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‘Short on Heroics’: Jason in the Argonautica*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

R. L. Hunter
R. L. Hunter
Affiliation:
Pembroke College, Cambridge
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Extract

‘Jason…chosen leader because his superior declines the honour, subordinate to his comrades, except once, in every trial of strength, skill, or courage, a great warrior only with the help of magical charms, jealous of honour but incapable of asserting it, passive in the face of crisis, timid and confused before trouble, tearful at insult, easily despondent, gracefully treacherous in his dealings with the love-sick Medea but cowering before her later threats and curses, coldly efficient in the time-serving murder of an unsuspecting child (sic), reluctant even in marriage.’ So Carspecken put the case against Jason's heroism. In the face of such an indictment, Lawall's plea in mitigation, ‘it must be admitted that [Jason] often reveals the qualities of a true gentleman’, seems somehow inadequate. Criticism since Carspecken has found various overlapping categories for Jason which both take account of the earlier negative judgements and preserve the centrality of his ‘personality’ and character in the poem: Jason is the quiet diplomat who works through consensus rather than force, his is a heroism of sex-appeal, he is an anti-hero, the embodiment of Sceptic ‘suspension of judgement’, or, alternatively, he is ‘one of us’, credible and lifelike. Carspecken himself tried a different tack: the poem is concerned not with individual heroism but with the heroism of the group (cf. 1.1, 4.1773–81).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , December 1988 , pp. 436 - 453
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1988

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References

1 Carspecken (1952), 101.

2 Lawall (1966), 168 n.13

3 E.g. Herter, , RE Suppl. 13, 36Google Scholar; Vian (1978); Zanker, G., Realism in Alexandrian Poetry (London, 1987), pp. 202–3Google Scholar.

4 Beye, C. R., ‘Jason as Love-hero in Apollonios' Argonautika’, GRBS 10 (1969), 31–55Google Scholar; this view was closely foreshadowed by Hübscher, A., Die Charakteristik der Personen in Apollonios' Argonautika(diss. Freiburg0Google Scholari.d. Schweiz, 1940), pp. 22–3. Cf. Newman, J. K., The Classical Epic Tradition (Wisconsin, 1986), p. 76Google Scholar‘[Jason's] heroism will smell of the boudoir’.

5 Lawall (1966); Fusillo (1985). Lawall's article contains many acute observations, and it would be a pity if the very dated title deterred potential readers.

6 Klein, T. M., ‘Apollonius' Jason: Hero and Scoundrel’, QUCC 13 (1983), 115–26Google Scholar(and cf. already Beye [1982], 60). Klein's interesting suggestion is, unfortunately, entirely improbable in the form in which he offers it. It is true that 1.1287–8 (on which see below p. 444), οὐδέ τι τοῖον ἒπος μετεΦᾃνεεν οὐδέ τι τοῖον | Aἰσονίδης, may call to mind Sceptic ἐποϰή, but Jason's piety and propensity to despair (1.1286, 1288–9) would be anathema to a Sceptic sage: ἐποχή was supposed to lead to ἀταραξία, which is not Jason's foremost quality. Jason's attitude to the tasks imposed upon him (e.g. 3.386–95, 427–31) differs markedly from the unconcern of the Sceptic response, cf. Burnyeat, M. in Schofield, M., Burnyeat, M. and Barnes, J., Doubt and Dogmatism (Oxford, 1980), pp. 40–1Google Scholar. The value of Klein's article, which despite its polemics, seems to develop an idea found at Lawall (1966), 149, lies in its attempt to tie the Argonautica to attested intellectual and social attitudes. However unsuccessful, this represents a considerable advance on vague generalising about ‘Hellenistic values’. There are, however, serious doubts whether a formal philosophy of Scepticism can be identified as early as the third century B.C.

7 Cf. Fränkel (1960), 1; Beye (1982), 79; Zanker, , op. cit. (n. 3), p. 201Google Scholar.

8 Carspecken (1952), 111–25.

9 On the links between the Euripidean and Apollonian Jasons cf. von Fritz, K., ‘Die Entwicklung der Iason–Medea–Sage und die Medea des Euripides’, A&A 8 (1959), 33–106 at pp. 66–71Google Scholar.

10 Cf. e.g. Feeney, D. C., ‘Epic Hero and Epic Fable’, Comparative Literature 38 (1986), 137–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Fränkel (1960), 4 (my translation).

12 Cf. Koster, S., Antike Epostheorien (Wiesbaden, 1970), pp. 51–72Google Scholar; Hogan, J. C., ‘Aristotle's Criticism of Homer in the Poetics’, CP 68 (1973), 95–108Google Scholar; Halliwell (next note) p. 258.

