cars - Argonauts

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. The Argonauts were: (Jason and Medea are sometimes not counted)

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
Hercules and Hylas wiki.ogg
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
Orpheus and the Thracians wiki.ogg
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

Sources

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica I, 23-227;
Apollodorus, Bibliotheke I, ix, 16.

Categories: Argonauts

Argonauts

Spoken-word myths - audio files

See also

Sources