6—
:
Sojourn on Lemnos (Argo. 1.609–909)
After leaving their "Aulis," the Argonauts sail to the island of Lemnos and encounter the first foreign threat to the expedition, the Lemnian women. The Argonautic sojourn on Lemnos was a popular story before Apollonius, and several different versions survive, both in toto and in fragmentary form; most noteworthy are those of Pindar's Pythian 4, Æschylus's Lemniades and Hypsipyle , Euripides' Hypsipyle , and the Argonautica of Cleon of Curion.[1] None of these versions, however, has had as much influence on Apollonius's rendition of this story as Odysseus's comparable encounters with women living on islands in the Odyssey . After choosing to place the stopover on their way to Colchis (as in Euripides Hypsipyle fr. 64.93 Bond) and not on their way back (as in Pindar P. 4.252ff.), through subtle imitation of select Homeric texts Apollonius casts Hypsipyle in the roles of Calypso, Nausicaa, and Circe; and like these Odyssean heroines, the Lemnian queen's love for Jason and her desire to have him remain as her husband threatens the continuation of his mission, even before the Argo leaves the Ægean Sea. In the creation of this remarkable
contaminatio , Apollonius has also interwoven several other subsidiary themes (the contrast between male and female and that between the man of strength and the man of skill) and referred to other texts, which render the episode unusually complex.
In the present chapter I shall consider the first of three episodes—the sojourns on Lemnos, in Cyzicus, and in Mysia—that comprise, roughly speaking, the second half of Book 1. Since Heracles will leave the group in the final episode of the book, these are the only opportunities the reader will have for comparing Heracles and Jason in action at the same time and place. In each episode Apollonius continues his focus on the contrast between Jason's and Heracles' approach to the expedition. How they operate will ultimately decide the identity and nature of the best of the Argonauts.
Structure
The structure of this episode is the most complex seen thus far.[2] Nonetheless, it should become clear to anyone reading this section of the first book, even for the first time, that the description of Jason's cloak lies at the center of the Lemnian narrative and accordingly cuts the episode into two parts of roughly comparable length (609–720, 112 lines; 774–909, 136 lines: the central section of the episode thus extends from 721 to 773, 53 lines).[3] As we have seen in the earlier episodes of Book 1, elements in the first half are reechoed in the second. In the first half (A), after the Argonauts arrive at Lemnos, the women (who in the previous year had killed all the men of the island) decide in assembly to take advantage of their presence and use them to restore the male segment of their population. As the episode begins we are given an account of the murder of all the men on the island at the hands of the women (a, 609–39). This subsection itself assumes the ring format with balanced pictures of the male (a ) and female (a ) warriors of Lemnos bracketing mention of Hypsipyle's rescue of her father, Thoas, from the general slaughter (b ). After a brief description of the women rushing out of the city to ward off the Argonauts,
whom they believe to be Thracian invaders (b, 633–39), which description lies at the center of this first half, Apollonius gives us a picture of the Lemnian women in assembly (a , 640–720). The narrative of the assembly, like that of the Lemnian slaughter (a), also exhibits a ring-composed structure: the embassy of the Argonaut Æthalides, whose 
are not reported (a ), balances the embassy of Iphinoë, whose 
are repeated almost verbatim (a ). In between comes the actual assembly (b ), at which the elderly Polyxo argues that the women must act by seducing the Argonauts, since in the future, when all the women are old, the cattle will not plow the fields by themselves ( 
).
The two tripartite subsections of the first half (Aa and Aa ) correspond in two significant ways. First, both central sections are framed by male-female oppositions (male warriors–female warriors in the first; male messenger–female messenger in the second); and second, the central panel of each section has as its focus the theme of salvation through marriage: in the first subsection Apollonius recounts the salvation of Hypsipyle's father, Thoas, who marries the Næad OEnoee[*] ; at the heart of the second subsection, Hypsipyle's nurse, Polyxo, suggests marriage with the Argonauts as the way to save their people.
The second half (A ) unfolds in the extended ring format. The arrival of Jason in the city (a) corresponds with his departure (a );[4] a conversation with Hypsipyle in which the queen gives her account of the Lemnian crime and offers Jason her kingdom (b) is balanced by a second conversation, in which she reiterates her offer and Jason repeats his refusal (b ); the procession of the Argonauts into the city of Myrine (c) is echoed by their departure from the city, on which occasion the Lemnian women rush out after them (c ). In the center is the assembly of the Argonauts (d), at which Heracles urges the Argonauts to act by leaving Lemnos and continuing with the journey to Colchis; for, he argues, the gods will not on their own present the Argonauts with the fleece ( 
). The corresponsion between the two halves of the episode (A »A ) now becomes clear: in each there is an account of the Lemnian crime (that of Hypsipyle and that of the narrator), the women are seen to rush out of the city (once to ward off and once to retain the Argonauts), and finally there is an assembly (that of the Lemnian women and that of the Argonauts) in which a featured speaker (Polyxo, Heracles) urges the group to action because the animal associated with their goals (draught oxen in one case and the golden fleece of Phrixus's ram in the other) will not function independently of them.
In the center of the episode lies the ecphrasis on Jason's cloak (B). This too reveals a carefully balanced structure. Jason's taking up of the cloak (a) and of his spear (a ) frame the description of the seven scenes on the cloak (b), which Apollonius has arranged in an extended ring. The first scene (a : the Cyclopes) and the last scene (a : Phrixus and the ram) accentuate visual and aural qualities of the artistic creations of Hephæstus and Athena, respectively. Amphion and Zethus (b ) are balanced by Apollo and Tityus (b ) in that both scenes entail the victory of skill over strength. Aphrodite with Ares' shield (g ) and the corresponding scene depicting Pelops's race with OEnomaus[*] to win the hand of Hippodamia (g ) are both concerned with the power of love. In the middle Apollonius has set an instance of the quest motif, the Mycenæans' expedition to get back cattle they believe to be rightfully theirs from the sons of Electryon (d ).
The structure of the episode as a whole, then, runs as follows:
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A—
Arrival and Prelude to the Encounter (609–720)
The episode begins with an account of the murder of the Lemnian men (a). Apollonius fashioned this introductory material in a way that places special emphasis on the one exception to the slaughter: Hypsipyle's rescue of her father, Thoas, by setting him adrift in a chest ( 
).[5] To expand slightly on what was said above, in the first section (a ), Apollonius describes the situation leading up to the murder of the men (609–19; 11 lines): the Lemnian warriors (male), smitten with a harsh love ( 
, 613) for their captive Thracian women, fell at the hands of their jealous wives as a punishment for dishonoring Aphrodite.[6] In the third section (a ), he describes the result of that murder: the women, rejecting the tasks associated with Athena, have taken on the jobs previously reserved for men—tending the flocks, plowing the fields, and waging war. At the sight of the Argo , the Lemnian warriors (now female), expecting an attack from Thracian invaders (627–39; 13 lines), instead encounter the Argonauts, who will soon enter their town and their bedrooms in peace. In the central position lies the description of Thoas's rescue, escape, and marriage with OEnoee[*] (b , 620–26). As we have seen at the end of the previous chapter, the poet's imitation of Hephæstus's fall to Lemnos in the description of the Argo 's journey from mainland Greece to the island called to mind the god's rescue by the Lemnian men. This clever inversion of gender is an appropriate transition to the present episode, at the beginning of which Apollonius depicts the Lemnian women assuming masculine roles; for the exchange of role is neatly reflected in the manner in which Hypsipyle saved her father, the central focus of the first subsection.
