III. The Identity of the Poet and the Crisis of the Hero: Apollodorus and the Meropis

The name of Apollodorus of Athens (ca. 180-110 BC) occurs repeatedly in Parsons' pages, both as the author of a chronographic compendium of Greek political and cultural history written in iambics and as the collector and interpreter of divine epithets in a prose work ambitiously en-rifled "On the Gods" . A substantial new fragment of that

[37] Aristophanes of Byzantium as quoted in IG 14.1183 (= Menander test. 61c Körte); Phrynichos Ekloge 394 and 401 Fischer (= Menander test. 46 and F 357 Körte). Cf. Wilamowitz, Kleine Schriften 1:254, 328-331; idem, Schiedsgericht , 156-160; D. Del Corno, Menandro: Le commedie (Milan, 1966) 1:70f., 81-85.

[38] Cf. Wilamowitz, Kleine Schriften 1:247 n. 1; idem, Schiedsgericht , 171 (where he dates the disappearance of Menander in the time of the iconoclastic controversies); A. W. Gomme and F. H. Sandbach, Menander: A Commentary (Oxford, 1973), 2 n. 5; P. E. Easter-ling in the Cambridge History of Classical Literature 1:39.

work came to light on a Cologne papyrus. Published in 1976, it has received considerable attention.^[39] The fragment is part of Apollodorus' extensive treatment of the epithets of Athena. Embedded in his discussion is a series of quotations from a hexametrical poem called Meropis , which gave an epic account of Heracles' Coan adventures. In his introduction to these excerpts, Apollodorus recalls how he discovered this unknown epic and what his first reaction was:

I came upon a piece of poetry^[40] bearing the title Meropis , with no indication of who composed it.

After a summary of the poem's narrative, he continues:

The poem looked post-Homeric to me. I excerpted (?) it because of the peculiarity of the story.^[41]

Apollodorus' comments are a rare specimen of Hellenistic scholarly prose; what is more, they are paradigmatic of the constraints as well as the opportunities that defined Alexandrian scholarship. He had discov-

ered a new poem, perhaps in the library at Alexandria or Pergamum, whose mythical material fascinated him. But when he tried to place the poet and his work in the history of Greek epic, he ran into difficulties. His papyrus gave the title but not the author, who was anonymous, like most of the other poets of early epic—, and in the same vein .^[42] Undeterred, Apollodorus yielded to his two most basic philological instincts—his sense of curiosity and his desire to preserve this find for posterity. He excerpted it, thus assuring its survival into the next century, when Philodemus would quote the Meropis from Apollodorus, and ultimately into modern times.^[43]

The Meropis is not a good poem, but are its shortcomings those of archaic, classical, or Hellenistic poetry? Apollodorus' own dating criterion was crude but functional. Is the poem Homeric or post-Homeric? he asked.^[44] The poem is certainly nowhere near Homer in tone, or texture, as Apollodorus saw. His modern heirs can't do much better, but the terms of the question have changed. In the current debate over the Meropis , scholars ask themselves whether the poem is Hellenistic or pre-Hellenistic. By addressing the identity of the Meropis in these terms we admit ignorance of much of the history of Greek epic in the archaic and classical period; at the same time, we recognize the special status of the Hellenistic age and its literature, including the rich and varied corpus of Hellenistic epic.

Parsons and Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones justified the inclusion of the Meropis in their Supplementum Hellenisticum by assigning it a date in the fourth or third century. To account for the poem's complete lack of Al-

[42] For these and similar fides see Henrichs, "Ein Meropiszitat in Philodems De Pietate," Cronache Ercolanesi 7 (1977): 124f.; Bernabé, Poetarum epicorum Graecorum , on Titanomachia test. 2, F 1, 4; Phoronis F 1, 3, 5; Naupaktia F 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 11; Meropis F 6.

