P T4 Cornell University WM) Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924079597898 Cornell University Library reformatted this volume to digital files to preserve the informational content of the deteriorated original. The original volume was scanned bitonally at 600 dots per inch and compressed prior to storage using ITU Group 4 compression. 1997 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Slenirg m. Sage 1891 /ftij .v..r|.^.r i.sJM.i'i.o'j.. BOSN'S CLASSICAL LIBRARY. APOLLONIUS RHODIUS. : "THE ARGONAUTICA" or APOLLONIUS EHODIUS. TEAJSfSLATED INTO ENGLISH PEOSE FEOM THE TEXT OP E. MEEKEL EDWARD P. COLERIDGE, B.A. K COLL. OKI EL, OXON. LONDON G-EOEGE BELL AND SONS, TOEK STEEET. COVENT GAKDEN. 1889. CHI5W1CK PRESS t— C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE I. Tkanslaioe's Pkeface II. Life of Apollonius Kuodius .... ix III. Two ANCIENT ArGDHENTS OF THE " ARGONAUTICA XV IV. Genealogical Tree of the jEolid.e . xix V. Route of the Argonauts XX VI. Apollonius's use of Possessive Adjectives and Per- sonal Pronouns XXJV VII. Translation of the Poem with Notes 1 PREFACE. IN the following translation I have adhered strictly to the text of Apollonius Rhodius as revised by E. Merkel from the Laurentian MS. (Leipzig, 1852, Teubner's small edition), without noticing any variant readings. As it would obviously be impossible to give reasons for adopting a particular reading out of several without add- ing greatly to the bulk of the book and running the risk of mystifying the reader, I have thought it advisable to adopt the plan of taking the best critical text which has hitherto appeared, and translating without any deviation from it. The footnotes added to the translation are of a some- what mixed nature—classical, mythological, geographical, and occasionally etymological—but all attempts at textual criticism have been avoided, as one could scarcely hope to exhaust the elaborate work on vexed questions in a short footnote, for which reason also the notes on etymology will be found few and brief. The short introductions to the poem and to each sepa- rate book are adaptations, more or less free, from the virodfiTsig prefixed by the Scholiasts. Wellauer's collation of the Scholia has been consulted throughout. SHORT LIFE OF APOLLONIUS RHODIUS, WITH A FEW REMARKS ON HIS " ARGONAUTICA/' APOLLONITJS RHODirS was born about b.c. 235, in the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes, either at Alexandria or at Naucratis. Strabo is in favour of the former, while Athenaeus and iElian declare for the latter place. He appears to have given himself up at an early age to literary pursuits, and his choice is scarcely to be wondered at when we reflect upon the age in which he lived and the literary atmosphere in which he found himseK. We are not expressly told whether it was choice or necessity that led him to select the career he did, but from the fact that the leading poet of that day took the young aspirant in hand and instructed him in his art, we may fairly infer that ApoUonius was a man of some standing and position in life. His studies, however, under his master Callimachus were not destined to do either pupil or teacher much credit ; no doubt he obtained some technical skUl in his art, but the tastes of Callimachus and ApoUonius were so diametrically opposed that the two poets quarrelled, and allowed their professional jealousy to go to such lengths that ApoUonius lampooned the style of his teacher, while CaUimachus was weak enough to retaliate in a studied X SHORT LIFE OF APOLLONIUS EHODITJS. retort tinder the title of " Ibis," the character of which poem, though lost to us, may be gathered from Ovid's poem of the same nam.e. Callimachus was the leading exponent of the strained and artificial poetry of his day. ApoUonius, with more true artistic instinct, revolted from the want of reality characteristic of most of his contemporaries, and having a genuine admiration for the straightforward simplicity of the Epic age, set himself to imitate Homer. Naturally he made many enemies among the host of poetasters who took their cue from the animosity shown to him by the " Laureate " of the Alexandrine court. Hence, when the " Argonautica " appeared, it was at once condemned as violating the accepted canons of style and composition, and partly, perhaps, owing to certain youthful crudities which were afterwards corrected. Great was the chagrin of the young poet at the reception of his work, and fierce was his anger against Callimachus. The position of the latter, however, was unassailable, and so ApoUonius, after a fruitless wordy warfare, determined