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Travel Descriptions in the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius

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Travel Descriptions in the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius TRAVEL DESCRIPTIONS IN THE ARGONAUTICA OF APOLLONIUS RHODIUS M. A. HARDER* 1. INTRODUCTION In the third century BC, the Alexandrian poet Apollonius Rhodius wrote his Argonautica, an epic in four books, in which he told of Jason's journey to Colchis to bring back the Golden Fleece. This journey was long and full of perils and adventures. On the outward journey the Argonauts followed the traditional route across the Aegean Sea and into the Black Sea. On the homeward journey, after securing the Golden Fleece with the assistance of the Colchian princess Medea, they took a different route to escape from the Colchians who chased after them. They went along the Ister and passed through many strange and distant places in the far West, and in North-Africa before they eventually reached their home in Iolcus again. This story, in which travel descriptions obviously play a part, is placed in the distant mythical past, before the Trojan War, and told by an external narrator long after the event. In this article I wish to investigate some aspects of the nature and importance of the travel descriptions in the Argonautica and the way in which they are presented to the reader.1 2. TRAVEL DESCRIPTIONS IN THE ARGONAUTICA Generally speaking, Apollonius' travel descriptions are a bookish mixture of scientific Alexandrian geography and the fabulous geography of Homer.2 Apollonius concentrates on description of the features of the landscape and peoples. Other items which might figure in a travel description, like towns, buildings or monuments receive little attention.3 * Department of Greek and Latin, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. 1 For a detailed survey of the geography of Apollonius see Ε. Delage, La géographie dans les Argonautiques d' Apollonios (Paris, 1930). For the route through the Pontus Euxinus in general, see also A. Baschmakoff, La Synthèse des Périples Pontiques (Paris, 1948); I have not seen M. F. Williams, 'Landscape in the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius' (Diss. Univ. of Texas Austin 1989; microfilm: DA 50,1989,1650a-1651a). For Apollonius' narrative technique, see in general P. Händel, Beobachtungen zur epischen Technik des Apollonios Rhodios, Zetemata 7 (Munich, 1954); M. Fusillo, Il tempo délie Argonautiche (Rome, 1985). Translations of Apollonius are from R. C. Seaton, Apollonius Rhodius. The Argonautica (London & Cambridge, Mass., 1967), where necessary adapted to the text of H. Fraenkel, Apollonii Rhodii. Argonautica (Oxford, 1961). 2 See Delage (op. cit. η. 1 ), passim and his summary on 290 ff. 3 Towns are generally just briefly mentioned in the course of a story; see, for instance, i. 609 ff. (Lemnos); i.965 (town of Doliones); ii.760 (town of Lycus); iii.210ff. (Colchis); iv. 1068 (town and palace of Alcinous). Apart from the palace and garden of Aeètes (iii. 215-48) other palaces are TRAVEL DESCRIPTIONS IN THE ARGONAUTICA OF APOLLONIUS RHODIUS 17 As to the descriptions of landscape, when the Argonauts are sailing along unhindered, the landscape is usually described in conventional terms and appears only as a kind of background to the travelling, to which sometimes a few details are added. A typical example of such a passage is the first stage of the journey in i. 580-6: Αύτίκα δ' ήερίη πολυλήιος ata Πελασγών δύετο, Πηλιάδας δέ παρεξήμειβοη έρίπνας αΐέν έπιπροθέοντες, έδυνε δέ Σηπιας άκρη· φαίνετο δ' είναλίη Σκίαθος, φαίνοντο δ' απωθεν ΠειρεσιαΙ Μάγνησσά θ' ύπεύδιος ήπείροιο ακτή καΐ τύμβος Δολοπήιος. ένθ' αρα τοίγε έσπέριοι ανέμοιο παλιμπνοίησιν έκελσαν (And straightaway the misty land of the Pelasgians, rich in cornfields, sank out of sight, and ever speeding onward, they passed the rugged sides of Pelion; and the Sepian headland sank away, and Sciathus appeared in the sea, and far off appeared Piresiae and the calm shore of Magnesia on the mainland and the tomb of Dolops; here in the evening, as the wind blew against them, they put to land ... ) Typical features of this passage, which recur in the other passages of quiet travelling,4 are: the insistence on the speedy passing of places,5 the steady pattern of departure and arrival and the way in which the landscape figures merely as something which is seen by the Argonauts.6 The landscape in such passages is described by its general characteristics, which are rarely more colourful than ύπεύδιος and είναλίη in the passage just quoted.7 Sometimes a detail of geographical interest is added, like the description of the shadow of Mount Athos reaching as far as Lemnos (i.601-4),8 the entrance to Hades near the Acheron (ii. 727-51), or the mouth of the river Thermodon (ii.970-84).9 In other cases a brief mythological excursus is added, for instance, about the mouth of the river Callichorus (ii. 904-10) or about the river Parthenius (ii. 936-9). Many of these passages may be accounted for by the antiquarian or literary preoccupations of the scholar-poet. There is a tendency to describe the landscape in detail only when it is important merely mentioned, like that of Lycus (ii. 759) or given a few conventional details, like that of Hypsipyle (i. 785-9). For monuments, see, for instance, i. 585 (tomb of Dolops); ii. 911-29 (tomb of Sthenelus). 4 See, for instance, i. 592-609; 922-35; ii. 345-407 (instructions of Phineus); 720-51; 1241-70; iv. 562-76; 1622-37; 1778-81. 5 Indicated by verbs like παρεξέθεον (i. 592), θέοντες (i.600); παρεμέτρεον (i.595; 1166), παρήμειβον (i. 933), παρανεΐσθε (ii. 357), παραμειβόμενοι (ii. 382) etc. 6 See the frequent use of verbs like έσέδρακον (i. 598), είσορόωντες (i. 1166), δερκόμενοι (ii. 725) of the Argonauts and verbs like ανέτειλε (i. 601), προυφαΐνετ' Ιδεσθαι (i. 1113), φαίνετο (i. 1114) etc. of the landscape. 7 See, for instance, i. 593 δυσήνεμον, 595 πόντφ κεκλιμένην, 597 πολυκλύστους, 927 αΐπά, 932 ήμαθόεσσαν etc. 8 This phenomenon was often mentioned in antiquity; see F. Vian, Apollonios de Rhodes. Argonautiques (Paris, 1976), ad loc. 9 See H. Fraenkel, Noten zu den Argonautika des Apollonios (Darmstadt, 1968), on Argonautica, ii. 972-84 on the artificial and literary character of the description. .
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