[43] Apart from Apollodorus, Philodemus in De pietate is the only ancient witness for the existence of the Meropis . Gelzer cites the Meropis , without commenting on its date, as a characteristic instance of the tendency of the "new poets" of Alexandria to rediscover "obscure poets" and to give them "a new lease on life." It is surprising to see Apollodorus included among the "new poets"; the iambic verse of his Chronika was modeled on Menander and New Comedy, a genre which Gelzer does not consider Hellenistic (see above, section 1).

exandrian finesse, we would have to assume that its author did not live on Cos, as his interest in the island's mythology might suggest, but in one of the remotest cultural backwaters of the Hellenistic world. In addition, he must have taken so little pride in his work that he wished to remain anonymous. All of this is very unlikely. One also wonders how an obscure provincial poem that lacked antiquity would ever have come to Apollodorus' attention. Not surprisingly, the Meropis would be the only specimen of this kind that survived. In a separate article, Lloyd-Jones therefore took a different view and argued for a date in the sixth century. He points to the un-Hellenistic awkwardness of much of the Homeric imitation found in the Meropis and compares its "lumbering and pedestrian narrative" with the "flatness and dullness" of the "sub-Homeric style" found in the fragments of the Cypria and the Phoronis .^[45] This is indeed the poetic ambience in which the Meropis seems to belong; both its narrative structure and its diction suggest very strongly that its author should be regarded as an epic poet of the late archaic rather than the Hellenistic period.

Already Apollodorus noticed the peculiar narrative () of the Meropis , which centers on a Coan adventure of Heracles that almost cost him his life.^[46] The hero confronts a monstrous aborigine, Asteros, who turns out to be invulnerable. Three times Heracles aims his arrows at Asteros, and each time the arrow bounces off Asteros' impenetrable skin "as if from an unbending rock." As the crisis reaches its climax, "a bitter anguish seized Heracles." He is saved from certain death by the sudden appearance of Athena. She descends accompanied by roars of thunder, and makes her epiphany:

And (Asteros) would have killed Heracles, if Athena had not
thundered mightily as she descended through the clouds.
Striking her delicate flesh with her palm she appeared before
lordly Heracles. And he, raging with his breath,
noticed and recognized the goddess.

After the recognition Athena instructs Heracles to retreat, but her speech is not preserved. As soon as the hero is out of harm's way, she

[45] Lloyd-Jones, "The Meropis ," 149 = 28. Bernabé too assigns the poem to the sixth century.

[46] On the Coan myth of Heracles, including the flaying of Asteros by Athena, see Koenen and Merkelbach, Collectanea Papyrologica , 16-26.

turns to Asteros and impales him with her spear ("immortal casts are not like mortal casts"). At once "the dark gloom of death sets upon his eyes," and he expires. The episode ends with Athena raying Asteros' body, anointing the hide with nectar (or ambrosia), and wrapping it around her as a protective armor. Rather oddly, she leaves the scene with the skinned corpse of Heracles' enemy—hands, feet, and all—dangling around her body.^[47]

Even more peculiar than the poem's narrative is its diction. The poet of the Meropis can tell a conventional story, however haltingly, but when he tries to depict the emotions of Heracles and Athena, he settles for vacuous cliches which stay on the surface of his characters and fail to reveal their inner dimension. Athena inexplicably "strikes her delicate flesh" as she comes to Heracles' rescue.^[48] In comparable moments of imminent danger, three Homeric heroes, Achilles, Patroclus, and Odysseus, slap their thighs to express grief or tension (Iliad 15.397 = Odyssey 13.198: ; Il . 16.125: ); Metaneira too "strikes both her thighs" because she is beside herself with fear when she finds out that Demeter has been hiding her son in the fire (Hymn. Hom. Dem . 245f.: ).^[49] Invariably we are told how the impulsive behavior reflects the hero's or heroine's feelings. By contrast, the Meropis leaves us wondering why a goddess powerful enough to succeed where Heracles fails is so upset in the first place. Is Athena beating her thighs because she fears for Heracles' life? Or does she rather knock her breast the way Odysseus "knocked his breast" (Od . 2o.17: ) to reassure himself before he addressed his heart? The emotional intensity of Athena's

epiphany is evident, but its effect is seriously undermined by the inadequacy of the motivation.

