Year: 1997
Type: article
Abstract: IN HIS EPIC MASTERPIECE, the Argonautica, Apollonius of Rhodes gives an apparently straightforward description of the wondrous route of the Argo.The swift ship sets out from Thessalian Iolcus-the native polis of Jason, the captainand after making a number of stopovers around the Aegean, the Bosporus, and the Pontic littoral (Argon.1.580-2.1259),the crew finally disembarks in Colchis, modern Georgia. 1 Caucasian Colchis is ruled by the dangerous king Ad:tes, whose daughter, Medea, joins the Argonauts for their way back to Greece.On her return the A rgo also touches at various places easy to find on the map.The ship goes, for example, to various coastal sites in Italy, where Apollonius places most of the ordeals that Odysseus later will experience.Calypso's island, Circe's homestead, the alluring Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, and the nAClYK'tCll-the floating rocks-are all found on or around the Apennine peninsula.2 After also casting anchor by the island of Corcyra-in this context inhabited by the Odyssean Phaeacians-and along the northern coast of Libya, Jason and his Argonauts return to Iolcus. 3 We are, however, left with a practical problem, as the author offers a highly problematic route for the ship's passage from the Black Sea to the western Mediterranean: the Argo sails up the Ister (Danube), then exits into the Adriatic Sea through an imaginary branch of the Ister (4.300-30).As Vian points out, Apollonius' geography seems in general to represent a synthesis 1 Argon.2.1260-85.This is consequently also where the Golden Fleece, the object of the quest, is to be found.2 Calypso's island: Argon.4.572-75; Circe: 4.
Author: Dag Øistein Endsjø
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1489294571