuidas, on account of chronological calculations which arethemselves uncertain. Moreover, it is more probable that the wordsfollowing “some say” in the second “life” are a remnant of theoriginal life than a conjectural addition, because the first “life”is evidently incomplete, nothing being said about the end ofApollonius' career.
The principal event in his life, so far as we know,was the quarrel with his master Callimachus, which was mostprobably the cause of his condemnation at Alexandria and departureto Rhodes. This quarrel appears to have arisen from differences ofliterary aims and taste, but, as literary differences often do,degenerated into the bitterest personal strife. There arereferences to the quarrel in the writings of both. Callimachusattacks Apollonius in the passage at the end of the “Hymn toApollo”, already mentioned, also probably in some epigrams, butmost of all in his “Ibis”, of which we have an imitation, orperhaps nearly a translation, in Ovid's poem of the same name. Onthe part of Apollonius there is a passage in the third book of the“Argonautica” (11. 927-947) which is of a polemical nature andstands out from the context, and the well-known savage epigram uponCallimachus. 1002 Various combinations have been attempted byscholars, notably by Couat, in his “Poesie Alexandrine”, to give aconnected account of the quarrel, but we have not data sufficientto determine the order of the attacks, and replies, andcounter-attacks. The “Ibis” has been thought to mark thetermination of the feud on the curious ground that it wasimpossible for abuse to go further. It was an age when literary menwere more inclined to comment on writings of the past than toproduce original work. Literature was engaged in taking stock ofitself. Homer was, of course, professedly admired by all, but moreadmired than imitated. Epic poetry was out of fashion and we findmany epigrams of this period— some by Callimachus— directed againstthe “cyclic” poets, by whom were meant at that time those who werealways dragging in conventional and commonplace epithets andphrases peculiar to epic poetry. Callimachus was in accordance withthe spirit of the age when he proclaimed “a great book” to be “agreat evil”, and sought to confine poetical activity within thenarrowest limits both of subject and space. Theocritus agreed withhim, both in principle and practice. The chief characteristics ofAlexandrianism are well summarized by Professor Robinson Ellis asfollows: “Precision in form and metre, refinement in diction, alearning often degenerating into pedantry and obscurity, a resoluteavoidance of everything commonplace in subject, sentiment orallusion. ” These traits are more prominent in Callimachus than inApollonius, but they are certainly to be seen in the latter. Heseems to have written the “Argonautica” out of bravado, to showthat he could write an epic poem. But the influence of the age wastoo strong. Instead of the unity of an Epic we have merely a seriesof episodes, and it is the great beauty and power of one of theseepisodes that gives the poem its permanent value— the episode ofthe love of Jason and Medea. This occupies the greater part of thethird book. The first and second books are taken up with thehistory of the voyage to Colchis, while the fourth book describesthe return voyage. These portions constitute a metrical guide book,filled no doubt with many pleasing episodes, such as the rape ofHylas, the boxing match between Pollux and Amyeus, the account ofCyzicus, the account of the Amazons, the legend of Talos, but thereis no unity running through the poem beyond that of the voyageitself.
The Tale of the Argonauts had been told often beforein verse and prose, and many authors' names are given in theScholia to Apollonius, but their works have perished. The bestknown earlier account that we have is that in Pindar's fourthPythian ode, from which Apollonius has taken many details. Thesubject was one for an epic poem, for its unity might have beenfound in the working out of the expiation due for the crime ofAthamas; but this motive is barely mentioned by our author.
As we have it, the motive of the voyage is thecommand of Pelias to bring back the golden fleece, and this commandis based on Pelias' desire to destroy Jason, while the divine aidgiven to Jason results from the intention of Hera to punish Peliasfor his neglect of the honour due to her. The learning ofApollonius is not deep but it is curious; his general sentimentsare not according to the Alexandrian standard, for they are simpleand obvious. In the mass of material from which he had to choosethe difficulty was to know what to omit, and much skill is shown infusing into a tolerably harmonious whole conflicting mythologicaland historical details. He interweaves with his narrative locallegends and the founding of cities, accounts of strange customs,descriptions of works of art, such as that of Ganymede and Erosplaying with knucklebones, 1003 but prosaically calls himself backto the point from these pleasing digressions by such an expressionas “but this would take me too far from my song. ” His business isthe straightforward tale and nothing else. The astonishinggeography of the fourth book reminds us of the interest of the agein that subject, stimulated no doubt by the researches ofEratosthenes and others.
The language is that of the conventional epic.Apollonius seems to have carefully studied Homeric glosses, andgives many examples of isolated uses, but his choice of words is byno means limited to Homer. He freely avails himself of Alexandrianwords and late uses of Homeric words. Among his contemporariesApollonius suffers from a comparison with Theocritus, who was alittle his senior, but he was much admired by Roman writers whoderived inspiration from the great classical writers of Greece byway of Alexandria. In fact Alexandria was a useful bridge betweenAthens and Rome. The “Argonautica” was translated by VarroAtacinus, copied by Ovid and Virgil, and minutely studied byValerius Flaccus in his poem of the same name. Some of his finestpassages have been appropriated and improved upon by Virgil by thedivine right of superior genius. 1004 The subject of love had beentreated in the romantic spirit before the time of Apollonius inwritings that have perished, for instance, in those of Antimachusof Colophon, but the “Argonautica” is perhaps the first poem stillextant in which the expression of this spirit is developed withelaboration. The Medea of Apollonius is the direct precursor of theDido of Virgil, and it is the pat