Jason and the Argonauts
The first new Penguin Classics translation of the Argonautica since the 1950s
Now in a riveting new verse translation, Jason and the Argonauts (also known as the Argonautica) is the only surviving full account of Jason’s voyage on the Argo in quest of the Golden Fleece aided by the sorceress princess Medea. Written in the third century B.C., this epic story of one of the most beloved heroes of Greek mythology, with its combination of the fantastical and the real, its engagement with traditions of science, astronomy and medicine, winged heroes, and a magical vessel that speaks, is truly without parallel in classical or contemporary Greek literature and is now available in an accessible and engaging translation.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has…
$22.00
October 28, 2014Little is known of the life of Apollonius of Rhodes. Despite his surname he was a citizen of Alexandria in the time of the Ptolemies. His fame rests solely on the Argonautica, a poem which was from the first unfairly compared with Homer's Odyssey, but which Virgil was not ashamed to borrow from. Unlike his life-long rival Callimachus, Apollonius developed the classical traditions of the Homeric epic, expanding them to include a flair for romance and psychological insight which were entirely his own. He published his first version of the Argonautica sometime in the middle of the third century B.C. He was met with derision both from the public and the influential Callimachus, and Apollonius prepared…
Jason and the Argonauts
Apollonius of Rhodes; Translated by Aaron Poochigian; Introduction and Notes by Benjamin Acosta-Hughes