All accounts of the Lemnian crime are unanimous in making Thoas the only man to escape the general slaughter of the male population of the island. But there is disagreement among the
several extant versions of this story about what happened to Thoas after Hypsipyle saved him.[7] Either the Lemnian women discover and kill him (Apollodorus 3.6.4, Herodotus 4.145, hypothesis ad Pindar Nem. , p. 424 Boeckh) or he escapes from the island in a vessel of some sort (Apollonius, Val. Flac. 2.242–310, Statius Theb. 5.284–91). In the latter case, he either goes to the land of the Taurians (Val. Flac., Hyginus 120), to Sikinos (Apollonius, Xenagoras FGrHist 240 F 31; cf. Sad 1.623–26a), or to Chios (Statius). According to one version in which Thoas was discovered and killed, Hypsipyle had hidden him in a chest ( 
; cf. hypothesis ad Pindar N. ), which the Lemnian women then threw into the sea. It would thus appear that Apollonius combined two contradictory accounts: Thoas escapes successfully to Sikinos, but not in a boat; instead his daughter sets him adrift in a chest, significantly described here as a 
:
Of all the women, Hypsipyle alone spared her old father,
Thoas, who held sway over the people.
She set him adrift over the sea in a hollow chest
with the hope that he might escape.
In all likelihood, Apollonius was influenced by the story of Danaë and Perseus. Danaë's father, Acrisius, likewise set her and her infant son, Perseus, adrift in a 
(cf. 
, Simonides PMG 543.1–2), and the two were rescued by fishermen on the island of Seriphos (cf. Æschylus, Dictyulci fr. 464 Radt). Like Danaë and Perseus, Thoas survived the perilous journey and, after being rescued by fishermen, married the nymph after whom the island was named prior to the birth of their son, Sicinus:[8]
And fishermen pulled him ashore
onto an island, formerly OEnoee[*] , afterwards called Sikinos
from the Sicinus whom the naiad OEnoee[*] bore
to Thoas after the young woman went to his bed.
The question now arises: Was Hypsipyle's motive completely honorable? Fathers traditionally exposed children in chests on the sea, especially unmarried daughters discovered to be pregnant. The motive was to escape the pollution of parricide while at the same time to do away with their children.[9] Consonant with the Lemnian women's role reversal, Hypsipyle assumes here the role of a father who refuses to kill his own child but acquiesces in the inevitability of its death. In mythic accounts of such exposures it is usually sexual indiscretion and the birth of illegitimate children that occasion the abandonment to death. And it is precisely such indiscretion and illegitimacy that Hypsipyle reports as reasons for the absence of men on Lemnos when she recounts the story to Jason in the second version of the Lemnian crime (cf. 798–826). The suggestive inversion of the exposure motif at the very least brings Thoas's innocence into question. Moreover, Hypsipyle confirms her usurpation of her father's role when she dons his armor (637–38), sits on his throne (667), and offers his kingdom (827–29). As a result of the Lemnian crime, women now perform the functions of men. A daughter even appears to expose her father for his sexual encounters.
After the introductory triptych explaining the absence of the Lemnian men, Apollonius briefly depicts the panic among the Lemnian women as the Argo approaches (b). The women rush down to the shore ( 
, 635), dressed in armor like Thyades because they imagine that the Argonauts are Thracians come to invade the island. This event is echoed in the second half of the episode, when the Lemniades once again rush down to the shore ( 
, 883), but this time to bid the Argonauts farewell (A c).
In their first rush to the shore, the women are portrayed in a traditionally male role as they prepare to ward off the Argonauts; in the corresponding section, they will be seen to have reverted to their earlier female roles when Apollonius subtly suggests that they will become the mothers of the Argonauts' children.
In the third section of the first half (a ), Apollonius sets the scene for the encounter between Jason and Hypsipyle. The Argonauts send their herald, Æthalides, a son of Hermes endowed with an imperishable memory, to ask permission to stay the night. The next day, however, the opposing north winds prevent them from leaving (a , 640–52; 13 lines).[10] The women then meet in assembly. On the advice of Polyxo, they decide to invite the men into the city in the hope of reestablishing the male community. Hypsipyle thereupon instructs Iphinoë to approach the leader of the group, inviting him to speak with her in Myrine while the rest of the Argonauts have her permission to avail themselves of the island (b , 653–708). Iphinoë delivers Hypsipyle's invitation, and the Argonauts happily accept (a , 709–20; 12 lines). The embassy of Æthalides clearly corresponds with that of Iphinoë,[11] and the assembly of the Lemnian women falls in the central position between them.
In addition to the contrast between male and female in the framing elements, which parallels the format of the introductory narrative (a), Apollonius, as mentioned above, records each herald's embassy in a contrastive fashion. He does not report Æthalides' speech to Hypsipyle and the Lemnian women ( 
; 648–49) but focuses instead on the imperishable memory of the Argonaut.[12] On the other
hand, he has Iphinoë repeat Hypsipyle's message almost verbatim. After the assembled women decide to welcome the Argonauts into the city with the hope of luring them into their beds (cf. 695), the poet continues:
She [sc. Hypsipyle] said this and then addressed Iphinoë, who was
close at hand:
"Go quickly, Iphinoë, and ask the man
who leads this expedition to come to our home so that
I might announce to him the decision of our people, which I am
sure will
please him; and tell the others they can disembark without fear
and
come into the city, if they so desire and their intentions are
friendly."
Iphinoë's embassy provides one of the few instances in which Apollonius repeats several lines of text.[13] Iphinoë gives a close, but not perfect, rendition of Hypsipyle's message:
Hypsipyle, the daughter of Thoas, has ordered me to come here
to summon the captain of the ship, whoever he is, so that she
might announce to him the decision of our people, which she is
sure will
please him; and to tell you others to disembark right now and
come into the city, if you so desire and your intentions are friendly.
