The Argonautica: “Dear, dear Medea, why are you in tears?”

1/ The Argonautica has a clear structure: the first half (Books 1 and 2) is about Jason and the Argonauts’ voyage to Colchis for the golden fleece; the second half (Books 3 and 4) is about their time in Colchis, and about the love story between Jason and Medea (whom we have known from Euripides’s play). 

“They all strode from the hall, and Jason shone 

brilliantly in his grace and beauty, gorgeous 

above the others, and the maiden fixed 

her eyes, sidelong, on him, appraising him

obliquely from behind her veil. Her heart 

was smouldering in its distress. Her soul, 

like a pursuing dream, went fluttering

about his footsteps as he walked…” 

(Book 3) 

(translated by Aaron Poochigian) 

One interesting thing is that I knew the Aeneid was inspired by, and modelled after, the Iliad and the Odyssey, but now I’m pretty sure that it’s also influenced by another Greek epic poem—the Argonautica. There are a few similarities but the main one is that in the Aeneid, Venus makes Dido fall in love with Aeneas so that she helps him and his men in Carthage; in the Argonautica, Hera and Athena help Jason get the golden fleece from King Aeëtes by making Medea fall in love with him and betray her own father. 

(The manipulation in the Aeneid is much crueller and more callous however: Venus knows her son’s fate, knows he has to travel to Italy, knows it’s not going to lead to anything—why does she make Dido fall in love with him? The gods are cruel). 

“Now night was covering the earth in darkness, 

and sailors from their ships were studying 

the stars of Ursa Major and Orion. 

Travelers and watchmen turned their thoughts toward sleep, 

and deep, deep slumber was relieving even 

those mothers who had lately lost their children. 

No dogs were barking in the streets; no voices 

echoed; silence held the blackening gloom. 

Sweet sleep, however, never eased Medea—

No, worry and her love for Jason roused her.

[…] Her heart was fitful, restless in the way 

a sunbeam, when reflected off the water 

swirling out of a pail or pitcher, dances 

upon the walls—yes, that was how her heart 

was quivering…” 

(ibid.) 

When I wrote about the Aeneid a while back, I wrote that unlike Homer, Virgil didn’t really enter his characters’ minds; he didn’t depict Aeneas’s thoughts, didn’t depict any sense of conflict between duty and Dido, didn’t tell us his thoughts on marrying Lavinia (how does she compare to Creusa, or Dido?); but Virgil did depict Dido’s state of mind, her love, her heartbreak. Similarly in the Argonautica, Jason is bland and other characters are seen from the outside, but Apollonius Rhodius enters Medea’s mind and depicts her struggle between love for Jason and loyalty to her father. 

2/ I still think the Argonautica is a kind of anti-heroic epic. Jason doesn’t have the strength and power of Akhilleus, or the wit and craftiness of Odysseus—he’s almost a random dude forced to lead an expedition.   

“His hands were tingling, quivering with vim. 

Think of a warhorse eager for a fight, 

the way it neighs and stamps the ground, the way

it rears its neck and pricks its ears, exulting—

that’s how the son of Aeson looked, exulting 

in the excitement of his newfound strength.” 

(ibid.) 

Our hero only becomes a hero when strengthened by Medea’s witchcraft. 

3/ Like Virgil in the Aeneid, Apollonius depicts his characters, on the way home, encountering the same challenges faced by Odysseus: Calypso, Circe, Charybdis and Scylla, the Sirens, Helioz’s cattle, and so on. There’s some variation though: 

“… And so, 

without delay, and this time to the heroes,

the Sirens hurled lilylike contraltos

out of their mouths. The heroes would already 

have run aground if Orpheus of Thrace, 

son of Oeagrus, hadn’t taken up 

his lyre, set his fingers to the strings, 

and strummed the rhythm of a lively march 

so that their ears were buzzing with a rival 

and upbeat song. And so the lyre’s vibrations

overpowered all those virgin voices.”

(Book 4) 

That’s different. That I like. 

But if Odysseus has to choose between Charybdis and Scylla and make the difficult choice of sacrificing some of his own men, Jason doesn’t—Hera interferes and Thetis guides the Argo through the sea monsters—they have it easier! The Argonautica doesn’t quite explain—or at least I’m not sure—why Hera helps Jason. Odysseus does get help from Athena, but he also finds the way home and regains his kingdom thanks to his own intelligence, cunning, and archery skills, as well as his ability to trust the right people. What does Jason do? He doesn’t seem to have any of that, and also doesn’t do much to get help from Medea, who’s already smitten with him. 

We see the same contrast when they meet Alcinoös and his wife Arete. Odysseus has to impress them, charm them, tell them his story. What does Jason do? Nothing. It’s Medea who begs Arete for help, who then speaks to her husband. 

Apollonius may deliberately create an anti-heroic epic, placing “an average guy” in the centre (why?), but what we have is a main character who is not compelling. Perhaps the author intends to spread out the interest so that not only Jason but the other Argonauts also have a voice, but I don’t think the characters are really alive and distinct. 

4/ The enjoyment of the Argonautica lies mostly in two things: the adventures, with all the strange customs and creatures the Argo encounters (I actually wonder if a few things in the poem inspired Gulliver’s Travels), and the imagery. 

I like this, for example: 

“Hour after hour they lacked a course and drifted 

idly the whole day through. As when a serpent 

wriggles, hissing, on its crooked way

to slip from under a ferocious noon 

and squints all round, its slits aglint with flickers

like little streaks of fire, until it finds 

a crack and glides into a burrow—so

the Argo wandered for a long time seeking

a navigable outlet from the lake.” 

(ibid.) 

The Argonautica may not be on the same level as the Iliad, the Odyssey, or the Aeneid, but it’s a fun narrative.