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Placing the unplaceable: The making of Apollonius' Argonautic geography
Dag Oistein Endsjo
Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Winter 1997; 38, 4; ProQuest
pg. 373

Placing the Unplaceable: 
The Making of Apollonius' 

Argonautic Geography 

Dag 0istein EndsjrJ 

I
N HIS EPIC MASTERPIECE, the Argonautica, Apollonius of 
Rhodes gives an apparently straightforward description of 
the wondrous route of the Argo. The swift ship sets out 

from Thessalian Iolcus-the native polis of Jason, the captain­
and after making a number of stopovers around the Aegean, the 
Bosporus, and the Pontic littoral (Argon. 1.580-2.1259), the 
crew finally disembarks in Colchis, modern Georgia.1 Cauca­
sian Colchis is ruled by the dangerous king Ad:tes, whose 
daughter, Medea, joins the Argonauts for their way back to 
Greece. On her return the A rgo also touches at various places 
easy to find on the map. The ship goes, for example, to various 
coastal sites in Italy, where Apollonius places most of the 
ordeals that Odysseus later will experience. Calypso's island, 
Circe's homestead, the alluring Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, 
and the nAClYK'tCll-the floating rocks-are all found on or 
around the Apennine peninsula. 2 After also casting anchor by 
the island of Corcyra-in this context inhabited by the Odys­
sean Phaeacians-and along the northern coast of Libya, Jason 
and his Argonauts return to Iolcus. 3 

We are, however, left with a practical problem, as the author 
offers a highly problematic route for the ship's passage from the 
Black Sea to the western Mediterranean: the Argo sails up the 
Ister (Danube), then exits into the Adriatic Sea through an 
imaginary branch of the Ister (4.300-30). As Vian points out, 
Apollonius' geography seems in general to represent a synthesis 

1 Argon. 2.1260-85. This is consequently also where the Golden Fleece, the 
object of the quest, is to be found. 

2 Calypso's island: Argon. 4.572-75; Circe: 4.659-63; Sirens: 4.891£; Scylla 
and Charybdis: 4.922f; IT AU)'lCtai: 4.924-60 

J Phaeacian Corcyra: 4.982-97; Libya: 4.1228-1628. 

373 



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374 APOLLONIUS' ARGONAUTIC GEOGRAPHY 

of that of his contemporaries. 4 Even the Illyrian branch of the 
Ister may have had some basis in general geographical miscon­
ceptions.s Apollonius' next maneuver is, however, quite un­
paralleled. From the innermost nook of the Adriatic the Argo­
nauts sail up the River Po, subsequently identified with the 
mythical stream Eridanus. This waterway is moreover con­
nected to the Rhodanus (Rhone), a river that thereupon leads 
the ship into the western Mediterranean (Argon. 4.S9S-()Sl). 

Apollonius' problems in planning an itinerary for the return 
that would harmonize with the actual geography of the Mediter­
ranean are not exceptional among writers of the Argonautic 
myth. The return route, clearly an ancient dilemma, is treated 
very differently by various writers. Although Euripides and his 
contemporary Herodotus let the Argo go and return by the 
same course,6 this is not a feasible solution for most authors. 
This is evident in their struggle to find any other feasible egress 
from the Black Sea. It is as if the basic frame of the myth 
restrains the wondrous ship from a homecoming that merely 
repeats the voyage out. Even though the extensive Argonautic 
material is inconclusive, we may nevertheless sense the logic of 
the ancient 1t£prrlYTl<Ju; behind the shifting itinerary: 7 if the Argo 

4 F. Vian, Apollonios de Rhodes: Argonautiques lIF (BuM ed., Paris 1996) 
17. 

5 Some sources indicate that certain authorities actually asserted this misper­
ception of the Danube: "Le Ps.-Skylax (§ 20) situe en Istrie l'estutaire occi­
dental de l'Istros. II s'agit en fI:alite d'une petite riviere, homonyme de l'Istros 
pontique" (Vian [supra nA] 26). According to the scholiast (ad 4.282-91b), 
Apollonius copied this part of the Argonautic route from the example of the 
early Hellenistic geographer Timaegetus. An Adriatic mouth of the Danube 
occurs in both Theopompus' fourth-century B.C. Philippica (FGrHist 115 F129= 
Strab. 7.5.9) and in Hipparchus in the second century B.C. (Strab. 1.3.15). 
Ready acceptance that the Argonauts took this impossible route is demon­
strated by the numerous sites in the Adriatic associated with the Argonauts 
and the Colchians who pursued them. Both Strabo and his older contem­
porary, Diodorus Siculus, however, find the claim of a branch of the Ister 
pouring into the Adriatic definitely incorrect: Strab. 1.3.15, 7.5.9; Diod. 4.56.7f. 

