Argonauts
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- For other uses, see Argonaut.
In Greek mythology, the Argonauts were a band of heroes who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest for the Golden Fleece. They sailed the ship the Argo – hence their name, which literally means "Sailors of the Argo". They were sometimes called Minyans, after a prehistoric tribe of the area.
The ship was named after its builder, Argus, son of Phrixus.
Pelias, king of Iolcus in Thessaly (near the modern city of Volos), had been warned to be on his guard against a man with one shoe and, one day, upon seeing his nephew Jason with only one sandal (the other having been lost in crossing a stream), bade him to go and fetch the Golden Fleece, hoping that he would be killed in the attempt.
Jason was accompanied by some of the principal heroes of ancient Greece. The number of Argonauts varies but usually totals between 40 and 55 – traditional versions of the story place their number at 50.
Some have hypothesised that the legend of the Golden Fleece was based on a practice of the Black Sea tribes of placing a lamb's fleece at the bottom of a stream to entrap particles of gold being washed down from upstream. This practice was still in use in recent times.
The Argonauts (Jason and Medea are sometimes not counted) were:
Hercules_with_Hylas_in_Mysia_-_retouched_and_colored.jpg
Engraving from the Cista Ficoroni, an Etruscan ritual vessel. Villa Borghese, Rome
(Digitally enhanced for visibility)
- Acastus
- Aethalides
- Amphion
- Ascalaphus
- Atalanta (others claim Jason forbade her because she was a woman)
- Autolycus
- Butes
- Calais
- Canthus
- Castor
- Echion
- Euphemus
- Euryalus
- Heracles
- Hylas
- Idas
- Idmon
- Iolas
- Jason
- Laertes
- Lynceus
- Meleager
- Oileus
- Orpheus
- Peleus
- Philoctetes
- Poeas
- Polydeuces
- Polyphemus
- Poriclymenus
- Telamon
- Theseus (others claim he was still in the underworld at the time)
- Tiphys
- Zetes
Spoken-word myths — audio files
| Argonaut myths as told by story tellers |
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| 1. Heracles in Mysia (Hylas episode), read by Timothy Carter, music by Steve Gorn, compiled by Andrew Calimach |
| Bibliography of reconstruction: Homer, Odyssey, 12.072 (7th c. BC); Theocritus, Idylls, 13 (350 - 310 BC); Callimachus, Aetia (Causes), 24. Thiodamas the Dryopian, Fragments, 160. Hymn to Artemis (310 - 250? BC); Apollonios Rhodios, Argonautika, I. 1175 - 1280 (c. 250 BC); Apollodorus, Library and Epitome 1.9.19, 2.7.7 (140 BC); Sextus Propertius, Elegies, i.20.17ff (50 - 15 BC); Ovid, Ibis, 488 (AD 8 - 18); Gaius Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, I.110, III.535, 560, IV.1-57 (1st c. AD); Hyginus, Fables, 14. Argonauts Assembled (1st c. AD); Philostratus the Elder, Images, ii.24 Thiodamas (AD 170 - 245); First Vatican Mythographer, 49. Hercules et Hylas |
| 2. Orpheus and the Thracians, read by Timothy Carter, music by Steve Gorn, compiled by Andrew Calimach |
| Bibliography of reconstruction: Pindar, Pythian Odes, 4.176 (462 BC); Roman marble bas-relief, copy of a Greek original from the late 5th c. (c. 420 BC); Aristophanes, The Frogs 1032 (c. 400 BC); Phanocles, Erotes e Kaloi, 15 (3rd c. BC); Apollonios Rhodios, Argonautika, i.2 (c. 250 BC); Apollodorus, Library and Epitome 1.3.2 (140 BC); Diodorus Siculus, Histories I.23, I.96, III.65, IV.25 (1st c. BC); Conon, Narrations, 45 (50 - 1 BC); Virgil, Georgics, IV.456 (37 - 30 BC); Horace, Odes, I.12; Ars Poetica 391-407 (23 BC); Ovid, Metamorphoses X.1-85, XI.1-65 (AD 8); Seneca, Hercules Furens 569 (1st c. AD); Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica II.7 Lyre (2st c. AD); Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.30.2, 9.30.4, 10.7.2 (143 - 176 AD); Anonymous, The Clementine Homilies, Homily V Chapter XV.-Unnatural Lusts (c. 400 AD); Anonymous, Orphic Argonautica (5th c. AD); Stobaeus, Anthologium (c. 450 AD); Second Vatican Mythographer, 44. Orpheus |
See also
- Argo Navis
- Jason for more details on the quest for the Golden Fleece
- Toronto Argonauts
Sources
- Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica I, 23-227;
- Apollodorus, Bibliotheke I, ix, 16.bg:Аргонавти
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