13 Halliwell, S., Aristotle's Poetics (London, 1986), pp. 150–2, 156Google Scholar. Whether or not Apollonius was actually familiar with Aristotelian doctrine is relevant only as a matter of literary history. There may have been a copy of the Poetics in the Alexandrian library, cf. Diog. Laert. 5.24, a list which some scholars believe to go back to the library's inventory; Düring, I., Aristoteles (Heidelberg, 1966), pp. 36–7Google Scholar; Blum, R., Kallimachos und die Literaturverzeichnung bei den Griechen (Frankfurt, 1977), pp. 121–32Google Scholar.

14 Beye (1982), 24.

15 For the Argonautica as a precursor of later romance cf. Scholes, R. and Kellogg, R., The Nature of Narrative (New York, 1966), p. 67Google Scholar, Heiserman, A., The Novel Before the Novel (Chicago, 1977), pp. 11–40Google Scholar.

16 Lloyd-Jones, H., SIFC 77 (1984), 71Google Scholar; Bulloch, A. W. in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I (Cambridge, 1985), p. 591Google Scholar.

17 Nature and Culture in the Iliad (Chicago, 1975), pp. 100–1Google Scholar.

18 Thucyd. 6.30–2, esp. 30.2. Similarities of language and idea could, of course, simply arise from the similar situations. If, however, we are to think of the Sicilian expedition, then the omens are not good for Jason.

19 Jason does, however, toy with these ideas as he seeks to win over Medea, cf. 3.990–6, 1122–7.

20 Vian, note complémentaire to 4.205, makes rather too much of ἐΦορμῆι; ‘military incursion’ and ‘enterprise’ can scarcely be distinguished when the latter consists of the former. If Vian's punctuation is correct at 4.148, we should perhaps there consider ἀΦορμήν for ἐΦορμήν.

21 In the version of Dionysios Scytobrachion, the Argonauts and the Colchians did fight in Colchis (cf. Σ Arg. 4.223–30, Diod. Sic. 4.48.4–5 = frr. 28–9 Rusten).

22 The motif of slashed mooring-ropes is taken from Odysseus' hasty escape from the Laistrygonians (Od. 10.126–7). It is noteworthy that Valerius Flaccus chooses to use the motif more ‘heroically’, at the start of the expedition (1.487–9).

23 There are some good remarks in the note on 4.190–205 at pp. 553–4 of the edition [Milan, 1986] by G. Paduano and M. Fusillo.

24 4.1308 ἐλέηραν ˜ Od. 5.336 ἐλήησεν. Both divine speeches begin with κάμμορε τίπτ' (4.1318, Od. 5.339).

25 There is a rather similar effect at Lucan 5.424–60 where Caesar's ships are becalmed (cf. 455, naufragii spes omnis abit).

26 Medea, of course, has her own fears about the Argonauts' plans; for Jason's speech at 4.395–409 cf. Hunter (1987), 130–1.

27 On this scene cf. Schofield, M., ‘Euboulia in the Iliad’, CQ 36 (1986), 6–31, at pp. 23–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 This word has caused considerable bother, cf. Vian (1978), 1028–9, Fantuzzi, M., Materiali e Discussioni 13 (1984), 94–5Google Scholar, but its ‘surface meaning’ seems quite appropriate here.

29 As in Dionysios Scytobrachion, cf. Diod. Sic. 4.41.3, Apollodorus 1.9.19, Rusten, J. S., Dionysius Scytobrachion (Papyrologica Coloniensia X, 1982), pp. 96–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In Antimachus' Lyde Heracles did not go because he was too heavy for the Argo (fr. 58 Wyss = Σ Arg. 1.1289).

30 Gnomon 46 (1974), 349Google Scholar.

31 Vian (1978), 1028–9.

32 Cf. e.g. Beye (1982), 31, 82–3. Jason is also ‘warlike’ at 2.122 (the battle with the Bebrycians), and cf. the simile of the ἀρήιος ἴππος at 3.1259–61.

33 For Heracles in the Argonautica cf. Feeney, D. C., ‘Following after Hercules, in Virgil and Apollonius’, PVS 18 (1986), 47–85Google Scholar.

34 Cf. Il. 1.91, 244, 412.

35 Idmon's decision to follow the expedition probably picks up the story of the prophet's son Euchenor at Iliad 13.663–72 rather than Achilles' ‘death and glory’ choice.

36 Fränkel (1968), 75.

37 Vian (1978), 1037.

38 Cf. 1.739, 764, Theocr. 1.41.

39 Hunter (1987), 130–1, 138.

40 Cf. Vian on 1288, ‘il sait qu'Héracles n'a pas été victime d'un complot, mais ne peut expliquer son absence que par quelque obscur dessein des dieux. Son ἀμηϰανίη est une preuve de lucidité et non un signe d'incapacité. In as much as such things can be determined, this seems to me incredible; ἂτη (1288) need not point to the intervention of the divine.