6 Eur. Med. If, 1236; Hdt., FGrHist 31FI0 (=l:Ap. Rhod. Argon. 4.259). 
7 Hesiod, the earliest source to tie both the mythical river Phasis, the world­

embracing Oceanus, and the most distant shore of the Libyan continent into 
the itinerary, clearly indicates that the Argo's passage originally may have 
represented a circumnavigation of the the world disc. See l:Ap. Rhod. Argon. 
4.282-91 b (,Hotooo<; 01: Ou'x cl>uotOOo<; do1t£1tM::uKEVat !..Eyn), 257-62b CHotoOo<; 
01: ... 011'1 taU 'QKWVOU !p(XOtV VJkiv autou<; d<; At~uTlv): both ap. Hes. Cat. 
fem. fro 45, in H. G. Evelyn-White, Hesiod: The Homeric Hymns and 
Homerica (Loeb ed., London 1914). 



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DAG 0ISTEIN ENDS]0 375 

originally was considered to have circumnavigated the world 
disc, then a return by another way than the voyage to Colchis 
would be an essential aspect of the story. 

But instead of joining this ancient quest for the exact route of 
the return, I would like to concentrate on the more basic 
question behind all this confusion. Why is the mythical itinerary 
of the Argonauts so hard to combine with the geographical 
realities? 

To answer this question, it would seem relevant to follow 
Apollonius' route to the uttermost point where the geography 
appears uncomplicated, namely Colchis. In spite of Apollonius' 
easily discernible cruise through the southern Black Sea to mod­
ern Georgia, not even this appears to represent a simple line on 
the map. Looking at earlier sources, one suddenly discovers 
that Colchis itself, an apparently solid target, seems to evapo­
rate. Before the fifth century B.C. poets Pindar and Simonides,8 
there is in fact no clear identification of either Medea or her 
OAOO<pProv father, Aeetes, with the land of the eastern Euxine 
Sea.9 As Bunbury points out, the legend of the Argonautic 
voyage was "already familiar to the Greeks in the age of Ho­
meric poems, long before either the Milesians or Megarians had 
penetrated the Euxine [Black Sea]. "'10 Hall emphasizes that 
Medea, accordingly, is not depicted in foreign costume until the 
fifth century.ll It is as if Ae(!tes and his daughter, at this early 
stage in the myth, belong to a category beyond the well­
developed notion of the barbarian. 

Although an ancient Colchian connection must therefore be 
discarded, we nevertheless have something that appears to be 
an earlier name for the homeland of this dangerous son of 
Helios. Already the seventh-century poet Mimnermus identi­
fies the land of Aeetes with Aea, a name simply meaning 
"Land. "'12 This vague, geographical term must relate to the name 
of Aeetes, which can thus be translated as the "Man of the 
Land .... 

8 Pind. Pyth. 4.11, 212; Simon. PMG 545 (=I:Eur. Med. 19). 
9 D. 0. Endsj0, To Be and Not Be: Liminal Aspects of Greek Mythical 

Geography (Diss. University of Bergen 1996) 69. 
]0 E. H. Bunbury, A History of Ancient Geography among the Greeks and 

Romans (London 1883) 127. 
]] E. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian (Oxford 1989) 19. 
]2 Mimnermus 11 West (=Strab. 1.2.40). 



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376 APOLLONIUS' ARGONAUTIC GEOGRAPHY 

Unlike Colchis, Aea is not in modern Georgia, just some­
where "'in the east." Disconnected from the Caucasian country 
with which it is later identified, the homeland of Aeetes and 
Medea is suddenly a realm impossible to pinpoint on a map. 
Homer, for example, does not offer a specific location for the 
land of Aeetes. He nevertheless has Circe, Aeetes' sister, 
observe that the Argo, on her way back from Aeetes' land, is 
the only vessel that has so far managed to pass through the 
dreaded nA(lYK't(ll, the wandering rocks (Od. 12.70). These 
rocks appear to be not far from Circe's Aeaea, which, according 
to Homer, is the land of the rising sun, placed somewhere in 
the eastern Oceanus (Od. 12.3f). The landlocked Black Sea, 
which will later represent an obligatory part of the Argonautic 
itinerary, is nowhere either mentioned or indicated. 