The female herald, whose name implies strength or force of mind, slightly edits her message, unlike, it would seem, her male counterpart in the first embassy. In place of 
, Iphinoë states that the Argonauts are invited to come 
. Iphinoë, then, like Hypsipyle in her version of the Lemnian slaughter, speaks 
(cf. 792) in order to encourage the Argonauts to enter the city as soon as possible.[14]
Hypsipyle opens the assembly, which these two contrasting embassies frame in the center of the subsection (b ), by inviting a discussion on the problem of what to do with the Argonauts, who are as yet unaware of the situation on Lemnos. After suggesting that they keep them away from the city by giving them supplies for their journey, she concludes by inviting other suggestions:[15]
If any other among you can come up with a better idea ,
let her stand up; for this reason I summoned you here.
The scholiast ad 1.665 noted that Hypsipyle's openness to other proposals was modeled after a similar request made by Agamemnon in the Iliad :[16]
I wish someone would now come up with a better idea than this,
either young or old. This would please me.
When Agamemnon invited anyone, young or old, to suggest a plan in the wake of their defeat at the hands of Hector, Diomedes, first excusing his youthfulness (ibid. 110–27), advised immediate action. Polyxo similarly calls for immediate action in the case of the unexpected arrival of the Argonauts (693–96). Not only does Hypsipyle's elderly nurse contrast with Diomedes in gender and age, but even in the nature of her advice; she speaks of surrendering themselves and their homes to the Argonauts, while Diomedes advocates a more aggressive approach in their war against the Trojans. The change of advice from an immediate attack in the battlefield to immediate submission in bed is as striking as it is suggestive of the importance that love will play in the present episode and in the epic in general.
The inversion of this Iliadic model parallels the adaptation of an Odyssean text that immediately follows. Once Hypsipyle sits down on her father's throne after her brief address to the assembly, the elderly Polyxo rises to speak, surrounded by four aging maidens:[17]
Thus she spoke, and she sat down on her father's seat
of stone. Then Polyxo, her beloved nurse, arose,
moving haltingly on legs twisted from age and
leaning on her cane; she was most eager to address the assembly.
Alongside her sat four young women,
unmarried girls whose hair was beginning to turn gray.
She stood in the middle of the assembly and could barely hold
her neck up, her back was so badly crippled . She said the
following.
The scholiast ad 1.669 was the first to observe that Apollonius had a specific Homeric passage in mind, in this case from the second book of the Odyssey :[18]
He [sc. Telemachus] sat down on his father's throne and the elders
yielded.
The hero Ægyptus was the first to speak among them,
a man who was crippled from age and knew countless things.
For his own dear son went together with godlike Odysseus
to horse-rich Ilion in the hollow ships,
the warrior Antiphus. The savage Cyclops killed him
in his cavernous home, the one whom he ate last.
Yet there were three other sons, and one associated with the
suitors,
Eurynomus, while the other two stayed on their father's farm.
In the Homeric passage, Telemachus called the first assembly held in Ithaca since the departure of Odysseus for Troy twenty years earlier. As Telemachus sits on his father's throne, the aged Ægyptus, who was the father of four sons, asks the reason for the assembly. He imagines that there must be the threat of an invading army (ibid. 25–34).[19] Here we can observe several points of contact with the Argonautic text:
• Hypsipyle, the daughter of the king, calls an assembly just as does Telemachus, the son of Ithaca's king, Odysseus.
• Both Telemachus and Hypsipyle are portrayed as seated on their fathers' thrones.
• The aged Polyxo is the female counterpart of the aged Ægyptus.
• The four maidens with Polyxo parallel the four sons of Ægyptus.
• Invading armies are the apparent concern of both assemblies.
Moreover, both assemblies take up the issue of prospective marriages: the Lemnian women debate marriage with the Argonauts, while in the Ithacan assembly, marriage with Penelope lies at the heart of the problem for which the people were convened. In both this and in the previous Iliadic reference, Apollonius contrasts the Lemnian women with Homeric males, a contrast that reflects the gender opposition of the surrounding frame (Æthalides-Iphinoë).
By counterposing Lemnian and Argonautic men with Lemnian women in the structure of the subsections, and by inverting the gender of the exposure motif and the Homeric models, Apollonius pits male against female in the first half of the episode. The gender antithesis neatly reflects the role reversal of the Lemnian women, which lies at the heart of the story. These armed warriors, highlighted at the center of the first half, will threaten the continuation of the Argonautic mission. As will become clear in the second half of the episode, the poet will imply through allusion to well-known Homeric texts that the Argonauts are in danger of becoming less than men because of their association with the masculine women of Lemnos.
B—
Jason's Cloak (721–73)
Apollonius frames the elaborate description of Jason's cloak, which lies at the center of the episode, with balancing descriptions of Jason taking up his cloak (a) and his spear (a ). Two elements confirm the corresponsion of these subsections, which thereby create a ring. In the first line of the first paragraph (a), Apollonius identifies the cloak as the work of Itonian Athena— 
(721). These words are echoed in the first line of the second paragraph (a ) with the phrase 
(768). Second, in each of the corresponding subsections Apollonius mentions that the items that Jason takes up are gifts: Athena gave him the cloak ( 
, 722–23), and Atalante the spear ( 
, 769–70). As Vian has pointed out, Jason's preparations to meet Hypsipyle not only recall the typical Homeric arming scene but possibly have special reference to the lines in which Agamemnon prepared himself for battle at the beginning of Iliad 11.[20] The neatly balanced enclosure for the ecphrasis thus prompts the reader to imagine that Jason is arming himself for battle. Indeed, the ecphrasis by itself suggests the same thing.
Apollonius modeled his ecphrasis on the famous description of the shield that Hephæstus made for Achilles in Iliad 18. Not only does Apollonius employ the formulaic 
that characterizes the description of the Iliadic shield,[21] but he also includes an allusive reference to its creator. Hephæstus was busy working on one of his projects the moment Thetis arrived seeking armor for her son,[22] and, in the very first scene of the cloak, Apollonius reminds the reader of this visit in his suggestive vignette of the Cyclopes at work on a thunderbolt that needs only one ray to be finished:
On it there were Cyclopes engrossed in their immortal work of
forging a thunderbolt for Lord Zeus. Its brilliance had already
been achieved, 
;
; this, a seething blast of raging fire, they were
in the act of hammering out with their iron mallets.
In the Iliad , Hephæstus was working on twenty tripods, which similarly still needed their handles:
She found him [sc. Hephæstus] sweating as he moved about the
bellows
in haste. He was making tripods, twenty in all,
to stand around the wall of his well-built hall;
he set golden wheels on the base of each
so that they might enter the assembly of the gods on their own[23
] and come back to his home, a marvel to behold.
They were finished up to this point, 
.
He was getting these ready and was
hammering the rivets.
There are, it is true, two instances of cloaks embroidered with various scenes in the Iliad (for 
, 722, see Il.
