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Jason and the Argonauts

Page 3

by Apollonius Of Rhodes


  I cannot hope that, even when he dies,

  I will be free from anguish. He will be

  a curse on me when he has lost his life.

  So good-bye, modesty. Good-bye, fair name.

  Once I have saved him, let him go unharmed

  wherever he desires while I, the day

  that he completes the contest, leave this life

  by dangling my body from a rafter

  or taking drugs, the kind that kill the heart . . .

  (Book 3, 1032–40)

  Unlike Homer, Apollonius provides occasional comic relief, and sexual innuendo is not too lowbrow for his Muse. We are told that, when Medea’s handmaids teased the Argonauts over the paltry offerings they were giving the gods, “the men responded / with crude suggestions, and delightful insults / and sweet harassment sparkled back and forth / among them” (Book 4, 2227–30). It took perseverance to find a voice that could accommodate this range of modes, tones, and character voices, but I am confident the voice I found is Apollonius’ own.

  For as long as I have known the ancient Greek language, I have been certain that Apollonius is a great poet and that Jason and the Argonauts is a great epic. My translation, a labor of love, is an attempt to convince Greekless readers that this is so. I hope that the poem becomes, like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, essential reading for a cultured individual. This project would have been much slower reaching completion without the financial support of the National Endowment for the Arts, to which I am very grateful.

  AARON POOCHIGIAN

  BOOK 1

  Taking my lead from you, Phoebus Apollo,

  I shall commemorate the deeds of men

  born long ago. King Pelias insisted,

  so they drove the tautly fitted Argo

  5up through the narrows of the Pontic Sea

  and past the Cobalt Clashing Rocks to win

  the golden fleece.

  Pelias had received

  a prophecy: a miserable doom

  awaited him, a murder brought about

  10by someone he would see come from the country

  wearing a single sandal. Soon thereafter

  the prophecy came true: that winter Jason

  was fording the Apidanus at flood time

  and only saved one sandal from the mud—

  15 (11)the river current snatched the other one.

  He simply left it in the depths and strode on

  straight to the court of Pelias to take

  a portion of the feast the king was hosting

  in honor of his father lord Poseidon

  20and all the other sacred gods, excepting

  Hera the goddess of Pelasgia,

  to whom he paid no mind.

  Soon as the king

  saw Jason, he was sure he was the man

  and right away contrived a labor for him,

  25a cruel voyage, in the hope that he

  would die at sea or fighting savages

  and never make the journey home to Greece.

  Past poets have already told in song

  how Argus with Athena’s guidance built

  30 (20)a ship, the Argo. I intend to tell you

  the names and lineages of the heroes,

  their travels on the wide-paved sea, and all

  that they accomplished in their wanderings.

  Come, Muses, be the surrogates of my song.

  35Orpheus is the first we should remember.

  They say it was Calliope that bore him

  beneath the peak of Mount Pimpleia after

  she coupled with Oeagrus king of Thrace.

  The legends say their son could soften stubborn

  40mountain boulders and reverse a river’s

  current with the seduction of his songs.

  The wild oaks his lyre charmed and marched

  down out of Mount Pieria still today

  are flourishing in dense, well-ordered ranks

  45 (29)at Zona headland on the Thracian coast—

  clear proof of what his music could accomplish.

  Such, then, was Orpheus, the king of all

  Bistonian Pieria, and Jason

  invited him to join the expedition

  50just as the Centaur Cheiron had advised.

  Cometes’ son Asterion arrived

  without delay. He hailed from Peiresiae

  under Mount Phylleius on the banks

  of the sublime but wild Apidanus

  55right where it weds the noble Enipeus.

  (Both rivers travel far to reach that union.)

  Next Polyphemus, offspring of Eilatus,

  forsook his native Larissa to join them.

  Back in his adolescence he had fought

  60 (41)beside the mighty Lapiths when they waged

  war on the Centaurs. Though his limbs had since

  grown burdensome, his heart remained as keen

  for battle as it had been in his prime.

  Since he was Jason’s uncle, Iphiclus

  65did not remain at leisure in Phylaca.

  Aeson, you see, was wedded to the sister

  of Iphiclus (and daughter of Phylacus),

  and ties of blood and marriage left no choice—

  Iphiclus had to be included, too.

  70Nor did Admetus, king of sheep-rich Pherae,

  hang back beneath the peak of Chalcedon.

  Echion and Erytus, both ingenious

  at artifice, both sons of Hermes, rushed

  to leave behind the wheat fields of Alopa.

  75 (54)As they were setting out, Aethalides,

  half brother to them on their father’s side,

  ran out to catch their march and be the third

  in their brigade. Phthian Eupolemeia,

  Myrmidon’s daughter, bore him on the banks

  80of the Amphryssus, and Menetes’ daughter

  Antianeira bore the other two.

