Apollonius of Rhodes: Encyclopedia - Apollonius of Rhodes

Apollonius of Rhodes

Apollonius of Rhodes (Apollonius Rhodius), librarian at Alexandria, was a Greek grammarian and epic poet, who flourished under the Ptolemies Philopator and Epiphanes (222-181 BC). He was the author of Argonautica, a literary epic retelling of ancient material concerning Jason and the Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece in the mythic land of Colchis.

Born at Alexandria, perhaps about 270 BC, Apollonius was a pupil of Callimachus, with whom he subsequently quarrelled. Callimachus' "Hymn to Apollo", closes with some lines that allude to Apollonius, and dates about 248 or 247 BC, which would put Apollonius' birth about twenty years earlier.

In his youth Apollonius composed the work for which he is known-- Argonautica, an epic in four books on the legend of the Argonauts. The young poet departed from Callimachus's learned and artificial style and aimed instead to recreate a Homeric simplicity. He recited an early version while still scarcely more than a youth, but the poem got a poor reception in Callimachus' learned circle at the Library. The quarrel between the older and younger poet degenerated into a bitter personal feud, commemorated in surviving epigrams. Disgusted with his failure, Apollonius withdrew to Rhodes. There his labors as a teacher of rhetoric and his newly revised poem won him hearty recognition and even admission to citizenship, whence his surname. Afterwards, returning to Alexandria, he recited his poem once more, this time with universal applause, and he was reconciled with Callimachus, next to whom he was eventually buried. In 196, Ptolemy Epiphanes appointed Apollonius to succeed Eratosthenes as head of the Alexandrian Library, which office he probably held until his death.

As to the Argonautica, Longinus' (De Sublim. p. 54, 19) and Quintilian's (Instit, x. 1, 54) verdict of mediocrity seems hardly deserved; although it lacks the naturalness of Homer, it possesses a certain simplicity and contains some beautiful passages. There is a valuable collection of scholia. The work, highly esteemed by the Romans, was imitated by Virgil (Aeneid, iv.), Varro Atacinus, and Valerius Flaccus. Marianus (about A.D. 500) paraphrased it in iambic trimeters. Apollonius also wrote epigrams, grammatical and critical works, and Κτισεις (the foundations of cities).

The scanty biographical information on Apollonius comes from two brief "lives" in the Scholia.

The adventure of the Argonauts had been told often before in verse and prose. Only notes of the authors' names survive; their works have perished. The one well-known earlier surviving account is in Pindar's fourth Pythian ode, which provided Apollonius with some details. Epic unity escaped Apollonius, and his epic in four books resolves into a string of well-told episodes, the most memorable being the love story of Jason and Medea in Book III.

Editio Princeps (Florence, 1496), Merkel-Keil (with scholia, 1854), Seaton (1900). English translations: Verse: Greene (1780), Fawkes (1780), Preston (1811), Way (1901); Prose by Coleridge (1889)

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