3.125–28, 22.440–41), but it seems clear from Apollonius's inclusion of a forged implement just short of completion in the passage that the poet had Achilles' shield specifically in mind in providing a lengthy, scene-by-scene description of Jason's cloak. The effect of this reference, like the frame of the ecphrasis itself, encourages us to envisage Jason as a warrior going off to battle, and in particular, as a counterpart to Achilles. For Achilles took up his fabulous shield to face Hector and to achieve his greatest victory on the field of battle. What ensues, of course, is quite different.
Apollonius continues the comparison between Achilles and Jason in the beginning of the next section (A ), to which I now turn briefly. The poet draws a comparison between Jason's approach to Hypsipyle's palace at Myrine and a star that appears to brides in their chambers or to a maiden awaiting the return of her fiancé who is out of the country. The simile neatly parallels the situation at hand: the Argonauts will soon visit the chambers of the Lemnian women, and Jason, coming from a foreign land, will encounter the virgin Hypsipyle. Three times in the Iliad , Homer compared a warrior approaching his opponent to a star, the point of comparison being both its brilliance and its harmfulness (cf. Il. 5.4–6, 11.62–64, 22.25–32).[24] The last example is especially relevant to Jason: there Achilles, dressed in his new armor, approached the city of Troy to do battle with Hector.[25] Apollonius has thus set the scene for the meeting between Jason and Hypsipyle in such a way that the reader envisages a climactic military clash between opposing warriors. But instead of such an encounter, we find the well-dressed and urbane Iolcan prince sweeping the young Lemnian queen off her feet.[26] The vivid contrast between the reader's expectations and the actual event is significant. Jason is not an Achilles, who succeeds by virtue of his martial prowess. On the contrary, making young women fall in love with him will prove to be this hero's most potent skill, one
that will play an important role in establishing him as the best of the Argonauts.[27]
Before turning to the "heroic" match featured in the second half of the episode, I shall first examine at greater length the individual scenes on the cloak, which Apollonius arranged in an extended ring. These scenes view both the Argonautic expedition and Jason's role in it through a series of icons that reflect salient events ahead for the Argonauts.[28]
In the first scene (730–34), the Cyclopes are about to finish one of Zeus's thunderbolts, and, as I noted, the poet here deliberately evokes the image of Hephæstus at the time of Thetis's arrival just prior to his forging of Achilles' new armor. Mention of the Cyclopes and of Zeus's weapon picks up where Orpheus's song
(496–511) left off: there Zeus did not yet have his thunderbolt, the source of his 
(cf. 509–11). In the scene on the cloak, we observe that Zeus is about to gain possession of the weapon by which he will hold sway in Olympus. The young Zeus in Orpheus's song was seen to parallel the young Jason, who would soon have his first taste of 
as leader of the Argonautic expedition. The parallel between god and hero continues in this first scene on the cloak: as Zeus is about to be armed with the thunderbolt, his special weapon, Jason assumes as his special weapon the cloak that makes him so strikingly handsome to Hypsipyle. She is, after all, the "opponent" whom Apollonius leads us to expect by describing Jason's preparation for and arrival in Myrine in terms of Achilles' arming and his approach to meet Hector in battle. Both weapons, moreover, are brilliant: Zeus's thunderbolt is 
(732), while the cloak too is as blinding as the sun:
More easily would you cast your eyes into the rising
sun than gaze upon the cloak's ruddy brilliance.
The two, man and god, are now armed and dangerous. Zeus attains his 
by vanquishing his enemies with his flashing thunderbolt; Jason will succeed in his coming 
through his radiant appearance and attire.
The second scene (735–41) features an episode in which the antithesis of strength versus skill once again emerges. In the building of Thebes, the strongman Zethus struggled to lift boulders the size of a mountain peak on his shoulders, whereas Amphion through the sound of his music caused rocks twice as large to move by themselves. The image recalls the contrast between Orpheus and Heracles in the Catalogue: the former had led trees from Pieria to Thracian Zone through the power of song (28–31), while the latter was carrying the Erymanthian boar on his shoulders at the moment that he heard of the Argonautic expedition (124–29). This scene nicely parallels the way in which Jason succeeds in this expedition. For unlike Heracles in his attainment of the golden apples of the Hesperides, Jason will ultimately secure the object of his quest not by virtue of his physical strength, but through Medea's
magic, acquired from the impressionable young girl through his physical attractiveness and verbal dexterity.
The sensual portrait of an Amazon-like Aphrodite occupies the third scene (742–46). Part of the goddess's tunic has slipped off her arm, exposing her breast as she uses Ares' shield as a mirror. The goddess of love in the likeness of an Amazon anticipates the two warrior maidens Jason will encounter in the poem: the armed Hypsipyle (637–38) in the present episode and the even more dangerous Medea, who successfully takes on Talos, the last of the Bronze Race, in the final book (4.1636–72). The image of the love goddess on Jason's cloak is highly significant because, as Phineus will later tell Jason, his mission will succeed through the help of Aphrodite (2.423–25), who will provide the hero with the means for achieving his goal by sending Eros to make Medea fall in love with him. In fact, Aphrodite's role in the Argonautica so closely parallels Medea's that the goddess in a way can be seen as an Olympian analogue of the Colchian maid. For both women give the self-centered young men of their lives golden objects: Medea, the fleece to Jason; Aphrodite, the golden ball to Eros.[29]
In the fourth and central scene (747–51), the Teleboans, also called Taphian pirates (750), have the upper hand in a battle with the sons of Electryon over cattle. The scholiast ad 1.747–51b recalls Herodorus's explanation for this battle: the Teleboans are the grandchildren of Hippothoë, herself the granddaughter of Perseus and Andromeda, who went to Mycenae to demand from Electryon their inheritance, the cattle that they insisted rightfully belonged to them.[30] The story parallels the Argonautic expedition
quite closely. Like the Argonauts, the Teleboans made a long journey (from the island of Taphos, near Acarnania, to Argos) in order to retrieve something that they believed was theirs; while they sought a herd of cattle, Jason travels to Colchis in search of the hide of an animal that belonged to his ancestor, Phrixus (who together with the ram appears on the last scene of the cloak). As we have seen at the center of the Catalogue, the motif of the journey made in quest of special animals becomes a symbol in Apollonius for the Argonautic expedition.
The fifth scene, like the third, has to do with the realm of love (752–58). While Pelops rides together in a chariot with Hippodamia, her father, and the charioteer, Myrtilus, follow them in fast pursuit. The story clearly anticipates Jason's future experience in Colchis. Like Pelops, he will take up the father of the bride's challenge—although not in a chariot race, but in the yoking of fire-breathing bulls with which he will plow a field and sow the dragon's teeth. Jason will then escape with Medea on the Argo , and through betrayal and deceit kill not the father of the bride, Æëtes, but as a most cruel substitute, his innocent brother-in-law, Apsyrtus.
