d—
Song of Orpheus (496–511)

In adapting his model of the preparations for departure from Pagasae, as I argued above, Apollonius substituted a theogonic song for Demodocus's abridged version of the quarrel of Achilles and Odysseus.^[46] The reconciling power of theogonic poetry celebrated in the hymn to Hermes seems to have suggested this. In the latter, Hermes' song assuaged his brother's anger over the theft of his cattle; in the Argonautica , Orpheus's theogony has

[45] See 1.1286; 2.410, 623, 885; 3.336, 423, 432, 504; 4.1318.

[46] On the significance of the creation theme in an epic context, cf. D. M. Gaunt, "The Creation-Theme in Epic Poetry," CompLit 29 (1977) 213–20.

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the same effect of charming its audience and easing the hostile tension generated by the

.

Apollonius presents Orpheus's song in two clearly defined parts, each introduced by the expression

(496, 503). In the first half, the singer tells of how the present world order arose out of conflict (, 498a); Apollonius has Empedoclean theory in mind in Orpheus's brief cosmogony.^[47] This, as the scholiast ad 1.496–98a observed, represents on the cosmic scale the restored unity of the Argonauts following the of Idas and Idmon. In the second half, the topic changes from a cosmogonical to a succession myth. Apollonius contaminates Empedoclean creation theory with the theogony of Pherecydes:^[48] Cronus and Rhea replace Ophion and Eurynome, and will eventually be replaced by Zeus, who, in Orpheus's song, is still a young boy in the Cretan cave.^[49] Apollonius alludes to the ultimate resolution of the dynastic struggle among the gods by observing that in the future Zeus will receive the thunderbolt. Through this weapon the youthful deity will in time achieve his (511). Like Zeus, as well as Hermes and Telemachus, the youthful Jason wants to win (cf. 351); and like Zeus, he does not yet have his weapon. For the completion of the Argonautic mission his "weapon" will prove to be Medea, whose magic will make Jason, even if momentarily, immensely powerful. In fact, Apollonius would appear to have this subtle parallel in mind when, after Jason has prepared himself with Medea's drugs for his great , the poet likens the gleam of his hero's armor to flashes of lightning:^[50]

[47] Cf. Vian 252–53 ad 502.

[48] Cf. Vian 253 ad 511.

[49] One might well think of the young Jason who grew up in Chiron's cave (cf. Pindar P. 4.102–3, Hesiod Catalogue of Women 40 M&W), which the poet recalls when Chiron and his wife, holding the infant Achilles, wave goodbye to the Argonauts as they leave the Gulf of Pagasae (1.553–58).

[50] Hunter ad loc. notes the comparison between Jason and Zeus in these lines.

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You would say that the thunder flash of a wintry storm, streaking
down through the dark sky, darted constantly this way and that
from the clouds that bring in their wake a most black storm.

The song of Orpheus thus provides a mythic reflection of the immediate context, the establishment of harmony out of

, and hints at Jason's future attainment of .