Argonautica Book 3 Lecture PDF

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October 21st, 2019 Argonautica Book 3 ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

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Tells the story about Jason and the Argonauts going on a voyage to retrieve the golden fleece The Argonautica is only 4 books long Books 1 and 2 deal with the journey and adventures Book 3 talks about Jason and Medea and the tasks that Medea’s father sets for Jason to do Book 4 is the return journey, Medea goes back to Greece with Jason, they must escape so they kill her brother and they end up getting married Cinematic in feeling Jason assembles a crew of heroes who are all of divine heritage to sail to Colchis Athena helps him build a ship The story of the Argo and the Argonauts Mythological Background: (family trees are on avenue to learn, have a general idea of where people are in them) ○ Plan concocted to result in Athamas sacrificing his firstborn Phrixus ○ A golden ram arrives and saves Phrixus and Helle, they ride on its back ○ Helle falls off in the sea ○ Phrixus makes it all the way to Colchis in Aea ○ He gives fleece of golden ram to Aetes who marries one of his daughters off to Phrixus ○ One of Athamas’s nieces is Tyro who has a son with Poseidon (Pelias) and another son with Cretheus her husband (Aeson who is Jason’s dad) ○ He sends Jason far away on an impossible quest so that he will never return alive to retrieve golden fleece because his Uncle wants to rule and get rid of Jason so he sends him on this impossible quest ○ Hera likes Jason because when she disguised herself as an old woman, Jason carries her across the river ○ Medea’s sister Chalciope is the one who is married to Phrixus ○ Medea is the granddaughter of Helios the son god (her father is Aeetes) Hellenistic Period (this epic is written during this period) ○ From the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE ○ By the middle of the 4th century, many big Greek cities are weakened by warfare Characteristics of Hellenistic poetry: ○ Poet a reader and scholar as much as a writer ○ Great interest in power of Eros ○ Choice of novel aspects of well-known subject matter ○ Appreciation for smallness and small-scale ○ Calls for a careful and detail-oriented reader ○ Story still holds together even if you don’t notice the smaller details Erato ○ The muse of love poetry and lyric poetry

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The poet invokes the muse Erato to help tell the story Apollonius uses epithets and epic language Uses rare words that occur only once Not only composed orally, written out Episodic 50 heroes joined Jason on the Argo Sons or grandsons of gods Minyans Helen’s brothers are there Jason is a new kind of hero Jason: ■ Trusting in his attitude towards the gods, pious ■ Faith in his heroes ■ Good speaker, puts best spin on any situation ■ Wins over support of others ■ Persuasive ■ Similar in some ways to Odysseus and Achilles, but still a new kind of hero ■ Jason remains calm even when threatened pg 18 paragraph 396 ■ Uncertain, helpless, overwhelmed by task at hand sometimes ■ The tasks for the hero (pg 19) ● Yolk the bronze bulls ● Plant the dragons teeth ● Slay the earth born men that rise ● Must get the golden fleece ■ A human reaction- not a hero’s reaction ■ Not personal fear, selfless fears for his companions ■ Even heracles doesnt make it all the way through ■ Jason wins over necessary allies, never gives up and is persistant ■ Romance with Medea ● Jason needs her magic to slay the bull ● Is he actually attracted to her or is he just trying to convince her to be an ally which he needs ● He tells the story of Theseus and Ariadne, but he leaves out the fact that Theseus abandons Ariadne ■ Arg, 3, page 16-- description of Medea’s reaction to Jason (Eros the destroyer- epithet) eros shoots her with bow and arrow, very cupidlike, psychology, erotic awakening ■ The motivation between Medea’s suffering and decisions ■ Medea torn over desire to stranger and sense of shame but duty toward her father ■ She believes her only way out is suicide but dawn breaks and she recalls the joys of life

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Eros ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

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Later she kills her own brother and then her own children (uh) Hera and Athena go to Aphrodite for help ● New way of representing the gods ● Behaving humanlike ● Saying that Eros acts like a child Aphrodite finds him in the garden playing dice with someone and he is cheating She bribes him with a toy to go inflame Medea with love (once the plaything of zeus, seems to represent the earth) The earliest dramatization of Eros/Cupid in full anthropomorphic form He is indifferent to the pain of others He is willing to gamble for his own pleasure with anybody Poignant depiction of the god and the power of love and the power it will have in book 3 Eros ultimately sets everything in motion

■ Tragedy ○ Greek drama=Athenian drama (evolved here) ○ Few actors, no intermissions ○ Chorus ○ Many characters speak with one voice ○ Everyone wears stylized masks...