Jason and Medea (Penguin Little Black Classics) - Softcover

Apollonius Of Rhodes

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141397942 ISBN 13: 9780141397948

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2015

Synopsis

'The Argonauts were terrified at the sight. But Jason planting his feet apart stood to receive them, as a reef in the sea confronts the tossing billows in a gale.'The tragic, epic love affair that allowed Jason to get the Golden Fleece.Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries., They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BCE). Apollonius of Rhodes's The Voyage of Argo is also available in Penguin Classics.

About this title

From the Author:

Apollonius of Rhodes, (born c. 295 bc), Greek poet and grammarian who was the author of the Argonautica. The two lives contained in the Laurentian manuscript of the Argonautica say that Apollonius was a pupil of Callimachus; that he gave a recitation of the Argonautica at Alexandria; and that when this proved a failure he retired to Rhodes. The first life adds the detail that the poet was still an adolescent when this happened, though it had previously said that he turned late to writing poetry. Both lives say that the Argonautica was well received in Rhodes, and the second cites a report that Apollonius returned to Alexandria and was appointed chief librarian. Another work has him succeed Eratosthenes in this post. But in a list of Alexandrian librarians on a late 2nd-century-ad papyrus (Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1241), Apollonius succeeds Zenodotus and precedes Eratosthenes. If this evidence is accepted it may be conjectured that Apollonius became librarian about 260 bc and continued as such until about 247, when he fell out of favour under the new king, Ptolemy Euergetes, and retired to Rhodes. The traditional story of his quarrel with Callimachus was probably an ancient invention. In the Argonautica, an epic in four books on the voyage of the Argonauts, Apollonius adapted the language of Homer to the needs of a romantic epic with considerable success; in recounting Medea’s love for Jason, he shows a capacity for sympathetic analysis not found in earlier Greek literature. Apollonius often holds the reader by his fresh handling of old episodes, his suggestive similes, and his admirable descriptions of nature. In general, his style is informed by a selection of traditional themes and forms that he recasts in accordance with the poetic ideals of his age. Besides the Argonautica, Apollonius wrote epigrams and poems on the foundations (Ktiseis) of cities, most of which are lost. As a grammarian, Apollonius is credited with a work “against Zenodotus” and philological monographs on several Greek poets.

From the Back Cover:

Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.

Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BCE). Apollonius of Rhodes's The Voyage of Argo is also available in Penguin Classics.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0141397942
• ISBN 13: 9780141397948
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 64