The sixth scene (759–62) balances the second by focusing once again upon the antithesis of strength versus skill. The youthful and smaller Apollo ( 
, 760)[31] shoots his bow at the huge Tityus ( 
, 761), who tries to rape Leto. The corresponsion with Amphion and Zethus is all the closer in that the instruments used by the respective men of skill are both stringed: the lyre and the bow. The close association between Jason and Apollo that we have seen in previous episodes turns Apollo's success over the monstrous Tityus into a hint of Jason's future success, both over the powerful and menacing Æëtes and also over Pelias, whose reign in Iolcus threatens Jason and his family. Moreover, another archer, Eros, will cause Medea, through whom the Argonauts will gain possession of the fleece, to fall desperately in love with Jason (cf. 3.275–98).
In the seventh and final scene (763–67), Phrixus listens as the ram speaks. The workmanship of the marvelous cloak is so exquisite that the narrator exclaims:
Looking at these you would fall silent and deceive yourself
in the expectation of hearing some intelligible message from them;
you would spend a long time hoping to see something.
The embroidery is so spellbinding, the narrator seems to say, that the viewer feels drawn into the scene and even expects to hear some 
. Apollonius has thus raised—but significantly gives no answer to—the question, What does the ram say to Phrixus? The reader is left to ponder the message that the ram imparts. The scholiast ad 1.763–64b suggests that the ram was encouraging Phrixus by telling him that Zeus had guaranteed his safety. By this the ancient commentator must have in mind Phrixus's escape from Ino's plot and his safe arrival and eventual welcome in Colchis. This interpretation, even if not exactly what the poet had in mind, is nonetheless instructive; for it points the way toward seeing the close parallel that exists between the experiences of Phrixus and those of Jason. Like Phrixus, Jason will arrive safely in Colchis. He will also travel on a vessel that has the magical ability to speak.[32] Moreover, Jason, like Phrixus, travels from Greece to Colchis as the result of a plot against his life, and both marry daughters of Æëtes. Thus the heroic achievements of the two have close similarities, and the success that Phrixus experienced in his journey to Colchis, foretold quite possibly in the 
of the ram, bodes well for the success of Jason's expedition. A final point: this last scene corresponds by way of contrast with the first, and neatly brings the ecphrasis to a close—whereas in the first the accent was on the visual quality of the scene (the brilliance of the thunderbolt), here Apollonius underscores the aural quality (the message we seem to hear).
In sum, through the progression of the scenes on Jason's cloak from imminent 
to the auspicious parallel hinting at the successful completion of the expedition, Apollonius provides a symbolic representation of the expedition. This symbolic treatment reflects general features as well as particular details of the quest for the golden fleece by echoing some of the themes already explored in earlier episodes and by hinting at specific events that the Argonauts will encounter. To the reader, the scenes of the cloak unfold in a suggestive fashion. Jason is on the verge of discovering his great weapon, love (a ), which will prove to be more powerful than brute force (b ). On their way to Colchis, and once there, they will encounter armed Aphrodites in Hypsipyle and Medea (g ); at Colchis they will lay claim to the fleece and eventually leave a field soaked with the blood of the Earthborn (d ; cf. Argo. 3.1391–1404). Jason will take Medea aboard the Argo as they flee from the navy of Æëtes, against whose son a treacherous plot will be laid (g ). The small number of Argonauts will ultimately outmaneuver the many Colchians in pursuit (and, beyond the scope of the poem, Jason will gain the upper hand over the wicked Pelias) through Medea's cunning (b ; cf. 4.339); and the talking Argo will then bring Jason, his Colchian bride, and the fleece safely back to Greece (a ).
Before concluding this discussion of Jason's cloak, I return to the introductory verses (a). In his overall description of the cloak, Apollonius emphasizes its ruddy brilliance:
More easily would you cast your eyes into the rising
sun than gaze upon the cloak's ruddy brilliance.
For the central area was given a reddish hue
and the border was purple.
The key words are 
and 
. At the beginning of the third and final section of the episode (A a), when Jason approaches Myrine, Apollonius compares him to a star that charms ( 
) both the eyes of the brides in their chambers and the maiden who waits for her groom by virtue of this same quality
( 
, 777–78). When Jason is seated across from Hypsipyle, she, like the person looking into the cloak ( 
, 726), averts her eyes and blushes: 'H d ' 
(790–91). The cloak will have the effect of charming Hypsipyle, and she manifests the effects by assuming the salient feature of the cloak, its color.[33] Not only does Jason have a charm, but he also carries a weapon, the spear that Atalanta gave to him.[34] These details play an important role in an allusion that informs our reading of the second half of the episode.
A—
The Encounter and Departure (774–909)
This final section of the Lemnian sojourn possesses an extended ring structure much like that of the description of Jason's cloak. To summarize what was said above: it begins with Jason's approach to and arrival in Myrine (a, 774–90a) and ends with his departure from the city and the island (a , 910a). A conversation between Jason and Hypsipyle follows Jason's arrival (b, 790b–841) and precedes his departure (b , 886–909), and during both conversations Hypsipyle offers her kingdom to Jason. After the first conversation the Argonauts proceed to Myrine (c, 842–60) and before the last they leave the city (c , 875–85). In the middle stands the assembly of the Argonauts (d, 861–84), which corresponds to the assembly of the Lemnian women in the first half. The central positioning of a significant section once again proves to be instructive. For the Argonautic assembly not only contains a reference to an Odyssean episode that will emerge as an important subtext in this half of the Lemnian sojourn, but also herein Heracles makes an assertion that evinces his approach to the heroic 
. As we shall observe in the final episode of the book, his approach proves to be inappropriate for the Argonautic 
.
In her first speech to Jason, Hypsipyle gives her explanation for the absence of men on the island and invites the Argonauts to visit her city; she even goes so far as to offer Jason rule of
her kingdom. The men, with the exception of Heracles and a few others, accept the invitation to come into the city and go to the homes of the women. They stay for an unspecified time and give no indication of being about to leave until finally Heracles calls an assembly, reminding them of their need to fetch the golden fleece. Only then do the Argonauts leave the island. Hypsipyle and the women of Lemnos have thus become the first real threat to the expedition; for had Jason accepted Hypsipyle's offer, the mission would have come to a halt and failed. In this way, the Lemnian sojourn parallels Odysseus's encounters with Calypso, Nausicaa, and especially Circe, all of whom, like Hypsipyle, live on islands.
When Jason arrives within the city, the women rejoice at the sight of the first man they have seen in their midst in a year. In their eagerness to meet Jason, they almost attack him ( 
, 783), and his embarassment shows as he proceeds with his eyes on the ground (784–85).[35] The behavior of the women, repeated as Jason leaves to summon his men (843–44), appears extraordinary, almost unnatural. Once we become aware that Apollonius has the Circe episode in mind in what follows (see immediately below), the behavior of the women can be appreciated for what it is, an adaptation of the unnatural behavior of the wild animals outside Circe's hut. In that episode the wolves and lions did not rush at Odysseus's men, but were unnaturally docile, fawning on them with their tails (Od. 10.212–19). The poet provides the first verbal clue that Circe is an important model for Hypsipyle in this scene when Jason arrives at the palace of the queen. After the servants open the door, Iphinoë leads the Iolcan stranger to a seat across from her mistress:
, the servants opened the double
folding doors , fitted with elegantly made louvers.
