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Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.12
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
At Argonautica 4.12–13, Medea, frightened and on the point of fleeing her home, 2 is compared to a young deer:
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1 I would like to thank A. M. Wilson and M. Campbell for helpful advice. The faults which remain are my own responsibility.
2 The motif of flight dominates the opening scenes of the fourth book. Although no actual movement takes place in the first thirty-four lines, Medea's φβος ( = ‘panic flight’, LSJ s.v.) is the centre of attention. See Arg. 4.5, 11, 13, 22.
3 See, for example, Seaton, R. C., Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica (Cambridge, MA and London, 1912)Google Scholar; Rieu, E. V., Apollonius of Rhodes, The Voyage of Argo (Harmondsworth, 1959Google Scholar; 1971); E, E., Apollonii Rhodii Argonauticon Liber IV (Florence, 1973).Google Scholar
4 Cf. Horace, , Odes 1.23.8Google Scholar; Silius, Italicus, Punica 5.280–1.Google Scholar
5 de Rhodes, Apollonios, Argonautiques (Paris, 1974–1981).Google Scholar
6 Hunter, R., CQ 37 (1987), 136Google Scholar, implicitly agrees with this interpretation when he compares to this Apollonian simile three Homeric similes which describe fleeing, hunted animals (Il. 10.360–2; 11.473–81; 22, 189–93).
7 Paduano, G. and Fusillo, M., Apollonio Rodio, le Argonautiche (Milan, 1986).Google Scholar
8 See Lehrs, K., De Aristarchi Studiis Homericis (Leipzig, 1882), pp. 78–82.Google Scholar
9 Op. cit., p. 78. Cf. Doederlein, L., Homerisches Glossarium (Stuttgart, 1850–1858), ii.156.Google Scholar
10 See Friis-Johansen, H. and Whittle, E. W., Aeschylus, The Suppliants (Copenhagen, 1980)Google Scholar, ad 711. Hesychius s.v. glosses the word with φοβεσθαι and φεγειν. LSJ give as the principle meanings, ‘flee from fear, flee away’ and ‘fear, dread, be afraid of’. On the closely related notions of ‘fear’ and ‘flight’ in Greek thought see Lehrs, op. cit., pp. 75–7 and Chantraine, P., Dictionnaire Etymologique de la Langue Grecque (Paris, 1968–1980)Google Scholar, s.v. φβοµαι. The word is, however, rather often taken to mean ‘tremble’; see, for example, Bailly, A., Dictionnaire Grec-Français (1963, 26th ed.), s.v. τρω.Google Scholar
11 For the Homeric parallels to Arg. 4.12–13 see Campbell, M., Echoes and Imitations of Early Epic in Apollonius Rhodius, Mnemosyne Suppl. 72 (Leiden, 1981), p. 65.Google Scholar
12 Campbell, op. cit., p. 99 and Hunter, loc. cit., correctly cite Il. 11.544–7 as a source for this Apollonian passage. Cf. Arg. 4.11 and Il. 11.544. Campbell also appositely compares Il. 11. 172–3.
13 pace, for example, Mazon, P., Homère, Iliade (Paris, 1937–1938)Google Scholar, who translates ‘il frissonne’. See Leaf, W., The Iliad (London, 1900–1992)Google Scholar, ad 11.546 who notes that the word ‘as usual implies the actual movement of flight’. See Lehrs' definition quoted above.
14 See Vian, op. cit., iii. 147 who notes in addition that the verb ποτρω, on the three occasions on which it is employed by Apollonius, also has this sense. Cf. also Callimachus, Hecale, fr, 69.2 Hollis (= fr. 260 Pfeiffer, 288 Suppl. Hell.) where this same verb clearly describes a movement of flight.
15 On this imitation see Briggs, W. W., ‘Virgil and the Hellenistic Epic’, ANRW ii.31.2, pp. 964–6Google Scholar. See also Otis, B., Virgil, A Study in Civilized Poetry (Oxford, 1964), pp. 73–4.Google Scholar
16 Knauer, G. N., Die Aeneis und Homer (Göttingen, 1964)Google Scholar, cites Il. 11.473–81, where Odysseus is compared to a hunted stag in flight, as a model for this simile. The epic simile is certainly in Vergil's mind here but the dominant model is Apollonius' imitation of this same Homeric simile (see Briggs, op. cit., p. 964; Hunter, loc. cit.) in an erotic context. Dido is compared to a deer because Medea is compared to a deer, not because Odysseus is compared to a stag.