That the most ancient Greeks in this way saw a connection 
between Circe's Aeaea and the Aea of her brother Aeetes is not 
surprising. As all sources, from Homer on, have the A rgo navi­
gating in the far east, it seems logical that Aeetes' Aea, like 
Circe's Aeaea, also is originally found at the world's end, at the 
brim of Oceanus where the sun rises. 13 This is accordingly also 
where Mimnermus places this vague and undefined country: 
somewhere in Oceanus by the rising of the sun, where the 
sun's rays are kept in a golden chamber.H By most geographical 
standards, these directions are as elusive as Never-Never­
Land's "'second star to the right and straight until morning." 
Such a location would, however, represent a geography that 
suits the lineage of Aeetes, as the son of Helios and the daughter 
of Oceanus. 

Continuing this tradition of a fairy-tale geography, Hesiod is 
said to have had the Argo sail into Oceanus through the mighty 
stream of Phasis,15 one of Oceanus' numerous offspring (Hes. 
Th. 340). This vast stream does not appear in any way to be the 

\3 As the ocean and celestial elements thus are combined, it is interesting to 
note that J. S. Romm, The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought (Princeton 
1992) 15, proposes that this should be understood literally: "the many passages 
in epic poetry which describe the sun and stars as arising from or setting into 
Ocean, and in particular Homer's assertion that Ursa Major lacks a 'share of 
the baths of Ocean' (Hom. Od. 5.275, Hom. Jl. 18.489), were taken to mean 
that Ocean's waters extended to the edge of the celestial dome. H 

14 Mimnermus 11 West (=Strab. 1.2.40): M tJlVEpJlOV. o~ £V 'tij> Wl(wvij> 
ltotlj(Ja~ 't1)V Ot1CT1(JlV 'tou Atlj'tou ltpO~ 'tU'i~ ava'toA.a'i~ £l('tO~. 

15 LArgon. 4.282-91 b: 'H(Jtooo~ OE Our <l>a(J108o~ elmtE1tAEUl(EVat AEYEt 
(= Cat. fern. fr. 45). 



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DAG 0ISTEIN ENDS]0 377 

same as the river in classical times identified with the Phasis, the 
Colchian Rioni flowing into the eastern Black Sea. This 
Caucasian river has no connection whatsoever with the world­
embracing Oceanus; Hesiod's waterway is a great river 
connecting the inner sea with the outer Oceanus. For Hesiod, 
the Phasis is a mythical waterway leading from somewhere in 
the Mediterranean to a route that enabled the Argo literally to 
circumnavigate the world. 

How then could the mighty Phasis turn into a tiny streamlet, 
as it is in Apollonius' epic? Bolton finds it likely that Phasis 
originally was a legendary but imaginary river. Thereupon it 
became identified with the mighty Tanals (modern Don), a 
waterway that would prove a likely connection to Oceanus. 16 

When the Tanals, along with the other major rivers, were no 
longer considered to flow from Oceanus to the Mediter­
ranean,17 the much smaller Caucasian Rioni would be identified 
with the mythical Phasis. This, at least, was the furthest east one 
could venture from the Black Sea. 

As Phasis was not orignally found in Colchis, Hesiod's inclu­
sion of this great river in the Argonautic itinerary can in no way 
be seen to indicate that Hesiod placed Aeetes anywhere in 
Caucasia. Rather, the stress on the Argo's route via the Phasis 
out into the world-embracing Oceanus suggests that Hesiod 
would not disagree with Mimnermus' location of Aeetes' land 
at the absolute end of the world. 

Nevertheless, a number of authorities on ancient Colchis still 
argue for an ancient link with the land of Aeetes. Otar Lord­
kipanidze claims on the basis of Herodotus that "'die beiden 
synonymen Ortsnamen (Aia und Kolchis) zwei verschiedene 
chronologische Ebenen der Namengebungen bezeichnen. 
Dabei mii6te Aia die ::titeren sein."18 But, as I have tried to dem-

16 ]. D. P. Bolton, Aristeas of Proconnesus (Oxford 1962) 55-58. 
17 Already from the fourth century B.C., when Timaeus has the Argo sail to 

the source of the Tanals, whence they hauled the ship overland to Oceanus 
(FGrHist 566F85=Diod. 4.56.3), the discussion concerns where on the Eur­
asian continent the sources of the Tanals were. The mythical connection of 
rivers between the world-embracing Oceanus and the Mediterranean was 
thus disregarded at an early point. Cf A. Hermann, -Tanais (1)," RE IV.A.2 
(1932) 2162f. 