Here Iphinoë escorted him eagerly through the beautiful
colonnade and sat him upon a radiant couch
opposite her mistress.
When Odysseus arrived at Circe's cottage, she herself opened the doors and led her guest to his seat:
Immediately she [sc. Circe] came out and opened the 
doors
and invited me in; and I followed, distressed in my heart.
She escorted me to a beautifully made couch, with inlaid silver,
and had me sit down. There was a stool for my feet.
Jason, dressed in his splendid cloak, thoroughly captivates Hypsipyle, whose face now reflects the color of his cloak. His royal host proceeds to explain the absence of the men on Lemnos and then goes on to offer Jason the throne of the island (793ff.). Apollonius describes her account of the Lemnian crime as "wily": 
(791–92).[37] 
occurs only once in the Homeric corpus, and there it is in reference to the wily words that Calypso, the daughter of Atlas, used in her attempt to keep Odysseus on her island:[38]
His [sc. Atlas's] daughter keeps him a prisoner in his sorry,
wretched state,
always beguiling him with deceitful and wily words
so that he might forget Ithaca.
Hypsipyle's intention, like Calypso's, is to get Jason and the Argonauts to stay; and just as Calypso (Od. 5.160–70) misled Odysseus by suggesting that she was letting him go of her own volition (she never mentions the command she received from Hermes [ibid. 97–115]), Hypsipyle misinforms Jason by averring that the Lemnian men are still alive and living with their Thracian captives and legitimate sons. If Jason is taken in by these wily words, he runs the same risk that Odysseus did, of forfeiting his 
.[39]
At the end of her account, Hypsipyle offers Jason the throne of Lemnos:
And so, move about among the people, and if you should
want to live here and this pleases you , by all means then
you may have the office of my father, Thoas. I do not think
you will fault our land, for it is fertile beyond the other
islands that lie in the Ægæan Sea.
After Odysseus's bath on Phæacia, Nausicaa marveled at his appearance, much as Hypsipyle does here upon Jason's arrival. The Phæacian princess then made a wish that Odysseus remain as
her husband, a prospect that Alcinous later invited Odysseus to consider:[40]
Then she spoke to her long-haired servants:
"Hear what I have to say, my fair-armed servants.
Through the will of all the gods who inhabit Olympus
this man mingles with the godlike Phæacians.
Before he appeared to me to be unseemly,
but now he seems like the gods who inhabit the wide vault of
heaven.
If only such a man might be called my husband,
living here, and if only it might please him to remain here ."
Stranger, I do not have such a mind as to be angry
without a good reason. It is better when things are as they should
be.
If only , O Father Zeus, Athena, and Apollo,
being such a man as you [sc. Odysseus] are, of one mind with me,
you might take my daughter and be called my son-in-law,
living here . I would give you a house and property,
if you would stay here. But no one of the Phæacians will keep
you here
against your will. May such behavior not be pleasing to Zeus.
The similarity of the offers in language and context invites us to see Hypsipyle as something of a Nausicaa, an innocent princess whose hand in marriage will bring with it the island kingdom of Lemnos but also take away the eagerly desired 
.
Hypsipyle concludes her speech by bidding Jason to go to his ship and bring back his comrades:
But go now to your ship and tell your comrades
of our offer, and do not remain outside the city.
Circe similarly invited Odysseus to bring his men to her house:
Zeus-born son of Laërtes, devious Odysseus,
go now to your swift ship and to the seashore.
First of all, drag your ship to the shore;
then set all your possessions and ship cables within the caves.
You yourself then return and bring back your trusty companions .
Thus in her initial encounter with Jason, Hypsipyle attempts to do what the wily Calypso, the innocent Nausicaa, and the sorceress Circe all tried and failed to do with Odysseus: to keep Jason on her island, an eventuality that would also have kept him from fulfilling his mission. Jason, however, fully aware of what her invitation
[42]entails, politely refuses: 
(840–41).
Hypsipyle's seductive invitation thus fails to divert Jason from his 
and final 
. As I mentioned above, Jason's cloak, bearing a symbolic representation of the Argonautic expedition, made him irresistible to Hypsipyle, who assumed its reddish hue. He also came armed with a spear. Given the allusion to the Circe episode (more elements of which will be explored below), Jason's arming now takes on a new significance. On his way to Circe's cottage, Odysseus met Hermes, who gave him a charm ( 
) against Circe's magic and told him to take a sword with which to threaten her lest she unman him (Od. 10.281–301). There is the hint of such a threat in Heracles' speech and in the Argonauts' reaction to it, as I shall point out below. Like Odysseus, Jason has his charm and weapon as he approaches his Circe. The Argonautic equivalent to 
is not a magical plant, but consists of the brilliance of the 
that the scenes on the cloak represent. It is the 
won for heroic action—to which Heracles refers in his speech in the assembly, which is promised by the fulfillment of these 
, and which Jason tells Hypsipyle is the reason why he cannot stay (840–41)—that ultimately frees the Argonauts from the threat of the Lemnian women. Jason's weapon, although different from Odysseus's in kind, is similar in what it suggests. Both weapons are surely phallic in nature; both heroes are armed for erotic battle against women who make threatening sexual advances.
Reference to the Circe episode continues. Upon returning to the ship Jason reported Hypsipyle's invitation to the men (847). Some time thereafter, the women came to the shore with gifts and escorted the men to their homes. This, as we learn, was encouraged by Aphrodite, who, as a favor to her husband, Hephæstus, took advantage of the Argonautic sojourn to repopulate the island with men (850–52). But not all the Argonauts went up to the city; Heracles and a few comrades remained behind:
And the others ended up where chance had led each,
except for Heracles. For he had been left behind at the ship
of his own accord, together with a few chosen comrades.
This minor detail also pertains to the Odyssean sojourn on Ææa. Thoroughly terrified by his previous encounter with Circe, Eurylochus criticized what he thought was Odysseus's reckless behavior in his desire to return to the cottage (Od. 10.431–37). Odysseus would have killed him were it not for the others who intervened:
"O Zeus-born, we shall leave him behind, if this is your command,
to remain here alongside the ship and to guard the vessel,
but lead us to the sacred home of Circe."
Thus speaking they left the ship and the sea.
And Eurylochus had not been left behind along the ship ,
but followed us, for he feared my terrible reprimand.
Like Eurylochus, Heracles wants nothing to do with the female inhabitants of the island, and he will voice his hostility toward their stay at the assembly he calls. On the other hand, unlike Eurylochus, Heracles does not fear Jason and chooses to stay on the beach.
