The Argonautika by Green Peter Rhodios Apollonios Green Peter

Author:Green, Peter, Rhodios, Apollonios, Green, Peter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of California Press

Book III

1–5: The invocation to Erató (as lines 2–3 make clear) covers in prospect the whole of bks. 3 and 4, and thus marks the central division of the poem (Hunter 1989a, 95). But it also pinpoints the actual attempt on the Fleece in Kolchis, just as bks. 1 and 2 cover the outward voyage and bk. 4 the return. Erató, as a Muse, is linked by Ap., factually and etymologically, with the erotic (cf. Plat. Phaidr. 259c-d); and since the passion of Medeia forms the central theme of bk. 3, this is highly appropriate. Zanker (1979, 71) argues that the introduction of love as a major determinant in an epic poem was Ap.'s own innovation, and therefore to be signaled prominently. (I find this more convincing than his thesis that love forms the theme of the entire epic, or even than Natzel's belief [203] that bks. 3 and 4 shift from men to women as their central theme.) At the same time, those who, like Zanker, regard heterosexual eroticism as a largely Hellenistic development should ponder the inscription on the Chest of Kypselos (a Corinthian votive-offering at Olympia dated to the early sixth century B.C.): as a caption to the portrayal of Medeia enthroned between Jason and Aphrodite, we find the hexameter verse “Jason marries Medeia at Aphrodite's command” ( [preserved by Paus. 5.18.3]). But as Hunter says (ibid.), Ap. “also exploits a traditional connection between eros and poetic creation”: Erató is to sustain the poet's literary genius.

8–9: The (bed-) chamber is Hera's, as initiator of the plot (Campbell 1994, 23).

10 ff.: There is ample Homeric precedent for gods planning to intervene in the affairs of mortals (e.g., Il 7.17–43, Athena and Apollo; and Hera and Athena can be found in conjunction at Il 2.156–65 and 8.350–80). But this is the first occasion in the Arg. on which such direct intervention is contemplated: as Campbell says (1994, 18), Hera “has been held back deliberately, to create a big splash”; and Ap.'s treatment of his deities—who converse for all the world like a couple of smart Alexandrian matrons discussing family business—is in sharp contrast to Homer's. The psychological delineation is perceptive—Hunter rightly draws attention (97) to “Hera's mastery of the situation and Athena's coy reticence about sex”—but it is couched very much in human and social terms: this becomes increasingly apparent during the visit to Aphrodite. (Lennox's contention, 49–50, that we are nudged into expecting Aphrodite to be discovered with Ares is simply not borne out by the text.) What Goldhill nicely calls (312) the “domestication of the divine” is, at the same time, not allowed to interfere with these gods' ability to manipulate human affairs.

Even so, we should note the striking, and significant, lack of direct contact between gods and mortals in the Argonautika. Hera, indeed, only once elsewhere takes a direct personal hand in the action, when she summons and briefs Thetis (4.780 ff.). Otherwise she exercises remote control (Hunter 1993, 78) through suggestion, signs, or mortal agents: 3.

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