Nor does the Meropis give an adequate idea of Heracles' condition. Heracles is unquestionably in dire straits. His state of mind at the moment Athena makes her epiphany is described in two words, , which recall Homeric formulas of the type (Il . 21.234, 23.230) and (Od . 12.400, 408, 426). Compared with Homer's word pairs, the collocation of and is highly incongruous. Powerful agents such as or are needed to generate the destructive fury conveyed by the verb . But the breath of Heracles does not have the same power as the wind or the waves. On the contrary, the standard epic use of suggests a seriously diminished strength; in Homer and are clear symptoms of physical exhaustion, injury, or imminent death.^[50] Is Heracles breathing hard only because he is fighting Asteros, or is he literally at his last gasp? A Heracles whose strength or resolve has been weakened would be consistent with his predicament, but the inherent force of seems to require the opposite scenario, namely that Heracles is going strong and panting with rage.^[51] Unlike Homer, Pindar, and Apollonius of Rhodes, the poet of the Meropis does not understand that the semantic fields of and are virtually incompatible. Once again he has created an ambiguity which undercuts the coherence of one of his central characters.

Both diction and narrative suggest that this poem that so intrigued Apollodorus is not in its various inadequacies Hellenistic but rather archaic. Even an extremely provincial poet writing in the late fourth or early third century would have been more conscious of Homeric diction, and more consciously derivative, than the poet who composed the Meropis .^[52] On the other hand, the structure of a Hellenistic epic would differ profoundly from Homer in ways entirely foreign to this poem. This impression is confirmed if we briefly compare Heracles' crisis in the Meropis with another crisis, one that marks the turning point in the voyage

[52] Lloyd-Jones, "The Meropis ," 1`49 = 28.

home of the Argonauts as Apollonius of Rhodes depicts it. Some of the differences have to do with the vastly different abilities of the two poets; still, such a comparison will sharpen our eye for the distinctive qualities of a decidedly Alexandrian articulation of the heroic crisis by the foremost epic poet of the Hellenistic period.

The Jason of the Argonautica represents a new type of epic hero, defined more by his weaknesses than his strengths. Self-doubts, despondency, and a general incapacity to act decisively—his —are among his most conspicuous traits. When he rises to the occasion, he succeeds because others supply the qualities he lacks; when he fails, he does not succumb to the superior strength of an external enemy, like the Heracles of the Meropis , but is paralyzed by his inner complexities and eclipsed by the very forces that enable him to accomplish his task. Yet it is precisely from his numerous fallings that Apollonius' Jason derives his unique character and persuasive power as a literary figure.^[53]

Nowhere is Jason's lack of leadership more serious, and his paradoxical role as the reluctant catalyst of heroic endeavor more obvious, than when the Argo lies becalmed in the shoals of the Syrtis and the Argonauts find themselves stranded in the Libyan desertr—the longest and most desperate crisis in the entire epic (Argonautica 4.1223-1392). Once they recognize the desolation that surrounds them, Jason and his crew are overcome by anguish—(4.1245). Variations of the same formula mark the height of the heroic crisis and the imminence of divine intervention in the Iliad (Il . 1188: ) as well as in the Meropis (F 2.4f. Bernabé: ). In both episodes, Athena's epiphany follows within a few lines. In the Argonautica , however, the crisis as well as the of the heroes is prolonged, magnified, and internalized for more than sixty lines until it becomes a symbolic death (4.1245-1304). First, the Argonauts wander aimlessly along the beach like ghosts; then, at nightfall, they tearfully embrace one another, veil their heads, and lie down in the sand each in a separate place, ready to die; throughout the night Medea's Colchian maidservants perform the ritual lament, while Jason remains secluded and speechless. Only when the heroes have lost all hope does the long-delayed epiphany finally take place. But instead

[53] Recent attempts to define the paradox of Jason's heroism differ widely, but coincide in a reading that recognizes Jason's various "flaws" as the uniform source of his new heroic vitality; see G. Lawall, "Apollonius' Argonautica : Jason as Anti-Hero," YClS 19 (1966): 119- 169; C. R. Beye, Epic and Romance in the Argonautica of Apollonius (Carbondale, 1982), 77-99 (Jason as love hero); R. L. Hunter, "'Short on Heroics': Jason in the Argonautica," CQ 38 (1988): 436-453 (on Apollonius' recasting of less than heroic features of the Homeric hero and, more surprisingly, of ephebic initiation).

of Athena or Hera, the two Olympian protectresses of the Argonauts, a triad of local divinities, the Heroines of Libya , appear to Jason in his seclusion and predict a safe return to Greece.^[54]