At the center of the second half stands the assembly of the Argonauts, which begins with another reference to the Circe episode. When day after day passes and the Argonauts still do not leave the island, Heracles finally calls together the group and reminds them of their mission:
[43]
Day after day they kept putting off their
journey, and they would have stayed there inactive for a long time
unless Heracles had assembled the comrades apart from
the women and upbraided them in these words:
"Fools ! Does the shedding of native blood restrict us
from our fatherland? Have we come from there in need of
marriages, because we despise the women of our cities? Have we
decided
to live here and to plow the fertile land of Lemnos?"
Similarly, after a year on Circe's island the men assembled and reminded Odysseus of their goal, their 
:
But when a year had passed and the seasons had made their circuit
as the months receded and the long days were completed,
it was then that my faithful comrades summoned me and said:
"Fool , now is the time to remember your native land,
if indeed it is fated for you to be saved and to reach
your well-made home and the land of your fathers."
Jason, then, is no different from his Homeric model in temporarily forgetting his mission; the delay on Lemnos does not per se mark Jason off as nonheroic. Heracles' speech, however, goes on to underscore the essential difference between Jason and himself with regard to their attitude toward heroic action. Heracles, ironically recalling the words of Polyxo (870–71 » 685–87), asserts that one does not earn 
or a 
from spending time with foreign women:
Certainly we shall not become famous by cooping ourselves up
here for a long time with foreign women. The fleece does not move
on its own, and a god will not seize it and hand it over to us if
we say
a prayer. Let us go back to our own homes; let him stay in bed
all day with Hypsipyle until he repopulates Lemnos
with male children and great renown comes his way.
Yet Heracles is absolutely wrong in this assertion; for Jason, making foreign women fall in love with him is one of his special skills through which the mission will ultimately succeed. In Heracles' view, the hero is a man of bold physical action. Jason, however, will complete his mission and thereby attain 
precisely because of his ability to charm foreign women. His arming scene, accordingly, was the prelude to the kind of battle that Jason will always win; his aristeia lies in bed ( 
, 872). Nonetheless, Heracles prods the group, including Jason, to leave Lemnos by reminding them of their goal, the acquisition of the golden fleece (870–71). The allurement of the expedition—so brilliantly hinted at in the description of Jason's cloak, which stands at the center of the Lemnian episode—has saved the Argonauts from staying with the Lemnian women and thereby giving up their acquisition of the fleece and 
to Greece. It is his ambition to succeed in the 
that causes Jason to reject Hypsipyle's first (840–41) and second (903) offers to stay on Lemnos.
Apollonius not only reveals Heracles' attitude toward heroic action; he also subtly calls into question the hero's credibility by casting him in a role that, although sharply contrasting with it, nonetheless provocatively recalls that of the cowardly Eurylochus. Significantly, part of Heracles' speech recalls another Homeric coward, Thersites. At the beginning of his speech, Heracles asked if the Argonauts left Greece because there were no suitable women: 
;
("Did we come here from home in need of 
, out of scorn for the women of our cities?" 866–67.) This sarcastic question echoes Thersites' taunts at the assembly of the Greeks in Book 2 of the Iliad :[44]
Do you still need 
, which one of the horse-taming
Trojans will bring you from Ilion as a ransom for his son,
someone whom I, or another of the Achæans, have bound and
led away?
Or perhaps a new woman so that you might lie with her,
someone whom you will keep apart for yourself?
At the end of his speech, Heracles tells the others to let Jason spend all day in bed with Hypsipyle while they go home (872–74, quoted above). In addition to envisaging Agamemnon in bed with Briseïs, Thersites likewise goes on to suggest that they go home, leaving Agamemnon to enjoy his prizes:
Cowards, objects of base reproach, Achæan women, no longer
men,
let's sail home in our ships and abandon this one [ sc. Agamemnon]
here in Troy to enjoy his prize, so that he might know
whether we shall be of any help to him or not.
The image of a Heracles who talks like a hero, but in words that recall Homeric cowards, creates a striking dissonance. His decision to remain at the shore with the ship and his reminder to continue the mission have led some to think of Heracles as a kind of
Stoic saint.[45] On the contrary, Heracles' words and actions, when seen through the Homeric subtexts, lose their edge. Moreover, the shallowness of his heroic bluster becomes clear when, soon after they leave Lemnos, Heracles is completely undone at the loss of his boyfriend, Hylas; he will discover just how powerful love, or rather passion, can be. Jason, on the other hand, never loses control in love; in fact, he never loses lovers, but only discards—or tries to discard—them.[46]
The reminiscence of the assembly of the Greeks at Troy in Iliad 2 continues as the poet tells of the Argonauts' departure from Myrine. When the Lemnian women hear the news that the men are leaving, they rush out of the town in tears to greet the Argonauts for the last time. Apollonius compares them to bees pouring out of a hive gathering "fruit" from flowers:
When bees engage in noisy flight around beautiful lilies
after pouring out of their nest among the rocks, and the dewy
glen all about appears happy, they fly to one flower and then to
another
gathering their sweet fruit. Just like this the women
ardently rushed out among the men in tears,
bidding each farewell in words and gestures,
and praying to the blessed gods to grant them a safe return.
The action of the women prompted by the departure of the Argonauts corresponds to that in the scene of their arrival, when the women rushed out fearing an invasion (in particular, cf. 
,
635 » 883). The second rush is quite different. Earlier they were armed for battle and tried to ward off the Argonauts; here, more like devoted wives than threatening warriors, they bid them a tearful goodbye and pray for a safe 
(885). The image echoes a Homeric bee simile that was applied to the Greeks running from their ships and tents to the very assembly at which Thersites spoke:[47]
Just as the various hives of bees go forth in great number
from a hollow rock in continual motion
and fly in a swarm upon the vernal flowers,
going here and there in their flight;
so too the many nationalities of men, leaving their ships and tents,
fell into ranks along the wide beach,
entering the assembly by company.
Ancient critics were divided over the success of the Argonautic simile. The scholiast ad 1.879–83d believed that the simile failed because the joy of the image did not match the gloom of the occasion. On the other hand, the comment preserved ad 1.879–83e defended the simile, arguing that the point is "beauty alone and ecphrasis." No scholar, however, (ancient or modern) has observed that the comparison presupposes apicultural theory in vogue in the ancient world, in particular the belief that bees collected their young from the flowers upon which they lighted.[48] In
the first assembly, Polyxo advised the Lemnian women to take advantage of the presence of the Argonauts to reestablish their society and to provide for future generations. Aphrodite aided this plan as a favor to her husband, since the Lemnian men had helped him when he was in need. In fact, Heracles calls attention to the plight of the Lemnian women in his accusation that Jason was trying to repopulate the male segment of Lemnos singlehandedly. Thus, the simile can be seen as hinting at a central issue of the Lemnian encounter, the acquiring of children—an issue with which the episode will conclude. Inasmuch as bees were thought to gather their offspring from flowers, the simile intimates the success that the Lemnian women have had in their plan; like the bees, they have found a source for rejuvenating their population.
