"Argonautics" ( Greek Αργοναυτικά ) - a poem by Apollonius of Rhodes , written in the first half of the III century BC. e. and became the only surviving epic poem of the Hellenistic era.
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Content
Story
The poem tells about the swimming of the Argonauts behind the Golden Fleece. The central character of the first part is Hercules . Then he is left in Mysia, and Jason comes to the fore. Travelers arrive in Colchis; the daughter of the local king Medea, thanks to the intervention of the gods, falls in love with Iason. The heroes abduct the fleece and return home in a long roundabout way - up Istria , through Africa and the land of the feacs .
Features
In the poem, the plot material from mythological turns into a rather fabulous one. Apollonius does not miss the opportunity to demonstrate his erudition: the Argonauts swim along a route unusual for myths, so that the author can use local traditions of various regions and geographical treatises. Apollonius brings into the story many everyday details, while implicitly polemicizing with Homer. So, while in the Iliad, the course of the war is affected by the shot of the Pandar Trojan, which injured Menelaus, then in the Argonautics everything is decided by a shot at Medea Eros, depicted as a playful boy.
Impact
Argonautics was very successful in Rome. It was translated into Latin in the middle of the 1st century BC. e. and had a decisive influence on Virgil in his work on Aeneid .
Translation into Russian
For the first time Argonautics was translated into Russian by G. F. Tsereteli [1] . In 2001, in the series “Literary Monuments”, a new translation was published by N. A. Chistyakova [2] .
Notes
- ↑ Apollonius of Rhodes. Argonautics. / Translation by G. F. Tsereteli. Tb., 1964.
- ↑ Apollonius of Rhodes. Argonautics. / Translation by N. A. Chistyakova. (Series "Literary Monuments"). M., 2001. ISBN 5-86218-288-8