to seek some new opening for his genius. Accordingly he bade farewell to ungrateful Alexandria, and retired to Rhodes, then the second great seat of literature, taking his poem with him. Possibly experience had taught him wherein his poem was deficient. At any rate, he revised the whole of it; and now, free from the cabals of jealous rivals, he received a fair verdict, and at once rose to fame. So popular, indeed, did he become on the reading of his poem, that the Ehodians, it is said, rewarded him with extraordinary honours, and conferred their franchise upon him. From SHORT LIFE OF APOLLONItTS EHODIUS. XI this incident in his career he came to he called " the Rhodian," a name which has clung to him for ever. It was only natural that in his hour of triumph he should long to have his merit acknowledged in his native city—in Ak 'andria, the gathering place of the old world's declining literature and art. Thither, therefore, he came, with his honours upon him, and whether it was that Callimachus and his followers were out of favour, or whether the Alexandrines had relented towards their ill- used poet, certain it is that he attained to great celebrity, and was advanced to valuable posts of trust. Henceforth he could afford to rest upon his hardly-won laurels, his " " period of Sturm und Drang was over ; he had passed through the fire, and it had done him no hurt—weighed in the balance he had not been found wanting. Of his life henceforth we learn but little, beyond what Suidas tells us as to his having become librarian in the vast royal museum at Alexandria, about B.C. 194. It may well be that this was so ; for the Ptolemies, in whose reigns Apollonius lived and wrote, were monarchs not unlikely to bestow such an important literary post upon a man of marked ability and studious habits. Assuming that Suidas is correct in his statement, we find plenty of internal evidence in the poem to suggest that the writer must have been a man of vast erudition, or have had at his command extensive stores of knowledge from which to draw his materials. During this period of his life the poet was not idle. Imbued to some extent with the spirit of his age, he produced works at a great pace ; epigrams, grammars, and the so-called Kriaetg, i.e. poems on the origin and XU SHOET LIFE OV APOLLONITTS BHODITJS. foundation of towns, but all these are lost to us save a few mutilated fragments and stray lines preserved in other writers. In the library at Alexandria he remained until his death in b.c. 181, happy enough, no doubt, amongst the endless treasxu-es of that vast repository of art and learning. Of his work that has come down to us, too little notice has been taken by English scholars ; for though his style at times bears too evident traces of laboured study, the structure of his poem is simple and straightforward. The mind is not burdened by a multiplicity of episodes, the descriptions are singularly beautiful, and the similes, which are abundant and varied, show the hand of a master, who, if he did sometimes imitate, had at least something graceful of his own to add to what he borrowed, and not infrequently paid back his loan with interest. The work found numerous commentators in ancient times, to whom we are indebted for the Florentine and Parisian Scholia. Moreover, ApoUonius was very popular among the Romans ; so much so that his poem was trans- lated by Publius Terentius Varro Atacinus, and was imitated by Valerius Flaccus and many others. EDITIONS. (i.) J. Lascaris. a.d. 1496. Quarto. Florence. Con- tains the Scliolia. (ii.) The Aldine edition, a.d. 1581. Octavo. Venice. Little more than a reprint of the Florentine edition. (iii.) Brunck. a.d. 1780. Quarto and octavo. Argen- torat. First really critical edition. (iv.) Beck. a.d. 1797. Octavo. Leipzig. Incomjilete. Text -with Latin translation and a few critical notes. (v.) Gr. Schiifer. a.d. 1810-13. 2 vols, octavo. Leipzig. A better edition, and the first containing Paris Scholia. (vi.) Wellauer. a.d. 1828. 2 vols, octavo. Leipzig. Still better. Contains readings of thirteen MSS. ; also the Scholia, and notes in Latin. (vii.) E. Merkel. a.d. 1852. Teubner, Leipzig. A careful revision of the Laurentine MS., with notes. There are, besides these editions of the actual text, certain German essays upon ApoUonius, but in England hitherto this author has received but scanty justice. ; THE ARGUMENT OF THE "ARGONAU- TICA," FROM THE GREEK OF THE SCHOLIASTS. TTHO, the daughter of Salmoneus, had two sons by Poseidon, Neleus and Pelias ; she afterwards wedded Cretheus, son of ^olus, and bore to him ^Eson, Pheres, and Amythaon.