As the Lemnian women bid the Argonauts farewell, Apollonius reports the final words exchanged by Jason and Hypsipyle as a counterbalance to their first conversation. Hypsipyle speaks first (888–98). She prays for the successful completion of their mission and reiterates her offer of the kingship of her island. Realizing that Jason will probably never return, she begs to be remembered and asks for instructions about children, if she should become pregnant. In his reply (900–909), Jason accepts her prayer and again refuses the kingship on the ground of his 
. In response to her question about children, he thinks about the possibility that he might not himself ever return to Greece. He thus asks that, if this should happen, Hypsipyle send any son born of their union to his own parents when the son grows to such an age that he can provide the 
that he, Jason, would have provided. In this final conversation, Apollonius has again returned to the encounter that Odysseus had with Nausicaa, which both the offer of kingship and the request to be remembered recall:[49]
"But you will have no desire
to do this; I can see that this will not turn out so.
Remember , then, both while you are away from home and when
you return ,
Hypsipyle."
. . . . . . . . . .
"Hypsipyle, 
through the will of the gods! But have a better opinion
regarding me, since it is enough for me to live in my fatherland
by the good graces of Pelias. May the gods only free me from
my labors!"
. . . . . . . . . .
He spoke , and was the first to get aboard the ship.
"Farewell, stranger. When you are once again in your native land,
remember me, since you owe me first and foremost for saving your
life."
In response, wily Odysseus said to her:
"Nausicaa, daughter of great-souled Alcinous,
,
.
At that time I would pray to you as a god
forever; for you, young woman, have restored my life."
Thus he spoke , and sat upon the couch alongside King Alcinous.
As the episode comes to a close, the reader is left with the image of a Nausicaa-like Hypsipyle; as beautiful and innocent as she may seem, her invitation, like that of her model, nonetheless threatens the hero's 
and 
.
I would like to return briefly to a point that I suggested above; namely, that the Argonauts risked their masculinity in their contact with the women of Lemnos. In the first half, Apollonius concentrates on the Lemnian women, who take on male roles both at the textual and subtextual levels. In the second half, where the structural focus is on the Argonautic assembly, one discerns hints that the Argonauts might be acting in a less than manly fashion. Not only did the women assume a more aggressive role in establishing relationships with the Argonauts, but there is allusion to several passages that suggest that contact with the Lemnian women has threatened to unman those Argonauts who left the shore.
First, in having Jason bring a charm and weapon on his first visit with Hypsipyle—which, as I have shown, in several details recalls Odysseus's encounter with Circe—Apollonius would seem to suggest that the former risks becoming 
if he should sleep with his "Circe" (cf. Od. 10.301); and, as we hear from Heracles, Jason has been spending all day in bed with Hypsipyle. Second, as seen above, Heracles' speech to the Argonauts recalled Thersites' rebuke to his fellow soldiers. In this speech Thersites accuses the Greeks of behaving like women in his acerbic taunt 
(Il. 2.235). Recollection of Thersites' speech could well bring this particular taunt to mind in the present passage. A third suggestion that the Argonauts have risked becoming less than virile can be observed also in their
response to Heracles' rebuke. Like Jason as he entered the city of Myrine (cf. 784), they too keep their eyes on the ground as they leave the assembly in silence:
Thus he rebuked the group, and not anyone dared
to lift up his eyes toward him , nor to say a word .
This description recalls the condition of Anticleia, Odysseus's mother, when the hero met her in the underworld:[50]
And she [sc. Anticleia] sits in silence near the blood and does
not dare
to look up at her son , nor to say a word .
Recalling that Heracles had just told the men that they would not become 
(869) by associating with the women of Lemnos, the reader is invited to conclude from this suggestive description of the Argonauts that they have indeed become 
; that is, effeminate men opposed to 
.[51] The subtextual indicators conspire to suggest that a prolonged stay on Lemnos would emasculate the Argonauts and Jason himself, the same threat faced by Odysseus (literally with Circe, and in a more figurative sense with Calypso and Nausicaa). For if Odysseus agreed to stay with any of these tempting women, he would give up the idea of returning home, avoid the contest that awaited him there, and forego the 
that would come from his victory over the suitors.
In sum, like Odysseus, Jason choses 
and 
over the lover's 
. But in his last speech to Hypsipyle, Jason reveals
wherein he differs from his Homeric model. His request that Hypsipyle give up her son to take care of his own parents anticipates his future request of Medea that she too give up her sons.[52] In this request, Jason reveals the selfish side of his personality so unforgettably portrayed by Euripides in the Medea . The Argonautic hero may look and act like an Odysseus when confronted by the feminine threat to his mission, but, as in his departure from home, comparison with his Homeric model underscores the great difference: Odysseus gave up Circe, Calypso, and Nausicaa and the immortality or life of ease they offered so that he could return to his wife and child. Years later Jason will be willing to give up his wife and children and accept the offer of a foreign king to marry his daughter to provide himself with a life of security. Upon comparison with his Homeric models, we may find Heracles' heroic rhetoric empty, especially when we see how he behaves in Mysia; at least he comes across as honest. Jason, on the other hand, proves both here in his concluding speech to Hypsipyle and later in his marriage with Medea (outside the limits of the poem) to be far less committed to the preservation of a family than Odysseus, his primary model in this episode. Such an unhappy contrast between Jason and his Homeric model recalls the unfavorable comparison with Hector in his departure from home.
The encounter with the masculine and aggressive women of Lemnos has indeed threatened to unman the crew of the Argo and thus prevent the expedition from continuing. The Argonauts in the company of the Lemnian women temporarily lost sight of their goal until Heracles got them back on course by appealing to the 
that comes from the 
of which Jason's cloak stands as a mythological icon. Yet Apollonius calls Heracles' heroic status into question through comparison with Thersites, and in the last episode of the book he will have him become the victim of
his own violent "heroism." While it took Heracles, the more traditional type of hero, to remind the Argonauts of their goal, it is the longing to complete their 
that is Jason's 
and that prevents him from committing himself to Hypsipyle or even later to Medea (cf. 4.338–54)—until, that is, she frightens him into making a commitment. In the final episode, we shall find the situation on Lemnos reversed. Heracles will abandon the expedition in search of the one he loves so desperately, while Jason will finesse a crucial restoration of the group's harmony, momentarily lost following the accidental loss of Heracles, and, as Heracles does here on Lemnos, get the expedition back on track. It is Jason after all who, ambitious to retain the 
of leading the expedition (cf. 351) and to win the 
that comes from its successful completion, never loses sight of the 
.