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.

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:

  1. Acastus
  2. Aethalides
  3. Amphion
  4. Argus
  5. Ascalaphus
  6. Atalanta (others claim Jason forbade her because she was a woman)
  7. Autolycus
  8. Butes
  9. Calais
  10. Canthus
  11. Castor
  12. Cytissorus
  13. Echion
  14. Euphemus
  15. Euryalus
  16. Heracles
  17. Hylas
  18. Idas
  19. Idmon
  20. Iolaus
  21. Jason
  22. Laertes
  23. Lynceus
  24. Melas
  25. Meleager
  26. Oileus
  27. Orpheus
  28. Palaemon
  29. Peleus
  30. Philoctetes
  31. Phrontis
  32. Poeas
  33. Polydeuces
  34. Polyphemus
  35. Poriclymenus
  36. Talaus
  37. Telamon
  38. Theseus (others claim he was still in the underworld at the time)
  39. Tiphys
  40. Zetes

Spoken-word myths - audio files

Argonaut myths as told by story tellers
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

Sources

Argonaut   Index

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