Apollonius of Rhodes and the Spaces of Hellenism (Classical Culture and Society)

283 Pages·2011·1.61 MB·English

by  William G. Thalmann

Apollonius of Rhodes and
the Spaces of Hellenism
CLASSICAL CULTURE AND SOCIETY
Series Editors
Joseph Farrell and Robin Osborne
Emotion, Restraint, and Community in Ancient Rome
Robert A. Kaster
Making Mockery: The Poetics of Ancient Satire
Ralph M. Rosen
Readers and Reading Culture in the High Roman Empire:
A Study of Elite Communities
William A. Johnson
Apollonius of Rhodes and the Spaces of Hellenism
William G. Thalmann
Apollonius
of Rhodes
and the Spaces
of Hellenism
.
WILLIAM G THALMANN
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thalmann, William G., 1947–
Apollonius of Rhodes and the spaces of Hellenism / William G. Thalmann.
p. cm.—(Classical culture and society)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-19-973157-2
1. Apollonius, Rhodius. Argonautica. 2. Greek poetry, Hellenistic—History and criticism.
3. Epic poetry, Greek—History and criticism. 4. Argonauts (Greek mythology) in literature.
5. Hellenism in literature. 6. Space and time in literature. 7. Space in literature. I. Title.
PA3872.Z4T45 2011
883′.01—dc22 2010033358
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
And all the names of the tribes, the nomads of faith who walked in the
monotone of the desert and saw brightness and faith and colour. The
way a stone or found metal box or bone can become loved and turn
eternal in a prayer. Such glory of this country she enters now and
becomes part of. We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes,
tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up
as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears
we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on my
body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography—to be marked by
nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men
and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal
books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience.
All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps.
Michael Ondaatje
The English Patient
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Contents
Preface , ix
Abbreviations , xiii
Note on Text, Translations, and Transliteration , xv
1. Outline of an Approach , 3
2. “The Long Pathways of the Sea”: Space and Time
in the Argonautika , 25
3. Greece as Center , 53
4. Colonial Spaces , 77
5. Contact: Colchis and the Interplay of Similarity
and Difference , 115
6. Rivers, Shores, Margins, and Boundaries , 147
7. The Roundabout Homecoming , 169
8. Conclusion: Alexandria, Poetry, and Space , 191
References , 221
Index of Passages Cited , 235
Index , 247
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Preface
Times of profound cultural and political change have often produced
long, complex, and rich poems that use myth or other fi ctions to
explore questions of contemporary urgency. The Iliad and O dyssey , the
Aeneid, the Divine Comedy, and Paradise Lost are obvious examples, but
I believe that the A rgonautika of Apollonius of Rhodes is also such a
poem. Through the narrative of the Argonauts’ voyage to win the
Golden Fleece and bring it back to the Greek mainland, the A rgonau-
tika explores questions that were surely of concern to Greeks upon
whom Alexander’s conquests had thrust familiarity with other cul-
tures. These questions were especially pertinent to those who found
themselves living among people very different from themselves in
places, such as Ptolemaic Alexandria, that were new to their Greek
inhabitants. In such conditions, boundaries and defi nitions of many
sorts that before had seemed established were put at risk. Questions
arising from contact with other places and peoples—about what it
meant to be Greek, about cultural difference and similarity, and about
the relations between self and other—are put into action in Apolloni-
us’s narrative of the Argonauts’ experiences.
The Argonautika brings together varying responses to these issues
without attempting to achieve closure on them. These responses range
from an assertion of the superiority of Hellenic culture—through co-
lonialist discourse, for example—to a questioning of that affi rmation,
a recognition of much greater complexity that is refl ected in the Argo-
nauts’ actions and in their experience of others as like themselves
in some ways, and not just sharply different. The Greeks’ old binary