3—
Unheroic Contrasts:
The Departure from Iolcus (Argo. 1.234–316)
In the first dramatic scene of the poem, Apollonius describes the departure of the Argonauts and Jason from the city of Iolcus to the shore of Pagasae, as well as the reactions to these two separate departures by the Iolcan populace in general and Jason's family in particular.[1] The theme of the departing warrior already appeared in the Catalogue, where several entries focused on the reason why certain Argonauts joined the expedition and/or on the reaction of a parent or other close relative to the hero's participation in the quest.[2] Jason, however, does not have a formal entry in the Catalogue. Rather, Apollonius frames the Catalogue with images of the poem's central character that correspond to both the above-mentioned details: in the Proemium he reveals Jason's reason for forming the expeditionary crew (i.e., Pelias's oracle and his subsequent plot), and in the present episode he describes, at greater length than he does for any other member of the group, the moment when Jason leaves home to embark on this distant and dangerous journey and his parents' highly emotional response to his departure. As I have shown in the previous chapter, the Catalogue raises questions regarding the nature of the Argonautic hero and the identity of "the best" in the group. With this issue in mind, the reader immediately
encounters a fuller picture of Jason than we have seen up to this point. Regardless of how one will judge Jason in his words and actions in the course of the epic, his traditional role as the leader of the Argonautic expedition and the special focus in the Proemium on his arrival as the man fated to overcome the wicked Pelias lead the reader to expect that he will play a significant role in the successful completion of the quest for the golden fleece. It is important, then, to examine this first extended portrayal carefully to see if the poet will give us some clearer idea of what we can expect in this central figure. The structure of this episode offers much help in making such an evaluation.
Structure
The episode reveals a fairly common chiastic expansion of the ring-composition format; that is, there is more than one clearly definable section that precedes and follows the central section, and these proceed in reverse order in the second half. The departure of the Argonauts thronged by the Iolcans (A, 234–40a) balances that of Jason similarly surrounded by his townsmen, including the aged Iphias (A , 306–16). Apollonius calls attention to this corresponsion by qualifying each departure with a simile (239a » 307–9).[3] The optimistic reaction of the men of Iolcus to the Argonautic mission (B, 240b–46)[4] matches Jason's optimistic speech to his mother as he is about to depart (B , 295–305). Within these balanced male responses stand a pair of counterpoised female responses to these departures: the fears for the expedition voiced by the women of Iolcus (C, 251–59) correspond to Alcimede's lament (C , 292–94).[5] These corresponding sections leave in the
central position the portrait of Jason's farewell at Æson's home (D, 261–77). This picture is in essence a triptych in which the poet has captured the pitiable reactions to Jason's departure by members of his household: male and female servants upset by their young master's departure, a gaunt and mournful Æson, and a lachrymose Alcimede, who is compared to a little girl.[6] The contrasts of male–female, young–old, and optimistic–pessimistic that characterize the central panel and the episode as a whole are delicately summarized in the departure of Jason, with which the episode concludes: on his way to the shore, the youthful and enthusiastic hero, who is compared to Apollo, is approached by the old priestess of Artemis, Iphias, who tries to convey some message that remains unspoken as the old woman escapes his notice in the hustle of the crowd (313b–16a). The chiastic structure of the episode and the thematic oppositions mentioned above together suggest that a major concern of the poet in this section, just as in the Catalogue, is contrast. The most important contrast here, however, lies not in the text but in the literary subtext, which will exert a strong impression on how we envisage Jason's heroic stature.
The action can be summarized as follows:
| ||||||||||||||||
D—
Æson's Home:
Portrait of the Departing Warrior (261–77)
As one can see in the schematic view of the action, the balanced departures and speeches set the portrait of Jason's farewell to his family in relief. In this chapter, differently from subsequent chapters, I have found it expedient to turn immediately to the center of this brief episode, where Apollonius has positioned the first in a series of connected allusions. The scene begins with the poet's striking description of an emaciated Æson, who can do little more than groan pitifully in reaction to his son's departure:
Now the many 
, 
, gathered,
and also the mother tightly embracing her child. This was a painful
sight for each of the women. In their midst , the father, in the
grip of
consumptive old age , keeping his bony frame tightly covered in
his bed ,
was moaning .
As commentators have recognized, Apollonius has in mind the description of Priam lamenting his son's death in Book 24 of the Iliad :[7]
She [sc. Iris] arrived at the home of Priam and came upon the
sound of moaning .
