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Apollonius, Argonautica 4.167–70 and Euripides' Medea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Virginia Knight
Virginia Knight
Affiliation:
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
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Extract

The study of Homeric echoes and allusions in the Argonautica has overshadowed the influence of other literature, even when, as with tragedy, such influence is clear. The easiest framework for studying allusions to tragedy in Apollonius is comparison with the different types of allusion to Homer. Situations in the epic may recall situations and relationships in tragedy, and verbal similarities to passages in tragedy are also identifiable, despite differences of dialect and metre. The latter are often enhanced by rare words, as Homeric hapax legomena and other Homeric rarities establish allusions to the Iliad and Odyssey.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , May 1991 , pp. 248 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1991

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References

1 The attempt of Stössl, F. (Apollonios Rhodios. Interpretationen zur Erzählungskunst und Quellenverwertung, Bern–Leipzig, 1941)Google Scholar to find paraphrases of lost tragedies in certain episodes is unconvincing in both conception and detail; cf. the review of Fränkel, H., AJPh 64 (1943), 367–73.Google Scholar

2 Hunter, R. L., ‘“Short on Heroics”: Jason in the Argonautica’, CQ n.s. 38 (1988), 449–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Cf. esp. Kumpf, M. M., The Homeric Hapax Legomena and their literary use by later authors, especially Euripides and ApoUonius Rhodius, Diss. Ohio, 1974.Google Scholar

4 Most recently, Dyck, A. R., ‘On the Way from Colchis to Corinth’, Hermes 117 (1989), 455–70.Google Scholar

5 Bremer, J. M., ‘Full Moon and Marriage in Apollonius'; Argonautica’, CQ n.s. 37 (1987), 423–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 The handing over of Medea's gifts and their effect was a favourite scene with vase painters; L, L., Etudes sur la tragéedie grecque dans ses rapports avec la céramique (Paris, 1967), pp. 398–402, 405–22Google Scholar, Page, D. L. ed., Euripides' Medea, pp. lviii–lxiii.Google Scholar

7 The parallel with 4.473 suggests the girl is deliberately trying to catch the moonlight on her dress, rather than noticing it accidentally (so Bremer, art. cit. [n. 5], 424–5, Wilamowitz, , Hellenistische Dichtung (Berlin, 1924), p. 208 n. 1)Google Scholar. On the reading at 168, see most recently Livrea's, ed. (Florence, 1973) ad locGoogle Scholar. and the review of Champbell, M., Gnomon 48 (1976), 336–40 at p. 338Google Scholar, James, A.W., ‘Apollonius Rhodius and his Sources’, Corolla Londiniensis 8 (Amsterdam, 1981), 59–86, 78–9.Google Scholar

8 Cf. especially 3.756–9, 4.125–6.

9 Rose, A. R., ‘Clothing Imagery in Apollonius' Argonautica’, QU 50 (1985), 20–44.Google Scholar

10 Dyck, art. cit. (n. 4), 460, compares the cloak with which Apsyrtus is lured to Medea's gifts in Medea.

11 As at, for example, Iliad 9.147.

12 On women and weaving in wedding ritual, Redfield, J., ‘Notes on the Greek Wedding’, Arethusa 15 (1982), 181–201, 194–5.Google Scholar

13 I would like to thank Dr R. L. Hunter for commenting on an earlier draft of this note.