'Apollonius of
Rhodes', also known as 'Apollonius Rhodius' (
Latin;
Greek ''ApollÅnios Rhodios''), early
3rd century BC - after
246 BC, was an
epic poet,
scholar, and director of the
Library of
Alexandria. He is best known for his epic poem the ''
Argonautica'', which told the mythological story of
Jason and the
Argonauts' quest for the
Golden Fleece, and which is one of the chief works in the history of
epic poetry.
He did not come from Rhodes; he only lived in Rhodes for part of his life and while living there adopted "Rhodian" as a surname.
Life
Sources
There are four main sources of information on Apollonius' life: two texts entitled ''Life of Apollonius'' found in the
scholia on Apollonius; the entry on him in the
10th century encyclopaedia the ''
Suda''; and a
2nd century BCE papyrus,
P.Oxy. 1241, which provides names of several heads of the Library of Alexandria. Of these P.Oxy. 1241 carries much more weight than the others, as it is by far the closest to Apollonius' lifetime. Other miscellaneous texts provide further information.
Well-established events
★ 'Birth.' The two ''Lives'' and the ''Suda'' name Apollonius' father as Silleus or Illeus. (The second ''Life'' names his mother as "Rhode", but this is unlikely; ''RhodÄ“'' means "Rhodian woman", and is almost certainly derived from an attempt to explain Apollonius' epithet "Rhodian".) The ''Lives'', the ''Suda'', and the geographical writer
Strabo say that he came from Alexandria;
[1] Athenaeus and
Aelian say that he came from
Naucratis, some 70 km south of Alexandria along the river
Nile.
[2] No source gives the date of his birth.
★ 'Student of Callimachus.' The ''Lives'' and the ''Suda'' agree that Apollonius was a student of the poet and scholar
Callimachus. The second ''Life'' adds that "some say" Apollonius was buried with Callimachus.
★ 'Head of the Library of Alexandria.' The second ''Life'', the ''Suda'', and P.Oxy. 1241 attest that Apollonius held this post. P.Oxy. 1241 establishes moreover that Apollonius was succeeded by
Eratosthenes; this must have been after
247/
246 BCE, the date of the accession of
Ptolemy III Euergetes, who seems to be the monarch that appointed Eratosthenes. (The ''Suda'' says that Apollonius succeeded Eratosthenes, but this is impossible: Apollonius studied with Callimachus, who died ca.
240 BCE; the first ''Life'' says Apollonius was contemporary with Ptolemy III; and Eratosthenes held the post until at least
204 BCE.)
[3]
★ 'Removal from Alexandria to Rhodes.' The ''Lives'' and the ''Suda'' attest to this; so does the attachment of the epithet ''Rhodios'' "the Rhodian" to his name. What is uncertain is whether he died there, or came back to Alexandria in order to take up the position of head of the Library afterwards.
★ 'Death.' Only the two ''Lives'' give information about Apollonius' death, and they disagree. The first says he died in Rhodes; the second says he died after returning to Alexandria.
From this we can conclude that (1) Apollonius was born in either Alexandria or Naucratis; (2) he lived for a time in Rhodes; (3) he held the post of Librarian at least until 246 BCE. From this in turn we may infer that he lived in the early-to-mid
3rd century BCE. Beyond this point lies speculation.
Sensational stories
The
Palatine Anthology preserves an epigram, attributed to "Apollonius the grammarian", which mocks Callimachus and his most famous poem, the ''Aetia'' ("''Causes''"):
[4]
Callimachus: trash, cheat, wood-for-brains.
''aitios'' ("guilty"): the one who wrote Callimachus' ''Aitia'' ("''Causes''").
In addition, multiple sources explain Callimachus' poem ''Ibis'' — which does not survive — as a polemic against an enemy identified as Apollonius.
[5] Between them, these references conjure up images of a sensational literary feud between the two figures. However, the truth of this story continues to be debated in modern scholarship, with views on both sides. Both of the ''Lives'' of Apollonius stress the friendship between the poets, the second ''Life'' even saying they were buried together; and some scholars doubt the sources that identify the ''Ibis'' as a polemic against Apollonius. There is still not a consensus, but most scholars of Hellenistic literature now believe the feud was enormously sensationalised, if it happened at all.
