B—
Second Phase:
From the Gulf of Pagasae to Lemnos (580–608)

The second phase of the episode entails the journey from Cape Tisae to the island of Lemnos. As mentioned above (see note 8), I follow Livrea's intelligent solution to the geographical and textual problems of lines 580–93 and so read lines 580–82 after 591.^[25] The transferral of the lines, among other advantages, places Aphetae Argous at the southern tip of the Magnesian Peninsula, where both Herodotus (7.193) and Strabo (9.436) located it. Delage has added the convincing observation that Apollonius modeled the journey from Cape Tisae to Meliboea^[*] on a well-known historical event (see note 9). In 480 B.C. , the Persian fleet descended from

[22] See Ardizzoni and Campbell ad 1.554, and Vian 76 n. 1. A search of the TLG reveals that the phrase occurs only in these two passages.

[23] See M. L. West, Hesiod: Theogony (Oxford 1966) ad 1001.

[24] Another connection between Medea and Thetis exists in their methods of conferring youth or immortality. Medea had in some accounts rejuvenated Æson by boiling him in a pot (cf. Nostoi 6 Davies) and murdered Pelias by tricking his daughters into attempting to do the same, with disastrous results (see J. G. Frazer, Apollodorus: The Library , 2 vols. [London 1921] 1.121–22 ad Apollodorus 1.9.27). Thetis, like Demeter in the Homeric Hymn (h. Cer. 237–41), placed Achilles in the fire (4.865–79). Both the roasting of children and the boiling of elderly were strategies meant to counter mortality; cf. Frazer ibid. 2.362.

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Therma to assist the army that was about to engage the Greeks at Thermopylae. Their first stop was the beach (

) between Casthanea and Sepias Acte on the eastern coast of the Magnesian Peninsula; some vessels had landed at a small island near Sciathus (Herodotus 7.183). A gale-force wind arose and destroyed many ships, some at Sepias Acte and Meliboea^[*] (ibid. 7.188). The storm lasted for three days and was allayed on the fourth after an offering of propitiatory gifts (; it is not stated to whom) and a sacrifice to Thetis because she had been raped by Peleus at Sepias Acte (ibid. 7.191). The Persian fleet then put in at Aphetae, where Heracles had been abandoned (ibid. 7.193).

Apollonius's account of the Argo 's journey, which proceeded in a direction opposite to that of the Persians, reveals several explicit points of contact with the Herodotean account. The Argonauts experience bad winds (585–86), for which they sacrifice

(587) at the tomb of Dolops at Aphetae Argous (591), which is located on the Magnesian Peninsula (584);^[26] a period of two days follows in which the wind prevents their sailing (588–89); they then pass Sepias Acte, Sciathus (582–83), and finally the windy of Meliboea^[*] (592–93). Apollonius, like Herodotus, also suggests an etymology for the name Aphetae Argous (591).

I would add two less explicit points of contact between the narratives. First, Herodotus explicitly referred to Heracles' abandonment at 7.193:

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. ("There is a place within this gulf in Magnesia where it is said that Heracles was abandoned by Jason and his companions, sent away from the Argo for water when they were sailing to [Colchis in] Asia in search of the fleece. After taking on a supply of water, they intended to depart from here for the open sea, and for this reason the place acquired the name Aphetae" [i.e., place of departure].) Apollonius, on the other hand, alludes to the same event in the first phase of the journey to Lemnos when he states that the keel of the ship was sinking under Heracles' weight (531–33), a purported reason for the hero's abandonment. Second, and of greater importance, Herodotus expressly mentioned that the Persians sacrificed to Thetis, whom they believed they had angered by their presence near Sepias Acte, the spot where she had been raped by Peleus. At the center of the first phase, Apollonius alludes to another unhappy event in Thetis's life, her bitter divorce from Peleus. It would appear that the poet would have us recall the Persian disaster along the Magnesian Peninsula while reading about the Argonauts' problem with the strong headwinds in this same region.^[27] In the Herodotean narrative the Persian Magi concluded that the wrath of Thetis was responsible for the winds that destroyed the Persian ships. By having the Argonauts retrace in reverse the path of the Persians, Apollonius invites the reader to see the wrath of Thetis as operative here too in the obstructive headwinds that delay the expedition. Imitation of the phrase from Theogony 1001–2 in the central panel of the first section of the episode now comes into better focus: like Achilles, Medeius, the son of Jason and Medea, will be reared by Chiron; and like Jason, his descendants, the Medes, will experience difficulties with the winds along the Magnesian Peninsula.

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In the second half of the second phase (just before the Argonauts arrive at Lemnos) Apollonius makes reference to a Homeric passage describing a journey that likewise parallels that of the Argo.^[28] The last leg of their trip to the island extended from the beach at Meliboea^[*] to Lemnos and lasted two days. The second day finds the Argonauts sailing from Cape Canastræon at the southern end of the Pallene Peninsula to Mount Athos at the southern tip of the Acte Peninsula and from there to Lemnos. During the entire day, the Argonauts have Mount Athos in sight: it appears to them at dawn providing a marker toward which they sail; and, after reaching it, they follow its shadow, which stretches all the way to Lemnos. We are, moreover, told that the distance from Mount Athos to Lemnos was equal to the distance covered by a well-equipped merchant ship (

) in half a day. Thus the Argonauts spend half of the day sailing from Cape Canastræon to Mount Athos, and like the spend the second half of the day traveling to Lemnos. The description of this journey recalls the famous passage in the Iliad in which Hephæstus tells of his own trip to Lemnos:^[29]

[28] I discuss this imitation at greater length elsewhere; cf. "Two Curious Reflections in the Argonautic Looking-Glass (Argo. 1.577 and 603)," GIF 41 (1989) 198–206.