18 O. Lordkipanidze, Das alte Georgien (Kolchis und Iberien) in Strabons 
Geographie. Neue Scholien (Amsterdam 1996) 43. In claiming that Aea is an 
older synonym for Colchis, Lordkipanidze refers to T. K. Mikeladse, 
Dziebani kolchetisa sa samchretagmosawlet schawizgwispiretis udzwelesi 
mosachleobis istoriidan (Tbilisi 1974) 159. 



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378 APOLLONIUS' ARGONAUTIC GEOGRAPHY 

onstrate, Aea, the "older synonym," in the most ancient 
sources is not identified with Caucasia at all. In rejecting the 
idea of Aea as "ursprunglich ein geheimnisvolles und hinter der 
Grenze der bewohnten Erde gelegenes Land" 19 because the 
Argonauts first passed through the entrance of the Black Sea, 
Lordkipanidze is presupposing a connection between Homer's 
llAUYK'tui and the Bosphorus. This connection cannot be de­
duced from the Homeric text and is not found in sources 
before the fifth century B.C .20 Lordkipanidze refers to a possible 
Hittite origin of the myth of Jason and Medea, a theory based 
on Haas' comparison of references elsewhere to wondrous 
fleeces and guardian monsters. But even if this is correct and 
thus locates the origin of the myth in the direction of Colchis, 
the Hittite material does not in any way help to identify Aea 
with a specific place.21 

In his study of ancient Georgia, David Braund also identifies 
the eastern Euxine as the location of the Argonauts' voyage, 
referring to Hesiod's treatment of the Phasis River, the 
mythical waterway that Braund assumes always has been placed 
in this area. 22 He then argues that "the Iliad links Jason with 
Lemnos on the way to the Black Sea,"23 when in fact Homer 
says nothing of where the Argo sailed after visiting Lemnos. A 
more important reference, however, is that of Hesiod's contem­
porary, Eumelus of Corinth, who "places Aeetes among the 
Colchians." Eumelus' story, however, is preserved in an 
indirect quotation in Pausanias' Periegesis of the second 
century, when Aea had become so regularly identified with 
Colchis that no one would react to using the one name for the 
other. But when Pausanias, 900 years after Eumelus (PEG 3= 
Paus. 2.3.10), writes EUjlTjAO<; [ ... J £<pTj [ ... J AiiJ'tTjv U1ttoV'tu e<; 
K6AXOU<;, I do not find the connection conclusive. 

Dion, likewise assuming a link between Colchis and Aea, tries 
to explain away all the most ancient material that places Aea 
somewhere in Oceanus by referring to an "'oceanisation' de 
Jason." This process apparently must have taken place before 

19 Lordkipanidze (supra n.18) 159. 
20 Cf. Od. 12.59-72; Pind. Pyth. 4.203-10; Hdt. 4.85. 
21 V. Haas, "Medea und Jason im Lichte hethitischer Quellen, n AntHung 

26 (1978) 241-53; Lordkipanidze (supra n.18) 39f. 
22 D. Braund, Georgia in Antiquity: A History of Colchis and Transcau­

casian Iberia 550 BC-AD 562 (Oxford 1994) 15. 
23 Braund (supra n.22) 15 (my emphasis). Il. 7.467-79 (cf. 23.747) mentions 

the son of Jason and Hypsipyle, the queen of Lemnos. 



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DAG 0ISTEIN ENDS]0 379 

the time of the extant sources.24 Dion defends his novel sug­
gestion with another innovative theory, claiming that "}'Aietes 
oceanique" is a duplicate of the Caucasian Aeetes: both are off­
spring of the Sun, the former being the brother of Circe, the 
latter the father of Medea.25 This interesting theory has scant 
foundation in the sources. Dion is, as far as I know, the only 
one who has ever understood Hesiod as writing about two sons 
of Helios with the name of Ad:tes. 26 

As Aeetes and Medea's homeland was situated originally at 
the end of the earth and not in Colchis, we are left with a loca­
tion that cannot be identified with any actual geography. The 
way these unplaceable spaces were reinteryreted and placed 
within the bounds of known landscapes is, 0 course, related to 
the general rationalist critique initiated by Xenophanes and the 
other Presocratic philosophers. Apollonius' location of the vari­
ous Odyssean sites in the western Mediterranean likewise 
results from a similar rationalizationP 

