The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes (epic poet, scholar, and director of the Library of Alexandria) tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the mythical land of Colchis. In the Argonautica, Jason is impelled on his quest by king Pelias, who receives a prophecy that a man with one sandal would be his nemesis. Jason loses a sandal in a river, arrives at the court of Pelias, and the epic is set in motion. Nearly every member of the next generation of heroes, as well as Heracles, went with Jason in the ship Argo to fetch the Golden Fleece. This generation also included Theseus, who went to Crete to slay the Minotaur; Atalanta, the female heroine; and Meleager, who once had an epic cycle of his own to rival the Iliad and Odyssey. Pindar, Apollonius and the Bibliotheca endeavor to give full lists of the Argonauts.
Although
Apollonius wrote his poem in the 3rd century BC, the composition of the story
of the Argonauts is earlier than Odyssey, which shows familiarity with
the exploits of Jason (the wandering of Odysseus may have been partly founded
on it).
In ancient times the expedition was regarded as a historical fact, an incident
in the opening up of the Black Sea to Greek commerce
and colonization.It was also extremely popular, forming a cycle to which a number of local
legends became attached. The story of Medea, in particular, caught the
imagination of the tragic poets.
Credit : wikipedia
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