The author of theArgonautikais a remarkably elusive character. We do not know exactly when he was born, or the date of his death. At least three cities—Alexandria, Naukratis, and, inevitably, Rhodes—were claimed in antiquity, and continue to be argued for today, as his birthplace. Our main sources for his life are not only late, but contain a number of arresting discrepancies. Did he turn to poetry early or late in life? He was royal tutor to one of the Ptolemies—but which one? He was head of the Alexandrian Library—but directly before and after whom?...

For Pelias heard it voiced that in time thereafter a grim fate would await him, death at the prompting of the man he saw come, one-sandaled, from folk in the country: and not much later—in accordance with your word—Jason, fording on foot the Anauros’s wintry waters, saved from the mud one sandal, but left the other stuck fast in the flooded estuary, pressed straight on to have his share in the sacred feast that Pelias was preparing for Poseidon his father, and the rest of the gods, though paying no heed to Pelasgian Hera. The moment Pelias saw...

1: The opening phrase is characteristic of the beginning of a hymn or divine invocation (see Hom.Il. 9.97, addressed to Agamemnon, who is treated as a god; Arat.Phain. 1; Theokr. 17.1; and, above all,HH32.18-19). This is appropriate, insofar as it was an Apolline oracle that set the quest for the Fleece in motion, and Apollo is the source of the poet’s art; but it also indicates a steady, and characteristic, shift away from the anonymous bard who invites goddess or Muse to sing or tell a narrative through him (cf. Hom.Il. andOd. and Hes....