Given that in the fifth century B.C. Aea is already being identi­
fied with Colchis, it is evident Apollonius did not initiate this 
impulse. The interesting aspect of this process highlighted by 
Apollonius' epic is that it occurs simultaneously with the gen­
eral expansion of geographical knowledge among the Greeks 
through trade and colonization. 28 In attempting to combine the 
mythical account with the facts of their extended geographical 
knowledge, the classical and Hellenistic Greek poets and my­
thographers saw that sailing eastward in a landlocked Mediter­
ranean did not lead very far. Thus the geographical realities 
literally reduced the itinerary. From the wondrous land of the 
rising sun, Aea is suddenly transformed into a mere city in 
Colchis, which, sailing east, is as far as one gets going in that 
direction. In placing the Colchian littoral close to 1tOV'tOU Kal 

ratTle; [ ... J raxanncrtv, Apollonius, in fact, applies the term 
Homer and Hesiod reserve for the absolute, physical end of the 

24 R. Dion, Aspects politiques de La geographie antique (Paris 1977) 58-62. 
25 Dion (supra n.24) 6lf. 
26 Hes. Th. 956-62: 'HEAlCP 0' (lK:Ul!av'tt 'tE1CEV KA.\l'tO<; 'QKEUVivTJ OEpcrTJl.<; 

KipKTJv 'tE Kal. A ifJ'tTJv ~acrtAi1a. A ifJ'tTJ<; 0' Uto<; q>aEO"tl!~p6'tou 'HEAWto K01JPTJV 
'QKEUVOtO 'tEAtlEV'tO<; 1tO'tal!Qto yijl!E SECOV ~ouAncrtV 'IOutav KaAAutUPll0v. n Ot 
Ot MfJoEtav Eucrqmpov EV qnAO'tTJ'tt ydvae· 1lltOOl!TJSEtcra oUl XpucrETJV 'AIPPOOl'tTJV. 

27 L. Pearson, .. Apollonius of Rhodes and the Old Geographers,» AlP 59 
(1938) 446f. 

28 For an extensive overview of how the Greeks' knowledge of the world 
gradually expanded, see Bunbury (supra n.1 0). 



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380 APOLLONIUS' ARGONAUTIC GEOGRAPHY 

earth and the world-encircling Oceanus,29 suggesting that 
Apollonius considers these most ancient poets to have a world 
view limited within the extension of the geographical know­
ledge of his own contemporaries. 

This reduction of the outward route, which of course also 
renders impossible the circumnavigation of the world disc, ex­
plains at the same time why neither Homer, Hesiod, nor even 
Pindar worried about the return: given access to the world­
embracing Oceanus as a feasible route, it is easy to let the Argo 
circumnavigate the earth. But reinterpreting the return without 
having the mythical possibility of reaching this practical sea 
route makes the way back actually impossible, if one is to retain 
the tradition that prohibits the Argo from returning the same 
way it went out. Thus the rationalization of geography eventu­
ally forces Apollonius to create a waterway independent from 
the contemporary geographic belief. In his attempt to place the 
unplaceable, he must have realized that it is not possible to 
devise an itinerary that actually is compatible with the real 
world. Apollonius therefore has to create a new 'impossible' 
geography. 

Although Apollonius goes to the paradoxical extent of making 
up routes in order to save his overall rational reinterpretation of 
the Argonautic itinerary, the space that the Argonauts traverse 
represents no straightforward geography. Apollonius' literary 
world reflects a landscape of confusion, a landscape where even 
space itself is unsettled. Here there are both clashing and 
wandering rocks,30 soil from which armed men will grow when 
sowed with dragon teeth (Argon. 3.1354-58), while in Libya all 

29 Argon. 2.418; cf. 2.1260f: lI(OV'tO <l>O:<Jtv 't '£upu pEov'ta, l(a1. E<Jxa'ta ltdpa'ta 
mJV'tQ'\). Cf ltdpa9' llCTlG\ yaille; l(a1. ltov'tOtO (ll. 8.478f); E<Jxa'ta yaille; (Hes. 
Th. 731); ltetpa'ta yaille; (/l. 14.200,301; Od. 4.563,9.284; Hymn. Hom. Yen. 
227; Hes. Th. 334f, 518, 622); ltdpa9' 'QI(WVOe; (Od. 11.13). 