, seated around their father within the court
drenched their clothing with their tears while their old father lay in
their midst ,
keeping his bony frame tightly covered in his cloak ; there was much
dung around the head and neck of the old man,
which he had heaped upon himself as he rolled on the ground.
His 
and daughters-in-law were weeping throughout the
house,
recalling those who, many and noble,
lost their lives, slain at the hands of the Argives.
Like Priam, Æson sits wasting away from sorrow at the thought of his son's absence. In addition to the close rendering of Il. 24.162–63 at lines 263–64, since Apollonius makes Jason an only son (287b–89),[8] he has recast Hector's brothers and sisters as the male and female servants of Æson's house.[9] The evocative image thus asks the reader to compare the effect that Jason's departure has on Æson and his whole household with the grief experienced by Priam and his family over the death of Hector.[10] This is not
an isolated reference to the death of Hector and its effect on his family. Apollonius sustains and expands the equation between Hector's death and Jason's departure in what follows with a series of allusions to passages from the Iliad and Odyssey that pertain to this tragic event.
The poet immediately turns his attention from the decrepit Æson to the almost hysterical Alcimede. She holds on to her son, crying like a girl who clings to her aged nurse:
Just as his mother had at first thrown her arms around her child,
so she continued to hold him crying constantly, like a girl
who, alone in the world, falls gladly upon her elderly nurse
and sobs. She has no one else to care for her,
but leads a grievous life under a stepmother
who recently scolded her with many abusive taunts ;
as she weeps, her heart is imprisoned by her anguish
and she cannot release as much grief as wells up within.
In just this way 
was crying as she held her son in her
arms.
The little girl with whom Alcimede is compared in the simile lost her mother and now lacks any other sympathetic family members
to care for her.[11] Moreover, her father has remarried and does not prevent his new wife from heaping verbal abuse upon his own daughter.[12] The elderly nurse alone consoles the little girl, who is terrorized by stinging comments from her new maternal guardian. The words that Apollonius has chosen to express this verbal abuse ( 
, 273) recall what Andromache feared would happen to Astyanax once Hector was dead:[13]
A child, both his parents still alive, thrust him from the banquet,
striking him with his hands and scolding him with taunts :
"Get out of here in your condition! No father of yours shares in
our feast."
With tears in his eyes he returns to his widowed mother, the child
.
Overcome with anxiety, Andromache envisages Astyanax's future without his father (cf. ibid. 477–514) and imagines her son going to the home of one of Hector's friends to beg for food and clothing (492–95) and returning to her in tears after being cruelly rebuked (499), a situation comparable to the experience of the little girl who runs sobbing to her nurse. This contrast between the text and subtext whereby the abusive treatment imagined by Andromache for Astyanax, her little boy , becomes the experience encountered by the little girl with whom Alcimede is compared parallels the more explicit contrast that informs the simile: the elderly nurse (female) who provides solace is an analogue for the youthful Jason (male) and the defenseless young girl suffers the plight of the aging Alcimede. The role reversals suggested by the poet highlight an uncomfortably realistic fact of life: the elderly are so often reduced to the helplessness of children when encumbered by advanced old age.[14] Apollonius in fact will make reference to the unfortunate effects of aging at the end of the episode in his explanation for the passing-by of the aged Iphias: she was left behind 
(315–16). In sum, once we presume Æson's almost complete inability to act in any significant way both from his pathetic response to his son's departure and his wife's lack of reference to him as a source of protection or comfort, Alcimede's predicament becomes all the clearer: she will have to endure a difficult lot in her old age, even the outrageous abuse of uncaring guardians, after she is deprived of her only functional and caring 
. Alcimede herself will address this fear in her speech to Jason.
C—
Alcimede's Pessimistic Speech (278–94)
In her plaintive address to her son, Alcimede says that she wants to die and identifies the two greatest fears she has for an old age without Jason: lack of burial by her own son and abandonment in an empty home like a slave because of the loss of the one who provided her with distinction in Iolcan society:
when I heard King Pelias
uttering the wicked command that would cause me such ruin,
so that you yourself would have buried me with your own hands,
my son. For this was the only desire I still had
of you; I have long ago received all the other rewards a child owes a
parent. As it is, I, who before was envied by the Achæan women,
will be abandoned like a slave in an empty palace,
wasting away with ill-starred longing for you, because of whom
I had honor and glory in the past, for whom alone
I, first and last, loosened the girdle of childbirth. For
the goddess Eileithyia adamantly forbade my having many chil-
dren.