41 Cf., in general, Graz, L., Le feu dans l'liade et l'Odyssée (Paris, 1965), pp. 240–7Google Scholar.

42 ἀΦραδίησιν (1332) is the same idea as the second part of Agamemnon's statement, ἐπεὶ ἀασάμην καί μευ Φρέναφ ἐξείλετο δ;εύς (Il. 19.137).

43 This much is recognised by Beye (1982), 87. I do not, however, see why Jason's answer to Telamon is ‘highly ironical’, nor does Il. 22.159–61 which Beye adduces seem particularly relevant.

44 Cf. Hunter (1986), 50. Such considerations are ignored by those who find the timing of the peira absurd, cf. e.g. Händel, P., Beobachtungen zur epischen Technik des Apollonios Rhodios (Munich, 1954), pp. 68–9Google Scholar.

45 That Apollonius in fact uses a different account of Apsyrtos' death does not seriously affect the argument: it is a familiar Apollonian technique to exploit readers' knowledge of rejected versions of the myth, cf. Fusillo (1985), passim.

46 Fränkel (1968), 217.

47 Cf. esp. Soph, . OT 62–4Google Scholar.

48 Cf. 1.294, 3.319, 385, 4.394, 1317, 1431.

49 Cf. 3.14–15 where Hera rejects the possibility that the Argonauts could make Aietes give them the Fleece, ἐπέεσσι παραιΦάμενοι…μειλιϰοις. The participle there may, but need not, imply deceit. Cf. also 4.394, where the exact status of Jason's following speech remains a problem for both Medea and us (Hunter [1987], 131).

50 Cf. 2.467, 3.31, 4.732.

51 3.107, though the interpretation there is disputed, cf. Campbell, M., Studies in the Third Book of Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica (Hildesheim, 1983), pp. 16–17Google Scholar.

52 Fränkel (1968), 214–15 argues strongly for the meaning ‘provoking (a certain reaction)’ rather than ‘testing’; as Fränkel himself admits, however, the distinction is not a sharp one, and the traditional interpretation seems protected by the echo of Iliad 2.

53 Paduano–Fusillo on 2.638–40. For ἐπιρρήδην cf. Arat, . Phaen. 261Google Scholar; at Phaen. 191 the meaning is doubtful, but Mair's ‘expressly’ seems close to what is required.

54 Fränkel (1968), 240–4; this view is rejected by Paduano–Fusillo on 2.885–93.

55 Vian (1978), 1031, cf. note complémentaire to 2.885 and Gnomon 46 (1974), 349Google Scholar.

56 Cf. Hdt. 4.110–17, Hippocr, . Aer. 17Google Scholar, Pl. Laws 7.804e–5a, Harmatta, J., Studies in the History and Language of the Sarmatians (Szeged, 1970)Google Scholar.

57 This is also, I think, the image suggested by γνὺξ ἥριπε (4.471), cf. 1.427–31, 3.1310 (where I accept ἐριπόντα).

58 4.560, cf. Aesch, . Eum. 281, 452Google Scholar, Parker, R., Miasma (Oxford, 1983), pp. 104–43Google Scholar, Hunter (1987), 131 n. 17.

59 Cf. , Plut.Thes. 3.4Google Scholar; Herter, , RE Suppl. 13, 1057Google Scholar.

60 Here the loss of Callimachus' Hecale is particularly to be regretted. Frr. 232–3 and 235–6 concern Theseus' arrival in Athens and recognition first by Medea and then by his father. Fr. 274, ἀρμοῖ που κἁκείνωι ἐπέτρεϰε λεπτὸς ἲουλος | ἂνθει ἐλιχρὐσωι ἐναλίγκιος, may suggest that Theseus was portrayed as a young ephebe, like Jason; Arg. 1.972 and Call. fr. 274 are obviously connected, and, if Kapp's interpretation of the latter passage is correct, then Apollonius may be drawing a further link between Jason and Theseus by echoing a Callimachean passage about the latter. Relevant too is the suggestion that Callimachus' Theseus owed something to Homer's Telemachus, cf. Newman, J. K., ‘Callimachus and the Epic’, in Serta Turyniana (Urbana, 1974), pp. 342–60 at p. 350Google Scholar.

61 These verses exploit the familiar fact (cf. Strabo 10.48, Plut, . Thes. 16.3Google Scholar, RE 15.1890–1927) that two very different accounts of Minos' character were current in antiquity. Homer had given both Minos and Aietes the epithet ὀλοόΦρων (Od. 10.137, 11.322).