JO 'Apa<J<J0IlEvG\ ltE'tpG\ (Argon. 2.549-604); ltE'tpG\ d.aYI('tai (4.924-55). 
Apollonius is the first known author who operates with two sets of ambu­
lating rocks. The first set, the horrible floating rocks of Homer (nAaYI('tai, 
Od. 12.61), Apollonius identifies with Bosphorus. This is a tradition that can 
be traced back to the fifth century B.C (Hdt. 4.85). The second set is, in fact, 
only a duplication of the Homeric rocks retained to explain why Homer 
could describe his treacherous rocks as close to the abode of Circe, which 
Apollonius places in the west. Homer's original rocks were, of course, close to 
the rising sun. Apollonius' inferior copy, moreover, does not appear to impress 
even its innovator, for passing this second set of moving rocks is presented as 
a relatively uneventful incident in comparison with the passing of the first set, 
which has all the characteristics of an onerous ordeal (Argon. 4.924-60; 
2.549-610). 



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DAG 0ISTEIN ENDS]0 381 

distinct spatial features seem absent, the very land stretching 
out Tt€pl iaa-like mist (4.1245-49). This imaginary geography, 
moreover, includes such denizens as Harpies and Sirens, 
dragons, fire-breathing bulls, and brazen giants. 31 Similarly, 
Apollonius demonstrates that means of transport normally im­
practical are actually helpful in these surreal landscapes, such as 
the gold ram that carries Phrixus across the sea to Aeetes' abode 
(2.1143ff; cf 1.763f). The Argo is hardly an ordinary ship. Al­
though Apollonius reduces the Hesiodic and Pindaric accounts 
of how the Argo was carried straight across the Libyan con­
tinent,32 he still operates with a vessel that may cross long 
distances on dry land (4.1381-87). The way the ship is literally 
said to fly, as if by divine assistance, through the two sets of am­
bulating rocks 33 may also indicate that Apollonius is trying to 
rationalize earlier accounts of a flying ship, though the previous 
material here is inconclusive. 

These nonsensical landscapes seem to recall the most distant 
periphery described by various classical and early Hellenistic 
geographers. Even the periphery's landscapes have an inde­
finable character. Journeying northwards with the fifth-century 
B.C. Herodotus, one ends by encountering air completely 
impenetrable, filled with either feathers or snow (Hdt. 4.31). 
On his journey to the world's edge in the ultimate northwest, 
the fourth-century B.C. Greek captain, Pytheas of Massalia, wit­
nesses a complete negation of all separate basic entities of the 
physical world: he is checked by a formless mass comprised of 
"neither earth, nor sea, nor air, but a kind of mixture of these" 
(Strab. 2.4.1). A removal of all spatial distinctions is thus 
suggested. 

As for the denizens of the periphery, one finds also an 
apparent lack of proper categories as indicated in the descrip­
tion of the landscape. This is exemplified by the equality and 
actual physical similarity between the sexes in Herodotus' lands 

31 Harpies: 2.187ff; Sirens: 4.891-921; dragons: 4.127-30; fire-breathing bulls: 
3.1288-1319; brazen giants: 4.1638-48. 

32 For Hesiod (Cat. fern. fro 45=I:Ap. Rhod. Argon. 4.257-62b), after the 
Argonauts' journey "through Oceanus" they disembarked in the furthest 
parts of Libya, whence the carry the Argo to reach "Our Sea," i.e., the Mediter­
ranean. Cf Pind. Pyth. 4.25f. 

33 At the Bosphorus the ship is carried U1jIOU 01: JlEtaXPOVlT]. which may be 
translated as "high in the air" (Argon. 2.587); at the nAUYK'tui the ship is 
definitely well up in the air as the playful Nereids treat it as a bathing ball 
(4.950-55). 



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382 APOLLONIUS' ARGONAUTIC GEOGRAPHY 

of the bald people and the Issedones (4.26, 23), and in the land 
of the Atarantes no individual has any name of his or her own 
by which to be identified (4.184). The Ethiopians' closeness to 
the dead and their longevity, like that of the Hyperboreans, 
seem to have erased the distinction beween both the dead and 
the living and between men and gods. 34 Describing how people 
at the sources of the Ganges sustain themselves on the vapors 
of roasted meats and the fragrance of flowers, the founh­
century B.C. Megasthenes (ap. Strab. 15.1.57) gives these deni­
zens of the periphery a diet that resembles that of the Olym­
pians rather than that of proper human beings. Men with goats' 
feet in the Asian periphery (Hdt. 4.25), dog-headed men in 
India and Libya,3S and the furry and clawed people that Alexan­
der's admiral Nearchus encountered near the Indus (Arr. Ind. 
24.1-9) similarly blur the line between humanity and the sphere 
of animals. 