O what misery is mine! I did not reckon even in my wildest dreams
that Phrixus's salvation would become my demise.
Commentators have duly observed and recorded the relevant verbal and conceptual echoes in Alcimede's speech (see below), but have not called attention to the fact that the most important of these recall from different angles the effect that the death of Hector had on his family, especially on Andromache.
First of all, Alcimede opens her speech with the wish that she had died when she first heard of the expedition, so that Jason would have been able to bury her; this scenario is all the more desirable since, as far as Alcimede is concerned, Jason has discharged all his other responsibilities (i.e., the 
mentioned in line 283). In the Iliad , Andromache similarly wished for death when faced with the prospect of losing Hector ( 
, Il. 6.410b–11a; cf. 22.481);[15] her desperate wish, similar to that of Alcimede, arises from her lack of 
; for Achilles had killed Andromache's entire family, leaving Hector as her only protector and source of comfort (cf. Il. 6.411b–30). Second, Alcimede claims that the departure of Jason will result in her being left behind as a slave ( 
, 285). In her final speech in the Iliad (24.725–45), Andromache imagines herself and Astyanax being led off into slavery (731–34), the very thing that Hector feared would happen (cf. Il. 6.447–65), and concludes that her husband's death will result in grievous sorrows being left behind for her to face: 
(24.742).[16] Similarity of theme (a death wish and the fear of slavery, both resulting from the lack of a 
) and in the second case verbal reminiscence invite the reader to see Andromache's tragic situation as the literary backdrop for Alcimede's pitiful lament.
Apollonius evidently wants the audience to compare Alcimede's anxiety over the departure of Jason with Andromache's fears for herself and Astyanax in the aftermath of Hector's death. With this in mind the Homeric hapax legomenon 
(270) in the previous simile comparing Alcimede to the little girl takes on greater significance.[17] The rare participial form describes the
little girl's pathetic response to her want of a 
in the face of a wicked stepmother: she falls crying into the arms of her nurse. 
occurs only once in the Homeric corpus, also in a simile, in which the poet compares Odysseus's crying upon hearing Demodocus's story of the Trojan Horse to a woman lamenting the death of her husband in war:[18]
The celebrated poet [sc. Demodocus] sang this song. Odysseus
melted, and tears streamed from his eyes down his cheeks.
Just as a woman laments her dear husband, falling down
upon him ,
who fell before the eyes of his city and people
as he tried to protect his city and children from the piteous day.
Seeing him in the throes of death, she
holds him in her arms, shrieking loudly. Behind her, others
striking her back and shoulders with their spears
lead her into slavery, to a life of pain and lamentation;
her cheeks are sunken from pitiable grief.
Just like this Odysseus shed a pitiful tear from beneath his brows.
The picture of a woman grieving for her dying husband, whose duty it was to ward off the day of slavery from city and children, closely parallels Andromache's situation at the conclusion of the Iliad ; so much so that Apollonius well might have seen in the Odyssean text an allusion to the fates of Andromache and Hector. Be that as it may, both the specific references to Andromache's loss of Hector and this allusion to the unidentified woman in the Odyssey prompt the reader to associate Alcimede's response to Jason's departure with the grief of a wife for a dead husband, and in particular, of Andromache for Hector.
B—
Jason's Optimistic Speech (295–305)
Given that Æson's and Alcimede's reactions to their son's departure recall the lamentation, respectively, of Priam and Andromache for the dead Hector, it should come as no surprise that Jason's response to his mother is a composite of themes and phrases that likewise come from Homeric passages concerning events surrounding the death of this Trojan hero. In his speech, Jason tells Alcimede that excessive lamentation only adds to the present evils that the gods have sent; that she should not worry because he has received sufficient divine and human help to fulfill his mission successfully; and finally that she should go back to her room and not bring bad luck upon the expedition through her pessimistic feelings. His speech runs as follows:
[19]
Do not for my sake, mother, fill your mind with aching grief
to such extent, since you will not free yourself from suffering
with tears; rather you would only add pain on top of pain.
The gods deal out invisible sorrows to mankind.
