Jason and the Golden Fleece

“Taking my start from you, Phoibos, I shall recall the glorious deeds of men of long ago who propelled the well-benched Argo through the mouth of the Pontos and between the Dark Rocks to gain the golden fleece. For such was the oracle which Pelias had received, that a hateful fate awaited him in the future—destruction caused by a country man whom he should see wearing only one sandal.”

The opening stanza of Jason and the Golden Fleece features invocation of Apollo, god of poetry and prophecy, among others. This differentiates Apollonius’ epic from the Homeric ones, which begin with invocations of the Muses, essentially goddesses of memory. It may reflect that Apollonius composed in an age of literacy, when poetry could travel, in text form, beyond the boundaries of its immediate context. Here, the prophecy that launches the quest is intimate in scope: It concerns a king and a countryman rather than, as in Homer, a kingdom/people and warriors with an outcome of cosmic proportions.

“As a lonely young girl falls with relief upon her grey-haired nurse and cries—she has no longer anyone else to care for her, but drags out a wearisome life at the beck and call of a stepmother. Just now she has been battered by the lady’s many reproaches, and as she grieves her heart within her is held fast in the bonds of its misery, and she has not the strength to sob forth all the sorrow that throbs within—just so did Alkimede weep bitterly as she held her son in her arms.”

Like Homer, Apollonius incorporates similes throughout his epic but in different ways and for different purposes. In this simile, he compares Jason’s mother lamenting to a young girl crying because her stepmother treats her badly. The domestic scene in the simile reflects a peacetime setting, as opposed to Homer’s tendency to emphasize the brutality of war through his similes. 

“He checked his lyre and his divine voice, but though he had finished, the others all leaned forwards, ears straining under the peaceful spell; such was the bewitching power of the music which lingered amongst them.”

In Greek mythology, Orpheus’ heroic power is his gift of music. He is also associated with a religious cult. Aspects of both associations make their way into Apollonius’