Two major differences, however, distinguish the geography 
of Apollonius from that of Herodotus and his successors. The 
first is one of place. Apollonius' fantastic geography is found 
well within the limits of the olKoul.t£vT\-the known and more 
or less civilized world-while the more irrational landscapes of 
Herodotus and the geographers are always outside the OlKOU­
Il£VT\ towards the end of the world. When Herodotus, for 
example, describes the territory within the limits of the 
OlKOUI.t£VT\, he is accordingly down to earth and does not veer 
off easily into the fantastic. 

The second major difference is the aspect of time. Apollonius' 
confused geography is set in the past, while the landscapes out­
side the OiKOUIlEVT\ of his various contemporaries represent the 
present. As one follows the adventurous Argonauts, one soon 
realizes why the nonsensical elements in the geography of the 
OlKOUIlEVT\ represent the past. The irrational elements are elim­
inated as the A rgo sails through them; the passage actually 
civilizes the geography or, more precisely, it places the un­
placeable. 

The known geography of the OlKOUIlEVT\ is actually created 
from a spatial primeval chaos. From what originally represents a 
blur of undefined time, space, and social categories, Apollonius' 
Argonauts, through their achievements, inaugurate history and 
incorporate this realm into the rationally perceived world. 

34 Hdt. 4.23-24; Megasthenes, FGrHist 715F27b (=Strab. 15.1.57). 
35 Hdt. 4.191; Ael. NA 4.46; cf Strab. 1.2.35 on Hesiod and Aeschylus. 



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DAG 0ISTEIN ENDSJ0 383 

Apollonius' tale is thus the ancient history of how the rest of 
the Mediterranean world was created from primordial chaos, 
just as the landscape of the Greek lands is understood to have 
emerged from an undifferentiated blur.36 At the moment of the 
Argo's departure from the polis, Orpheus' song of "how the 
earth, the heaven, and the sea once mingled together" (1.496f) 
effectively hints at this ultimate consequence of the Argonauts' 
mission. As this confused state once was the condition even of 
Greece, this is still the state of the periphery to which they are 
heading and which they consequently will put into an order 
similar to their native land. 

Orpheus' song can also be seen as referring to the amorphous 
landscapes of Apollonius' Libya (4.1245-49). The Hellenistic 
poet actually has this continent reflect the undifferentialed 
primordial substance that Anaximander considered to have 
preceded all thingsY All the illogical combinations of different 
elemen ts here in fact depict the area's general primordial 
quality. Apollonius also connects the motley ensemble fol­
lowing Circe-creatures consisting of limbs apparently so 
haphazardly assembled that these figures resemble neither 
beasts nor humans-with autochthonous forms of life that ap­
peared automatically from the first amorphous substance: 38 an 
idea he seems to have taken from Empedocles' theories on the 
creation.39 

The Argonauts' heroic endeavour opens up distant lands for 
the common man, who lacks their heroic stature; and it actually 
creates the way through previously unknown territories. As 
chaos is in this way put into order, Apollonius' Clashing Rocks 
accordingl y come to rest after the A rgo has passed through 
them (2.604ff). When Jason's paramour Medea slays Talus, the 
giant survivor from the bronze age (4.1638-88), she simultane­
ously puts an end to that ancient era and opens up this part of 
the periphery for men of the present age. The Argonauts 
similarly remove the marauding Harpies (2.269-300) and Medea 

36 Thucydides (1.3), for example, refers to an ancient period when "the 
Greeks were not yet known by one name, and so marked off as something 
separate. n 

37 12A15 D-K (=Arist. Ph. 203b). 
38 Argon. 4.676-77: 'toiolJ<; KUt npo't£pT]<; £~ iAUO<; £~M<J'tT]<J1: xerov uu'tl] 

Jl.tK'tOt<JlV aP11PI:JJ.£yOlJ<; Jl.1:A.£1:<J<JlV. 

39 31A72 D-K (=Aet. 5.19.5). For a more extensive survey of Empedocles' 
fragments on zoogonic theories see Kirk-Raven, Presocratic Philosophers2 

302-305. 