Have the courage to endure your portion of these, even though
you grieve in your heart. And find strength in Athena's promise of
aid;
in the divine oracles, since Phoebus[*] has revealed propitious
signs; and finally in the assistance of the heroes.
Now for your part remain here at home among the servants
free from care , 
Our kinsmen and servants will accompany you to your quarters.
When Priam came to the tent of Achilles to ransom the body of Hector, the hero tried to console him, as Jason does here, by pointing out that excessive grief would prove useless and that the gods were ultimately responsible for the misfortunes that all must suffer (Il. 24.518–56). Of particular interest are the following two excerpts from this speech:[20]
Endure and do not tear away at your heart with excessive
lamentation;
for you will not achieve any good by grieving for your son,
nor will you bring him back, but suffer some other evil first.
For thus have the gods spun the thread of life for pitiable mortals—
to live a life of grief—while they themselves enjoy a carefree
existence.
The sentiment is the same in both speeches: excessive grief does not relieve the evils that the gods send. Although the wording of the Argonautic text does not entail a close imitation of particular words or phrases of the Iliadic, the scholiast nonetheless provides a good indication that Apollonius's audience could have observed the poet's references to this speech. In his comments on lines 296b and 297a, he pointed to Il. 24.524 and 551, respectively; the ancient scholar clearly saw that Jason's speech paralleled that of Achilles. Moreover, a point made in the same Iliadic speech to which Apollonius did not allude specifically is germane to the present Argonautic context. In his attempt to assuage Priam's grief, Achilles offered his own father, Peleus, as an example of one who received a mixed lot from the gods. Though Peleus was once fortunate, he now suffered because of the absence of his only child:
And so even to Peleus the gods gave wondrous gifts
from birth, for he surpassed all men
in wealth and riches, and ruled the Myrmidons;
and the gods made a goddess his wife, although he was mortal.
A god, however, inflicted an evil upon him: he did not have
in his home a progeny of sons whose lot it was to rule;
rather he begat one ill-fated son. As it is, I shall not
care for him as he grows old, since very far from my fatherland
I remain in Troy, an anxiety to you and your children.
Like Peleus, Alcimede, though formerly prosperous, now experiences grief over the departure of her only son on a foreign adventure; moreover, she too believes that she can no longer expect either 
or burial from Jason, a fate comparable to that of Peleus. It is noteworthy that the gender reversal between text
and subtext in this instance parallels that between Astyanax and the little girl of the simile.
After trying to encourage his mother by referring to his advice from Athena, as well as to the propitious oracle of Apollo and the assistance of the Argonauts (300–302), Jason dismisses Alcimede rather abruptly, telling her to stay at home with her servants and not to be a bird of ill omen (303–5). Regarding the first point, Hector dismissed Andromache in their last meeting in a similar fashion, the phrasing of which Apollonius has in mind here:[21]
My poor distraught wife, do not allow grief for me to tear at your
heart.
No one will send me to Hades before my time.
I tell you this: no one has escaped his fate ,
neither coward nor hero, once he was born.
But go home and tend to your tasks —
your loom and spindle—and order your servants
to get to work. War will be the concern of all
men born in Ilion, especially me.
As to the second point, Jason's request that his mother not jeopardize his mission by voicing such dire and inauspicious fears prompts the audience to recall what Priam said to Hecuba when
[22]she tried to prevent her husband from going on his journey to the Greek camp to fetch Hector's body:[23]
Do not try to stop me from going, which is what I want to do;
. You shall not persuade
me.
In short, Jason's speech recalls expressions of consolation or impatience uttered by Achilles, Hector, and Priam in response to Hector's death both before and after the fact.
A—
Departure of Jason (306–16)
The episode concludes when Jason leaves his home and goes off to Pagasae. Apollonius compares him to the youthful god Apollo as he passes through the crowds at one of his sanctuaries:
He spoke, and then hastened to depart from the house.
As Apollo goes from his temple, redolent of incense,
through sacred Delos, or Clarus, or Pytho,
or wide Lycia at the streams of the river Xanthus,
just like this he proceeded through the crowds of the city, and the
shouting of those bidding him farewell grew loud.
As he proceeds toward the beach, the young Apollinian male is approached by Iphias—the aged priestess of Apollo's sister, Artemis—whom he leaves behind without notice:
An old woman met him ,
, the priestess of Artemis, the City Protector,
and she kissed his right hand. But she was not able to say anything,
however much she wanted, because the crowd kept moving forward.