  Next Caeneus’ son Coronus left

  Gyrton, a wealthy town, to make the journey.

  Yes, he was brave, but not his father’s equal.

  85Poets recount how Caeneus went down,

  while still alive, beneath the Centaurs’ clubs.

  All alone, separated from his comrades,

  he still routed the Centaurs from the field.

  When they stampeded back, they failed to break

  90 (63)or slay him, so he sank into the earth,

  invincible, triumphant, hammered down

  by a relentless rain of pine-wood clubs.

  Mopsus the Titaresian also joined them.

  Leto’s son had taught him how to read

  95the sacred signs exhibited by birds

  better than any other man alive.

  Eurydamas the son of Ctimenos

  came, too. He left a home in Dolopian

  Ctimena beside lake Xynias.

  100Actor allowed his son Menoetius

  to leave their home in Opus, so that he

  could see the world with distinguished men.

  Eurytion and valiant Eurybotes

  were also quick to join. One was the son

  105 (72)of Iros son of Actor; one the son

  of Teleon. (In all truth Teleon

  had sired world-famous Eurybotes,

  and Iros had begot Eurytion.)

  Oileus joined them as a third, a man

  110of giant strength and matchless at harassing

  foes from behind once he had turned the lines.

  Euboean Canthus joined them next. His father

  Cerinthus son of Abas gave him leave

  since he insisted on the quest. But no

  115homec
oming had been fated for him, no

  return to fair Cerinthus. Fate had ruled

  that he and the distinguished seer Mopsus

  would wander to the farthest ends of Libya

  and perish there. Wherever people travel,

  120 (82)catastrophe is waiting—so those two

  were laid to rest in Libya, a land

  as far from Colchis as the space between

  the rising and the setting of the sun.

  Next came those wardens of Oechalia,

  125Clytius, Iphitus, sons of cruel Eurytus,

  to whom Far-Shooting Phoebus gave his bow.

  Eurytus, though, did not enjoy it long

  because he dared defy the god who gave it.

  Aeacus’ two sons arrived at different

  130times and from distant points of origin.

  You see, they accidentally had murdered

  their brother Phocus and had fled at once

  to separate exiles outside Aegina:

  while Telamon had claimed the Attic Island,

  135 (94)Peleus had erected walls in Phthia.

  Next, from the land of Cecrops came the soldier

  Boutes, the son of noble Teleon,

  and with him came the staunch spearman Phalerus.

  His father Alcon let him go. Although

  140there were no other sons to tend his age

  and mind the homestead, Alcon all the same

  sent him—his only heir, his best beloved—

  to win renown among courageous heroes.

  (Though Theseus was mightier than all

  145the other offspring of Erechtheus,

  he never came. Invisible restraints

  detained him in the earth beneath Taenarus

  where he had traveled with Peirithoös—

  a wasted trip. They would have made this quest

  150 (104)much easier for everyone who sailed.)

  Tiphys the son of Hagnias forsook

  Siphae, a Thespian harbor town, to join

  the heroes’ party. When it came to knowing

  when breakers would disturb the sea’s expanse,

  155anticipating stormy gales and plotting

  course headings by the sun and stars, he was

  a mastermind. Tritonian Athena

  had packed him off to join the expedition,

  and his arrival cheered a crew in need

  160of naval knowledge. After she designed

  the speedy ship, Argus, Arestor’s son,

  had worked with her and built it to her order,

  and that is why, of all the watercraft

  that ever challenged ocean with their oars,

  165 (114)the Argo was the most remarkable.

  Pleias, the next to join them, had forsaken

  Araethyraea where he had been living

  in luxury because he was the son

  of Dionysos. The estate he left there

  170was very near the source of the Asopus.

  Talaus and Areios, sons of Bias,

  marched out of Argos, and beside them marched

  courageous Leodocus. Pero, daughter

  of Neleus, had borne all three of them—

  175this was the Pero for whose sake Melampus,

  Aeolid Melampus, had endured

  hard sorrow in the stalls of Iphicles.

  No story claims strong-willed, invulnerable

  Heracles failed to answer Jason’s summons.

  180 (124)When he got word the heroes were assembling,

  he was just crossing from Arcadia

  into Lyrceian Argos, on his shoulder

  a big live boar that had of late been grazing

  the meadows of Lampeia all along

  185the Erymanthian swamp. He slid it down,

  netted and muzzled, from his massive back

  there in the Mycenaeans’ meeting place

  and freely hastened off to join the quest

  against the orders of Eurystheus.

  190With him went Hylas in the prime of youth,

  a noble squire, to bear his bow and arrows.