62 Cf. 6.6–7.2, 29.3 (ἂλλος οὗτος 'Hρακλῆς).

63 Cf. Feeney, art. cit. (n. 33).

64 Cf. ‘The Black Hunter and the Origin of the Athenian ephebeia’, PCPS 14 (1968), 49–64Google Scholar(reprinted in R. L. Gordon (ed.), Myth, Religion & Society (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 147–62 and Vidal-Naquet, P., The Black Hunter (Baltimore, 1986), pp. 106–28)Google Scholar, and ‘The Black Hunter Revisited’, PCPS 32 (1986), 126–44Google Scholar. Already Phinney, E. S., Apollonius Rhodius (diss. Berkeley, 1964), p. 110Google Scholar, associated Jason with Parthenopaeus in Aeschylus' Septem.

65 Cf. Graf, F., in Bremmer, J. (ed.), Interpretations of Greek Mythology (London, 1987), pp. 97–8Google Scholar, and the various speculations of Roux, R., Le Problème des Argonautes (Paris, 1949)Google Scholar, Chapter 3, and Lindsay, J., The Clashing Rocks (London, 1965)Google Scholar; for Jason in particular cf. Heiserman, , op. cit. (n. 15), pp. 16–20Google Scholar.

66 Cf. Jeanmaire, H., Couroi et Courètes (Lille, 1939), p. 323Google Scholar.

67 Cf. Segal, C., Pindar's Mythmaking: the Fourth Pythian Ode (Princeton, 1986), pp. 56–60Google Scholar.

68 Ephebes received ἂσπίδα καὶ δόρυ after their first year of service and spent the second year on guard duty (, Arist.Ath. Pol. 42.4Google Scholar).

69 IG ii.2 2311.72–4; for this dance in general cf. Latte, K., De saltationibus Graecorum capita quinque (RGVV 13.3, Giessen, 1913)Google Scholar, Poursat, J.-C., ‘Les représentations de danse armée dans la céramique attique’, BCH 92 (1968), 550–615CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Borthwick, E. K., ‘P.Oxy. 2738: Athena an d the Pyrrhic Dance’ Hermes 98 (1970), 318–31Google Scholar.

70 Scarpi, P., ‘La pyrrhiche o le armi della persuasione’, Dialoghi di archeologia 1 (1979), 78–97Google Scholar, accepted by Vidal-Naquet, , ‘Black Hunter Revisited’ (n. 64), p. 136Google Scholar. I do not think that Laws 7.796b–c shows that this was Plato's interpretation.

71 It is tempting to place in this context Orpheus' account of Apollo's slaying of the Pythian dragon, κοȗρος ἐὼν ἒτι γυμνός, ἐτι πλοκάμοισι γεγηθώς. I would now be more inclined to such a view of this disputed passage than I was in Hunter (1986), 57.

72 The interpretation of this passage is (inevitably) disputed, cf. Lorimer, H., BSA 42 (1947), 127Google Scholar; Snodgrass, A. M., Arms and Armour of the Greeks (London, 1967), pp. 66–7Google Scholar; Pritchett, W. K., The Greek State at War IV (Berkeley, 1985), p. 40Google Scholar. A recently published fragment of Tyrtaeus refers to γυμνομάχι (P.Oxy. 3316).

73 Cf. Hunter (1986), 54–5.

74 Cf. 4.149, 163, Hunter (1987), 132–3.

75 Cf. now Bremer, J. M., CQ 37 (1987), 423–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who rightly points to the erotic and nuptial associations of the full moon. Marriage for the young girl corresponds, mutatis mutandis, to membership of the adult warrior class for Jason.

76 Livrea on 4.203 collects the relevant passages. For sex reversal in transitional rites cf. e.g. the remarks of Vidal-Naquet, , Black Hunter (n. 64), pp. 114–17Google Scholar.

77 Cf. Vian on 4.200. In the parallel scene at 2.1069ff. the comparison with a hoplite phalanx is almost explicit (2.1075–8), cf. Paduano–Fusillo ad loc.

78 Cf. Vidal-Naquet, P. in Vernant, J. -P. and Vidal-Naquet, P., Tragedy and Myth in Ancient Greece (Brighton, 1981), pp. 160–1Google Scholar.

79 Cf. , Pind.Pyth. 4.159–67Google Scholar. Apollonius does not explicitly say that the expedition was commanded by divine oracle (contrast 1.8), but the motif of placating Zeus' anger (2.1194–5, 3.336–9) perhaps suggests that we are to infer it. The latter passage raises, and leaves open, the possibility that Pelias has invented the oracle as an excuse to get rid of Jason.

80 I hope to discuss this more fully in a future article.