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At dawn, Mount Athos rose up before them as they traveled;
a Thracian landmark, which, being as far away from Lemnos
as it takes a well-equipped freighter to sail by noon,
casts the shadow of its highest peak all the way to Myrine.

 a brisk wind blew constantly
until dusk, fully extending the ship's sail.
But when the wind gave out  at the same time as the rays
       of the sun ,
they reached the rugged island of  Sintian  Lemnos under power
       of oars.
Here the entire male citizenry in one moment was pitilessly
cut down in the previous year through the crime of the  women .

 I [sc.  Hephæstus] fell downward and  at the same
          time as the sun set
I landed on Lemnos; there was only a little bit of life left in me.
There the Sintian men  immediately cared for me after my fall.

In addition to the obvious verbal echoes, one observes that both Hephæstus and the Argonauts spend an entire day in traveling to Lemnos and arrive at sunset; both travel to Lemnos from a mountain (Athos and Olympus); and both are cared for by the Sintian people. Homer, however, expressly states that the Sintian men (

) cared for the ailing god, whereas the hale Argonauts will be welcomed and entertained by the Sintian women (). The witty oppositio in imitando provides a fine transition to the Lemnian episode. By describing the Argonautic journey in a way recalling that of Hephæstus and by having the female inhabitants entertain their guests, Apollonius brings to mind the favor that the Sintian men performed for Hephæstus when he fell to their island. As it turns out, the Argonauts will repay the earlier favor by playing a part in the restoration of the Sintian men through the intervention of Hephæstus's wife, Aphrodite, who encourages the sexual encounters between the Argonauts and the Lemnian women:

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Easily the women led them back to their homes
to entertain them; for Cypris had cast pleasant desire upon them
as a favor for Hephæstus, so that once again in the future
Lemnos would be made whole with the restoration of its male
        population.

As in the imitation of the Herodotean narrative, the allusive reference to Hephæstus's fall to Lemnos provides the background for the action about to unfold: Hephæstus would be pleased by Aphrodite's favor (i.e., the restoration of the Sintian men) because they nursed him back to health after his fall to the island.^[30]

DESPITE the structural asymmetry of the episode, the two phases of the journey to Lemnos are connected by an extremely fine subtextual thread, the anger that Thetis harbors toward her husband, Peleus.^[31] This is the unexpressed contact between the focal point of the first phase and the problem with the winds in the first part of the second. Fränkel, commenting on the sacrifice to Dolops's shade, observed in passing that the sacrifice of Iphigeneia was the

[30] Reference to the fall of Hephæstus within a larger context involving Thetis brings to mind the alternative version of this story according to which Thetis played a part in the rescue of Hephæstus after his fall from Olympus (Il. 18. 394–405; cf. also h. Ap. 317–21, Apollodorus 1.3.5 [the latter passage implies that Thetis saved Hephæstus near Lemnos]; on Thetis in general, see Roscher 5.785–99, s.v. "Thetis"). If Apollonius intended the reader to recall Thetis's role in the saving of Hephæstus, one might infer that he wanted to suggest two different aspects of Thetis, one who saves and one who, when angered, is very dangerous. Such a dual nature not only suits the Lemnian women, who both have killed the entire male population of their island and will soon offer hospitality to Jason's crew, but even more to the point, I believe, the equally benevolent and malevolent Thetis parallels the other woman Jason will encounter in the poem, Medea, who will prove as useful when wanted as deadly when scorned.

[31] In this regard, I find L. M. Slatkin's explanation for the wrath of Thetis alluded to by Homer most intriguing (see "The Wrath of Thetis," TAPhA 116 [1986] 1–24); she identifies the "primary cause of her suffering" as her forced marriage with the mortal Peleus. As chance would have it, I selected the title of this chapter before reading Slatkin's article.

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best-known example of a sacrifice forced on travelers experiencing problems with the winds.^[32] There is more than a general similarity to the sacrifice of Iphigeneia here. I would suggest that Apollonius wanted the reader to envisage Jason's problem with the winds at Aphetae Argous as the Argonautic analogue to the famous delay at Aulis. As the audience knew well, the Greeks could not leave Aulis because of the lack or adversity of the wind, a situation resulting from the anger of the goddess Artemis. To remedy this impasse, Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter. The Argonauts too encounter a problem with the winds, the strong headwinds that plagued sailors in this area. Through his suggestive narrative, Apollonius prompts the reader to see an angry goddess behind the Argonauts' problem with the winds. This goddess would have prevented the Argo from sailing and thus from creating another situation comparable to her own. But sacrificial offerings calm the obstructing winds, and history is allowed to repeat itself. For, like Agamemnon upon his return to Greece, Jason will encounter future problems with his wife over their children. These parallels, unlike those observed in the episode at Pagasae, do not bode well for leader of the Argonautic expedition.

Finally, the poet has even provided an ingenious verbal indication that he had the delay at Aulis in mind. The first phase of the journey concluded with Orpheus's song to Artemis and a simile comparing the effect of his song (the attraction of fish who follow the ship) to a shepherd leading his sheep back to his tent; their progress suddenly comes to a halt because of the winds, and they pull into the site that will later be called Aphetae Argous. As it happens, while the Argonauts are heading toward Aphetae Argous, the shepherd and his flock are going

(577).^[33]

[32] Fränkel 87 n. 163.

[33] For a more detailed analysis of this point, cf. "Two Curious Reflections" (supra n. 28) 196–98. If I am correct in my suggestion that the Apollo-Artemis pairing represents the various relationships Jason has with women, then the subtextual presence of the angry Artemis constitutes another significant connection with the first half of the episode.

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