So she was left there on the side of the road, just like an old woman
by the younger generation, as he moved on and into the distance.
As I have observed above, this brief encounter summarizes the thematic oppositions of the episode: male–female, young–old,[24] optimistic–pessimistic.[25] The Iliadic passage that Apollonius is imitating here reveals yet another inversion between text and subtext:[26]
The old man met them ,
, and he caused the hearts of the Achæans to flutter within.
The words used to describe the encounter of an enthusiastic Jason with the old Iphias (female) recall the moment that the elderly
Nestor (male) met the wounded Greek leaders at a low point in their struggle near the beginning of Iliad 14. A more important difference exists between the two passages than that of gender. Whereas the Greek heroes give evidence of their great respect for the older Nestor, Jason does not even sense the presence of the old priestess, who is abandoned, the poet tells us, just like an old woman by the younger generation. As such, Jason is different from the Homeric heroes: he is too focused on himself and his expedition to take notice of the elderly priestess. In this self-absorption he resembles his parents.
At this point it is possible to make sense of the various threads of this complex set of subtexts. Apollonius compares Æson to Priam as he lamented the death of his son. Priam, on the one hand, shrugged off the paralyzing effects of his grief and went courageously to Achilles' tent to ransom Hector's body. Æson never moves. We are led to believe by the poet's silence that he remained seated, luxuriating in an enervating self-pity. The poet describes Alcimede in terms recalling Andromache. In the passages alluded to, Andromache's fear is that Hector's death will result in the literal enslavement of herself and her son. Alcimede, however, expresses fear not for personal, but for a kind of social enslavement. Up to this time, Apollonius informs the audience, Alcimede derived her status from her son: 
[sc. 
] 
(286b–87). In fact, the women of Iolcus corroborate this statement in advance ( 
, 251–52). Comparison with Andromache's serious and, as it would turn out, partially accurate fears shows that Alcimede's reaction to Jason's departure was both excessive and overly egocentric.[27]
Jason too suffers in comparison with his models. Achilles showed respect for the old and grief-stricken Priam as he thought of his own father; Hector left Andromache and Astyanax to go off to battle only after revealing his great love for them (cf. Il. 6.450–81); Priam, despite the danger of his mission, went off in the night to the enemy camp to bring back Hector's body accompanied only by an old man like himself; finally, the Greek heroes all showed great respect for the elderly Nestor. Jason, on the other hand, who begins his expedition with confidence, accompanied by the finest crew in all Greece, evinces little respect or love for his elderly parents or the old priestess. He says nothing to Æson. His reply to his tearful mother is brief, cold, and overly logical;[28] and his lack of response to the aged Iphias trying to speak to him appears insensitive or even callous. In short, Jason shows none of the sensitivities toward his elders and loved ones that characterized his Homeric models. These responses not only anticipate his emotionless and ungrateful farewell to Hypsipyle (1.900–909) as well as his unenthusiastic protection of Medea on his return to Greece (cf. 4.66–97, 338–410, 1031–67, and 1161–69);[29] they also look beyond the scope of the poem to Jason's future abandonment of Medea so brilliantly captured by Euripides.[30]
The series of related Homeric passages to which Apollonius makes reference exerts a profound impression on our reading of the episode and on our understanding of Jason's character. This rather involved contaminatio of diverse elements from both the Iliad and Odyssey having to do, directly or indirectly, with Hector's death, and how he and his family came to terms with it, gives
us a valuable insight into the effect that Jason's departure has on his family and himself. The Argonautic figures clearly suffer in comparison. In particular, we see that even from the beginning of his heroic career, Jason lacks the respect and concern for those who both love and need him. As such, he is the antithesis of Hector, who was the quintessential 
and who achieved greatness and nobility, in spite of the fact that he was ultimately unsuccessful, by remaining in his home city in defense of his family. Jason, on the other hand, leaves his parents, Iphias, and soon afterwards Hypsipyle. He even considers abandoning Medea in the course of his journey home to secure the success of his mission. Hector and the members of his family provide the measure against which we are to view Jason and his family, and the latter prove to be a weak, shallow, and self-absorbed group, totally unheroic in stature. The initial impression in the Proemium of a Jason who lacks the special qualities that distinguish Homeric heroes was accurate. It remains to see how this rather underwhelming figure from so pathetic a family will approach his formidable 
.