TFBT: Third Random Notes on Argonautica Book 3

The Hour 25 Book Club will host a discussion on Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica Book 3, via Google+ Hangout on Tuesday, August 11 at 11 a.m. You can find R.C. Seaton’s translation of the text online for free here, or you can read any other edition you prefer.  Here is my first random notes in preparation for August 11;   

Witness the   “mighty oath of the Colchians” in action!  "But swear by Earth and Heaven that thou wilt keep secret in thy heart what I shall tell thee, and be fellow-worker with me. I implore thee by the blessed gods, by thyself and by thy parents, not to see them destroyed by an evil doom piteously; or else may I die with my dear sons and come back hereafter from Hades an avenging Fury to haunt thee.” (III. 705-710) “Thus she spake, and straightway a torrent of tears gushed forth and low down she clasped her sister's knees with both hands and let her head sink on to her breast”.  Boy, those Colchian girls really know how to supplicate! 

Apparently, Medea is youngest of Aeetes’ three children by far.  Who knew?  At 732 Medea says to her sister referring to her nephews;  "for thou didst lift “me to thy breast when an infant equally with them 

Medea at 774 “Would that I had been slain by the swift shafts of Artemis before I had set eyes on him,” Didn't Penelope say something similar?  

Jason supplicates Medea before her temple using other names for Earth and Sky, “I implore thee by Hecate herself, by thy parents, and by Zeus who holds his guardian hand over strangers and suppliants; I come here to thee bot”. “who holds his guardian hand over strangers and suppliants; I come here to thee both a suppliant and a stranger, bending the knee in my sore need”  At (ll. 975-1007) & (ll. 1079-1101) Jason in hopes of getting Medea's assistance tells the story of how Medea's cousin Adriane helped out the hero Theseus in like circumstances.  Two things; he fails to mention that Theseus deserted the princess in thanks and secondly that the whole story takes place ten years in the future.  Also lies about Minos and Theseus becoming friends.  

Just a little reminder of why Jason is really in Colchis; (III. 1131-1136) “Thus he spake; and her soul melted within her to hear his words; nevertheless she shuddered to behold the deeds of destruction to come. Poor wretch! Not long was she destined to refuse a home in Hellas. For thus Hera devised it, that Aeaean Medea might come to Ioleus for a bane to Pelias, forsaking her native land.”  

What’s with the gods giving Aeetes odd gifts?  "But the teeth the Tritonian goddess tore away from the dragon's jaws and bestowed as a gift upon Aeetes and the slayer. And Agenor's son, Cadmus,”. Why?  Then  (lll. 1225-1245) “Then Aeetes arrayed his breast in the stiff corslet which Ares gave him when he (Ares) had slain (the Giant )Phlegraean Mimas with his own hands;” Why?

 

 

 

 

 

 

TFBT: Second Randoms Notes on Argonautica Book 3

The Hour 25 Book Club will host a discussion on Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica Book 3, via Google+ Hangout on Tuesday, August 11 at 11 a.m. 

You can find R.C. Seaton’s translation of the text online for free here, or you can read any other edition you prefer.  Here is my first random notes in preparation for August 11;  

I just thought the followinger were beautiful and dreadful;

 (283) “and he shot at Medea; and speechless amazement seized her soul. But the god himself flashed back again from the high-roofed hall, laughing loud; and the bolt burnt deep down in the maiden's heart like a flame; and ever she kept darting bright glances straight up at Aeson's son, and within her breast her heart panted fast through anguish, all remembrance left”  (297) “Love the destroyer;”…“shone the son of Aeson for beauty and grace; and the maiden looked at him with stealthy glance, holding her bright veil aside, her heart smouldering with pain; and her soul creeping like a dream flitted in his track…” 

Some where I got the impression the sovereignity of Colchis was dependent on ownership of the Golden Fleece, sort of like King Nisus of Megara’s purple lock of hair [HYGINUS, FABULAE 198] .  But I haven’t seen that mentioned yet in the Argonautica.  What I have seen is “the heart of ruthless Aeetes” (492).  Aeetes who would have killed his future son-in-law and bringer of the golden fleece “Phrixus, who surpassed all strangers in gentleness and fear of the gods” (584) if the gods hadn’t stopped him.  Aeetes who had “bitter foes the Sauromatae” on his borders and feared the betrayal of his relatives.    Now admitted this all predisposes King Aeetes to be leary of Jason and the Argonauts, but what if he’d said “Yes, that nasty old goat skin is yours!”  In that case, the neighboring nasty tribe would have been vanquished, his son and heir would have survived making his crown more secure and he would have gotten rid of Medea.  Bad decision little influenced by the gods I think.  [i] 

I keep seeing examples of indecision standing on the threshold or some other liminal spot.  (525)“refrain and abide in your ship a little longer as before, for it is better to forbear than recklessly to choose an evil fate.”  (647). “she desired to go to her sister, and crossed the threshold. And for long she stayed there at the entrance of her chamber,” 

(663) “Thrice she made the attempt and thrice she checked herself, the fourth time she fell on her bed face downward,”  Doesn’t Apollo warn off some warrior three times in The Iliad and on the fourth attempt the guy ends up face down in the dirt?

---

[i] Do all the kingdoms adjoining the Black Sea kill strangers?  As in the Land of Taurians where Iphigenia sacrificed strangers to Artemis.  HYGINUS, FABULAE 120  and  Hdt. 4.103

 

TFBT: First Random Notes on Argonautica

The Hour 25 Book Club will host a discussion on Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica Book 3, via Google+ Hangout on Tuesday, August 11 at 11 a.m.

You can find R.C. Seaton’s translation of the text online for free here, or you can read any other edition you prefer.  Here is my first random notes in preparation for August 11;

3.1. 1 “Come now, Erato, stand by my side, and say next…”  Erato?  What?  The Muse of Love Poetry?  Not Epic?  We’ve studied so hard on the standards of epic and heroes who battle for unwilting glory.  Are their new standards and paradigms we must learn for what I heard Nagy call Jason yesterday; “A Love-Hero”? 

3.1. 37) “Cypris, which her husband, the halt-footed god, ”  So Hephaestus netted his wife and Ares sometime between the beginning of the Argonautica and well before the end of the Iliad when he was then married to Aglaia. 

3.1. 60 “Him will I deliver, though he sail even to Hades to free Ixion below from his brazen chains,”  Why would Hera use an example suggesting the freedom of a mortal that attempted raping her?

Zeus had a blooming fruitful orchard on Olympus.  3.1. 113-4 & 158  Wonder what he was raising?   “ 

3.1.201. "willows and osiers, on whose topmost branches hang corpses bound with cords. For even now it is an abomination with the Colchians to burn dead men with fire; nor is it lawful to place them in the earth and raise a mound above, but to wrap them in untanned oxhides and suspend them from trees far from the city. And so earth has an equal portion with air, seeing that they bury the women; for that is the custom of their land.”  Intersting.  Are there any Bronze Age cultures that actually did this? 

“Cytaean Aeetes”  Cytae was the town where Aeetes’ daughter Medea was born (Culture In Pieces: Essays on Ancient Texts in Honour of Peter Parsons  By Dirk Obbink) 

“Eidyia his wedded wife, the youngest daughter of Tethys and Oceanus.”  Interesting.   That makes her the last of the Oceanides.  Was Styx the first? 

3.1. 275-298; “ Meantime Eros passed unseen through the grey mist, causing confusion, as when against grazing heifers rises the gadfly, which oxherds call the breese. And quickly beneath the lintel in the porch he strung his bow”  Interesting that a god uses the lintel to transition from the divine plan to the mundane.