[6]
A second sensationalised story about Apollonius is the account in the ''Lives'' of how, as a young man, he gave a performance of his epic the ''Argonautica'' in Alexandria. He was universally mocked for it, and fled to Rhodes in shame. There he was feted by the Rhodians and given citizenship. After this, according to the second ''Life'', he made a triumphant return to Alexandria, where he was promptly elevated to head of the Library. It is unlikely that much of this is factual; the story is a mixture of "local boy makes good" and "underdog makes a heroic comeback". Fairytale elements such as these are characteristic of ancient biographies.
The ''Argonautica''
Main articles: Argonautica
The ''Argonautica'' differs in some respects from traditional or Homeric Greek epic, though Apollonius certainly used Homer as a model. The ''Argonautica'' is shorter than Homer’s epics, with four books totaling less than 6000 lines, while the
Iliad runs to more than 16,000. Apollonius may have been influenced here by Callimachus’ brevity, or by
Aristotle’s demand for "poems on a smaller scale than the old epics, and answering in length to the group of tragedies presented at a single sitting" (the ''Poetics'').
Apollonius' epic also differs from the more traditional epic in its weaker, more human protagonist Jason and in its many discursions into local custom,
aetiology, and other popular subjects of Hellenistic poetry. Apollonius also chooses the less shocking versions of some myths, having
Medea, for example, merely watch the murder of
Apsyrtus instead of murdering him herself. The gods are relatively distant and inactive throughout much of the epic, following the Hellenistic trend to allegorise and rationalise religion. Heterosexual loves such as Jason's are more emphasized than homosexual loves such as that of
Heracles and
Hylas, another trend in Hellenistic literature. Many critics regard the love of Medea and Jason in the third book as the best written and most memorable episode.
Opinions on the poem have changed over time. Some critics in antiquity considered it mediocre.
[7] Recent criticism has seen a renaissance of interest in the poem and an awareness of its qualities: numerous scholarly studies are published regularly, its influence on later poets like
Virgil is now well recognised, and any account of the history of epic poetry now routinely includes substantial attention to Apollonius.
References
Editions
★ ''
Editio princeps'' (Florence, 1496).
★
Merkel-Keil (with scholia, 1854).
★ Seaton (1900).
Translations
Verse:
★ Greene
1780
★ Fawkes
1780
★ Preston
1811
★ Way
1901
★ Green
1989
Prose:
★ Coleridge
1889
★
Rieu 1959, ''The Voyage of Argo: The Argonautica'' (London) ISBN 0-14-044085-2
★
Hunter 1998, ''Jason and the Golden Fleece'' (Oxford) ISBN 0-19-283583-1
Further reading
★
Beye, C.R. 1993, ''Ancient Epic Poetry: Homer, Apollonius, Virgil'', 2nd ed. (Ithaca) ISBN 0-86516-607-2
★ Clare, R.J.
2002, ''The Path of the Argo: Language, Imagery and Narrative in the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius'' (Cambridge) ISBN 0-521-81036-1
★ Harder, M.A., and M. Cuypers (edd.)
2005, ''Beginning from Apollo: Studies in Apollonius Rhodius and the Argonautic Tradition'' (Leuven) ISBN 90-429-1629-X
★
Hunter, R.L. 1993, ''The Argonautica of Apollonius: Literary Studies'' (Cambridge) ISBN 0-521-41372-9
★ Nelis, D.P.
2001, ''Vergil's Aeneid and the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius'' (Leeds) ISBN 0-905205-97-9
External links
★
★ ''A Hellenistic Bibliography'', with exhaustive bibliographies on Apollonius:
1496-2005,
1496-2005 excluding reviews,
2001-2005,
editions etc.
Notes
1. Strabo 14.2.13.
2. Athenaeus ''Deipnosophistae'' 7.19; Aelian ''On the nature of animals'' 15.23.
3. The ''Suda'' entry on Eratosthenes says that Eratosthenes held the post from the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes until Ptolemy V, ''Suda'' 2898 s.v. .
4. ''Pal. Anth''. 11.322. The translation given here is modelled on that of H.J. Rose.
5. E.g. the ''Suda'' entry on Callimachus, ''Suda'' 227, s.v. .
6. Thus D.P. Nelis 1999, review of P. Green 1997, ''Apollonius: the Argonautica'' (Berkeley), in ''Journal of Hellenic Studies'' 119: 187. For a recent summary of contrasting views, see e.g. A. Cameron 1995, ''Callimachus and his Critics'' (Princeton).
7. Pseudo-Longinus ''On the sublime'' 33.4; Quintilian ''Institutio oratoria'' 10.54.
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