  Next came divine Danaus’ descendant

  Nauplius. As the son of Clytonaeus,

  he was, of course, grandson to Naubolus.

  195 (135)Naubolus had been sired by Lernus, Lernus

  by Proteus, and Proteus in turn

  by Nauplius the Elder. Long ago

  Amymona the daughter of Danaus

  had lain in love beneath the god Poseidon

  200and borne this Nauplius, and Nauplius

  had bested all men in the art of sailing.

  Of all the heroes reared in Argos, Idmon

  came latest. Though he had foreseen his death

  in bird signs, he enlisted all the same

  205so that his town would not deny him glory.

  Idmon was not, in fact, the son of Abas—

  Apollo had begotten him on one

  of far-famed Aeolus’ many daughters.

  Phoebus himself had taught him to divine

  210 (145)future events by closely studying

  bird omens and the flames of sacrifice.

  Leda of Aetolia dispatched

  thick-sinewed Polydeuces and his brother

  Castor, master of swift-hoofed steeds, from Sparta.

  215She bore her much-beloved sons together

  as twins in King Tyndareus’ palace

  and, when they begged to go, she gave them leave

  to prove Zeus was their sire by worthy deeds.

  Two sons of Aphareus, Lynceus

  220and firebrand Idas, marched out of Arena,

  both of them glorying in boundless courage.

  Lynceus also was endowed with vision

  keener than that of any man alive.

  They say that he could easily project

  225 (155)his eye beams even underneath the earth.

  Periclymenus, Neleus’ son,

  joined up as well. He was the eldest born

  of all the offspring Neleus had fathered

  at Pylos, and Poseidon had bestowed

  230infinite strength upon him and the power

  to change into whatever shape he wished

  so that he could survive the shock of battle.

  Next, Cepheus and Amphidamus left

  Arcadia and came. Sons of Aleus,

  235they marched out of a home in Tegea,

  Apheidas’ estate. Their elder brother

  Lycurgus had released his son Ancaeus

  to be the third man in their company.

  Yes, though Lycurgus stayed behind at home

  240 (166)to tend Aleus who was weak with age,

  he couldn’t keep his son from setting out.

  The boy wore only a Maenalian bearskin,

  lugged only a gigantic ax. You see,

  his grandfather had hidden all the other

  245arms and armor in the granary,

  hoping to keep the lad from going, too.

  Augeas also joined the voyage. Fame

  pronounces him the son of Helius.

  King over Elis, he enjoyed his wealth

  250but greatly wished to see the Colchian land

  and King Aeëtes of the Colchians.

  Next came Asterius and Amphion,

  both sons of Hyperasius. They forsook

  Pellena in Achaea to enlist—

  255 (178)the same Pellena that their grandsire Pellen

  had founded on the brow of Aegialus.

  Euphemus, next, came to them from Taenarus.

  He was the fleetest-footed man alive.

  Europa, l
ordly Tityus’ daughter,

  260had borne him to Poseidon. He could dash

  across the whitecaps of the dull gray sea

  without submersing his precipitate feet.

  Only his toes would touch the liquid path.

  Two other of Poseidon’s sons arrived—

  265Erginus who had left the citadel

  of glorious Miletus, and superb

  Ancaeus who forsook Parthenia,

  cult center of Imbrasian Hera. Both

  exulted in their sea- and battlecraft.

  270 (190)From Calydon came Oeneus’ son,

  strong Meleager, with Laocoön

  Oeneus’ half brother. (Yes, the men

  had different mothers, since Laocoön

  had been begotten on a serving maid.)

  275Oeneus sent him forth, old as he was,

  to chaperone his son. Thus Meleager,

  young as he was, made one among the heroes.

  I suspect that, barring Heracles,

  none of the men who went would have surpassed him

  280if only he had stayed another year

  back in Aetolia and reached his prime.

  His mother’s brother came along as well—

  Iphiclus son of Thestius, a man

  skilled equally in close- and long-range combat.

  285 (202)Palaemonius was next to come

  and join the expedition. Though reputed

  the son of Lernus of Olenia,

  he was in fact the offspring of Hephaestus.

  His feet, therefore, were hobbled like his father’s,

  290but no one ever dared to slight his brawn

  and battle skills, and so he made the roster

  and added more renown to Aeson’s son.

  Next came Phocaean Iphitus, the son

  of Naubolus and grandson of Ornytus.

  295This Iphitus, you see, had played the host

  when Jason went to Delphi to consult

  the Pythian oracle about the voyage—

  yes, it was there at Delphi he received

  the hero at his palace as a guest.

  300 (211)Zetes and Calaïs were next to join.

  Orithyia had borne them to the Northwind

  on the frontier of blizzard-haunted Thrace.

  You see, while she was whirling in a dance

 

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