Apollonius' Argonautica Re-Examined: 1. The Neglected First and Second Books 9004025758, 9789004025752

Citation preview

APOLLONIUS' ARGONAUTICA RE-EXAMINED I THE NEGLECTED FIRST AND SECOND BOOKS

MNEMOSYNE BIBLIOTHECA CLASSICA BATAVA

• W.

J.

VERDENIUS

• R. E. H. WESTENDORF BOERMA

BIBLIOTHECAE FASCICULOS EDENDOS CURAVIT W.

J.

VERDENIUS,

ARGONAUT/CA RE-EXAMINED

COLLEGERUNT W. DEN BOER

APOLLONIUS'

HOMERUSLAAN 53, ZEIST

SUPPLEMENTUM TERTIUM DECIMUM

BY

DONALD NORMAN LEVIN Rice University

DONALD NORMAN LEVIN

APOLLONIUS' ARGONAUTICA RE-EXAMINED

THE NEGLECTED FIRST AND SECOND BOOKS

I

LUGDUNI BATAVORUM E.

J.

I

BRILL 1971

LUGDUNI BATAVORUM E.

J. BRILL 1971

CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS

Vil

INTRODUCTION

l

ARGONAUTICA SUBDIVIDED

I

AND SCRUTINIZED

I. II poo(µwv • . . . . . . II. 'Eqr11µocrUV1) . • . . . . III. K03E: µ' Oq;E:AAsr. Zelle;-r6crov Ocrcr&-r:t6v 1te:p&µOv 36pu, µY)vU't'L 1t1)µ0: Aolyr.ovecrcre:cr8o:.t µ1)3' &xp&o:.vt'OV &e:8Aov "Iaew y' forcoµevow,xd et 0eo S>jtoilne,;... [6n-6r4]

-re6xsa which had belonged originally to her father (637£.), Apollonius does not specify previous ownership. 1 When he penned such verses, had Apollonius forgotten that warfare, though not normally a feminine activity, falls nonetheless into the province of Athena herself, the goddess regularly represented wearing a helmet and wielding a spear? Elsewhere he reserves the same accoutrements rather for Aphrodite, seemingly a most unlikely candidate. See lines 742-746 and the article mentioned above, p. 44, n. 3. 2 The Euripidean parallel (see Bacch, I38f.: &:ype6filV / atµa -.payox-r6vo1,1, Wµoq:i&yo1,1 x&pw... see n25ff. also, where the dismemberment of live cattle is described in detail-not to mention Pentheus' own later analogous demise) is duly noted by the scholiast, who also glosses 0uLi±awas Maiv&ow, B&xxcu,:;. 3 On the prevalence of these psychological states in the Argonautica cf. above, p. 40, n. 2; p. 49, n. 2.

62

11APA AHMNIA:EIN

IIAPA AHMNIA:EIN

Understandably a lawfully wedded wife would react to her displacement not only with jealousy, but with a sense of honor crying for redress. Apollonius does not state this explicitly; yet his choice of vocabulary, with Jc,fc&.Seacn placed in opposition to xoup,3lC-c&i yev6µevov), supplied in a scholium on the former passage, is dismissed by J. A. Scott, "The Meaning of -niA1-'rye-ro (,l, I , I [ xe:XJ\E't'at au't'txa vuv e:nr..tJatvs:µev e:uµeve:ov-rac;. 712-71 6]

shows Apol!onius to be following Homer's manner rather more closely than usual. For usually the author of the Argonautica tries 1

Keep in mind the cognate relationship with Latin suauis suadere and persuadere, as well as with German suss and English sweet. ' ' 2 Cited also above, p. 66. 3 . At I 702 the codices (followed by Frankel only in part, since he conJectures &.µq>l':oAov in pla?e of the proper noun) read 'Lpw6'1)vµe:-req,Wveev. In acc?rdance with the .testtmon_Y of a papyrus preserved at Milan (concerning which see I. Cazzamga, Papiri delta r. Universitii di Milano I (r937) 8-10 (= #6), I read npocrscpC:weev instead. For explanation see my "Ms-ra- or rrpocr-?" GP LIX (1964) 181-184, 4

Observing that 0uµ.'1)3i,;-actually only ]6.E:E; but this suffices; the initial 0 is all that survives of the adjective in its earlier appearance-occurs at line 7 1 4 in th: Mila~ese papyrus (concerning which see n. 3 above). Frankel adopts this readmg both here and at line 705. The manuscript tradition ge~erally gives Ouµrjpe:,;.In either event the choice of adjective underlines the shift from Hypsipyle's original policy of keeping the Argonauts at a distance. Note that at line 663 the mss. transmit 6uµ'l)Bf,;in the text, while a Laurentian gloss explains the term as Ouµ'ijpe:,;, &yo:7n'}-r6v.

6g

TIAPA AHMNIA~IN

IIAPA AHMNIA~IN

to find ways of avoiding repetitions of this sort.1 But the repetitive style, if employed sparingly, can he meaningful and effective. Here the Lemniad emissary is shown to have transmitted her Queen's message faithfully, without embellishment or extraneous interpolation.

persuasion rather than on force, 1 perhaps the disproportion between the amount of description assigned to Jason's weapon (almost nil) and to his outerware (more than forty-five verses) is likewise symbolic of the continual triumph in the Argonautica of a gentler and more civilized approach. 2

X

XI

Iphinoe's mission proves no less successful than did that of Aethalides. Forthwith the Argonauts send Jason ahead to confer with Hypsipyle, while they themselves prepare to come along later (7r9f. ). Jason proceeds toward the capital carrying a spear given him by Atalanta as a token of friendship (769f.).2 Of greater import than the spear, however, is the purple cloak which Jason wears on the same occasion. This gift not of another mortal woman, but of the goddess Athena, merits lengthy descrip3 He employed the same term tion (72r-768). The poet calls it 3btAe