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384 APOLLONIUS' ARGONAUTIC GEOGRAPHY 

lulls the dragon to sleep (4.145-66), while Jason with his own 
hands subdues the fire-breathing bulls (3.1288- 1319). 

As the geography is domesticated, divine Circe, the 
wondrous Phaeacians, and the other Odyssean ordeals no 
longer have any place; but the Argonauts do not remove these 
figures, even though they all seem to have disappeared from 
Apollonius' contemporary Mediterranean landscapes. Literary 
history obliges Apollonius to retain these Odyssean elements in 
his Argonautic passage as ordeals and challenges for the hero 
from Ithaca to confront later. 

In Apollonius' Argonautic landscape one finds a radical rein­
terpretation of Homeric geography. Homer's nAaYK'tat never 
cease from moving, but remain forever an ordeal for whoever 
may venture into these places of the human imagination. 40 The 
passage of Odysseus does not change the space he traverses. 
Although Apollonius' rocks become everyday scenery the mo­
ment a passing hero is able to withstand the ordeal, Homer's 
rocks represent an eternally irrational geography far away from 
the normal existence of humanity. Homer is operating within a 
geography situated not only beyond the human ken but forever 
beyond any ordinary sense of time and space. 

The wondrous geography of Homer is nevertheless quite 
similar to the fantastic contemporary periphery of the classical 
and early Hellenistic geographers. One is actually looking at the 
same kind of space. The irrational geographies of Herodotus 
and of Pytheas are the landscapes the Greeks never brought 
into order. Beyond the OlKOUI1EVT\ there is still a space of 
primeval confusion awaiting a Greek hero to define and locate 
within proper categories. 

In sum, Apollonius' Argonautica is a civilizing epic. It reinter­
prets a wondrous passage through a mythical geography as a 
story of how the known world is discovered and put within the 
proper definitions of time and space. As it is a story of how the 
OlKOUI1EVT\ was shaped, certain restrictions have to be imposed 
upon the itinerary. Instead of imagining the Argo's journey to 
the most distant parts of the world as described by Herodotus 
and the many geographers in the wake of Alexander, Apol­
lonius brings the passage well within the known geography of 
his contemporaries. Lands never transformed into accessible 
areas for the common Hellene have to be left out of Apol-

40 Cf D. 13. Endsj"" -To Lock Up Eleusis: A Question of Liminal Space," 
Numen (forthcoming). 



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DAG 0ISTEIN ENDS]0 385 

lonius' itinerary. Arguing against the Argo's voyage through the 
most remote parts of Oceanus, the Augustan geographer Strabo 
consequently claims that "a voyage through regions desolate 
and uninhabited and so out of the way from our part of the 
world would be neither famous nor 'in all men's minds'. '" 41 The 
geographers of the most distant periphery based their stories 
more on rumors than actual reports-the magnificent lands of 
the Hyperboreans and the Ethiopians were simply not reach­
able. A Persian army is gradually reduced to cannibalistic 
savages as they unsuccessfully attempt to reach Ethiopia (Hdt. 
3.25); Pindar simply states that "neither by ship nor by foot can 
you find the wondrous road to the meeting-place of the Hyper­
boreans. "'42 For Apollonius also, Oceanus has accordingly 
changed into a realm too distant for the Argonauts: as the crew 
is about to set out in this direction, they are checked through 
the intervention of Hera. The poet (4.637-44) even adds that 
this was a close call, as the Argo otherwise surely would have 
perished and met an inglorious end in outer Oceanus. 

Thus Apollonius' identification of the Argonautic itinerary 
with actual sites has placed the unplaceable. Reinterpreting the 
mythical passage as the creation of the very geography of his 
own Mediterranean world, he did not perceive how the 
mythical crew orignally sailed so much further-far into 
landscapes that never can be placed anywhere but in the human 
imagination. 

UNIVERSITY OF OSLO 

N O'Vember, 1999 

41 Strab. 1.2.40, quoting Od. 12.70. 
42 Pyth. 10.29f. Aristeas of Proconnesus, a legendary figure of the seventh 

century B.C., nevertheless did manage to venture this far. As we would expect, 
he does not move inconspicuously: inspired by Apollo (<pOt~6AalJ.1t'tos), his 
spirit leaves his body and flies in the upper airs above all the world: Hdt. 4.13; 
Max. Tyr. 38.3.