Without exception, the epiphany scenes in the Argonautica drastically rewrite the scenario of divine self-revelation that has formed the conventional conclusion to a heroic crisis since Homer. In Apollonius, the major Olympian gods remain either silent or invisible. Apollo appears twice but does not speak; Athena's intervention at the Clashing Rocks is seen and described by the poet as narrator, but the heroes cannot see their goddess; and finally, on the return voyage, Hera leaps down from heaven only to emit one inarticulate shout that directs the Argonauts back onto the correct course.^[55] Unlike the Olympian gods, the enigmatic Libyan Maidens, who are described as by Apollonius (4.1322), do speak in an articulate voice that is also prophetic. But their revelation takes the form of a riddle, which the Argonauts must solve if they want to return home; by contrast, the instructions which the Homeric Achilles and the Heracles of the Meropis receive from Athena are self-explanatory and unambiguous.

Even at the very conclusion of the crisis, Apollonius introduces another un-Homeric complication by turning the heroic crisis into a battle of wits that reveals Peleus and not Jason as the hero of the moment. Once again Jason becomes here an ambivalent hero who combines heroic and unheroic qualities—on the one hand, his inability to solve the riddle briefly intensifies the crisis; on the other hand, he alone among the Argonauts is visited by the Libyan Maidens and receives their revelation.

The heroes of Apollonius, Jason in particular, live in a world different from that of Heracles and Athena in the Meropis . They face different problems, the gods reveal themselves differently, and the nature of the heroic crisis itself is different. I have tried to suggest some reasons why the differences are so great as to make it virtually certain that the Meropis , the poem that caught the attention of Apollodorus and divides modern critics, does not belong in a Hellenistic ambience. Apollonius' Jason

[54] The most interesting and detailed study of Jason's encounter with these goddesses is N. E. Andrews, "The Poetics of the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes: A Process of Reorientation. The Libyan Maidens" (PhD diss. Harvard, 1989).

[55] Athena: Ap. Rhod. Argon . 2.537-538, 598-603; Apollo: 2.669-684, 4.1694-1718 (cf. Callimachus, Lloyd-Jones and Parsons, Suppl. Hell . 250-251 and F 18 Pfeiffer); Hera: 4.640-644. The unconventional absence of communication between Olympian gods and mortals in Apollonius has been noticed by L. Klein, "Die Göttertechnik in den Argonautika des Apollonios Rhodios," Philologus 86 (1931): 18-51, 215-257, esp. 236, 253; and more poignantly by H. Fraenkel, Noten zu den Argonautika des Apollonios (Munich, 1968), 539 n. 172.

is a Hellenistic hero. He too will continue to raise controversy because as a literary figure he is himself the product of a controversial and crisis-prone period, but the controversy is of a very different nature.

Karl Reinhardt has shown that the concept of the hero in literature, which prominently includes the heroic crisis, is itself prone to crisis. In periods of profound cultural change, the heroic ideal is accepted reluctantly or not at all, and the literary hero changes his identity or is even in danger of losing it. Reinhardt referred to the deconstruction of the hero in the first half of the twentieth century poiguantly and paradoxically as "die Krise des Helden." In the conclusion of his essay, he hinted that the best solution to the crisis involving the hero might be to come to terms with the crisis in the hero himself.^[56] In the context of Greek poetry, Reinhardt associated the crisis of the hero particularly with the end of the fifth century and with Euripides; we can, it seems to me, profitably extend the concept of the hero's crisis not only to Apollonius of Rhodes but to other Hellenistic poets and genres as well^[57]

[56] K. Reinhardt, "Die Krise des Helden" in Tradition und Geist: Gesammelts Essays zur Dichtung , C. Becker, ed. (Göttingen, 1960), 420-427 (reprinted in Die Krise des Helden und andere Beiträge zur Literatur- und Geistesgeschichte [Munich, 1962], 107-114), at 427 = 114: "Das beste Mittel, um die Krise um den Helden zu überwinden, wäre, wie ich glaube, die Krise im Helden selber." In a subsequent essay, Reinhardt applied the concept of the heroic crisis in both its literary and its cultural sense to Euripides in "Die Sinneskrise bei Euripides," Tradition und Geist , 227-256.

[57] I am grateful to professor Anthony W. Bulloch, Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones, and Professor Richard Thomas for various improvements.