Argonautica
By: Apollonius Rhodius ; edited and translated by William H. Race.
Contributors: Race, William H., 1943-
Series: The Loeb classical library -- 1
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng; grc
Number of pages: 511
ISBN-13: 9780674996304
Subjects: Argonauts (Greek mythology) -- Poetry; Jason (Greek mythology) -- Poetry; Medea (Greek mythology) -- Poetry
Genres: Poetry
Work titles: Argonautica.
Description: "Apollonius Rhodius's Argonautica, composed in the third century B.C.E., is the epic retelling of Jason's quest for the golden fleece. Along with his contemporaries Callimachus and Theocritus, Apollonius refashioned Greek poetry to meet the interests and aesthetics of a Hellenistic audience, especially that of Alexandria in the Ptolemaic period following Alexander's death. In this carefully crafted work of 5,835 hexameter verses in four books, the author draws on the preceding literary traditions of epic (Homer), lyric (Pindar), and tragedy (especially Euripides) but creates an innovative and complex narrative that includes geography, religion, ethnography, mythology, adventure, exploration, human psychology, and, most of all, the coming of age and love affair of Jason and Medea. It greatly influenced Roman authors such as Catullus, Virgil, and Ovid, and was imitated by Valerius Flaccus." "This new edition of the first volume in the Loeb Classical Library offers a fresh translation and an improved text."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. xviii-xxi) and index.

Text in Greek with English translation on facing pages.