Among his contemporaries Apollonius suffers from a comparison with
Theocritus, who was a little his senior, but he was much admired by
Roman writers who derived inspiration from the great classical writers
of Greece by way of Alexandria. In fact Alexandria was a useful bridge
between Athens and Rome. The "Argonautica" was translated by Varro
Atacinus, copied by Ovid and Virgil, and minutely studied by Valerius
Flaccus in his poem of the same name. Some of his finest passages have
been appropriated and improved upon by Virgil by the divine right of
superior genius. [1004] The subject of love had been treated in the
romantic spirit before the time of Apollonius in writings that have
perished, for instance, in those of Antimachus of Colophon, but the
"Argonautica" is perhaps the first poem still extant in which the
expression of this spirit is developed with elaboration. The Medea of
Apollonius is the direct precursor of the Dido of Virgil, and it is the
pathos and passion of the fourth book of the "Aeneid" that keep alive
many a passage of Apollonius.

THE ARGONAUTICA

BOOK I

(ll. 1-4) Beginning with thee, O Phoebus, I will recount the famous
deeds of men of old, who, at the behest of King Pelias, down through the
mouth of Pontus and between the Cyanean rocks, sped well-benched Argo in
quest of the golden fleece.

(ll. 5-17) Such was the oracle that Pelias heard, that a hateful doom
awaited him to be slain at the prompting of the man whom he should
see coming forth from the people with but one sandal. And no long time
after, in accordance with that true report, Jason crossed the stream
of wintry Anaurus on foot, and saved one sandal from the mire, but the
other he left in the depths held back by the flood. And straightway he
came to Pelias to share the banquet which the king was offering to his
father Poseidon and the rest of the gods, though he paid no honour to
Pelasgian Hera. Quickly the king saw him and pondered, and devised for
him the toil of a troublous voyage, in order that on the sea or among
strangers he might lose his home-return.

(ll. 18-22) The ship, as former bards relate, Argus wrought by the
guidance of Athena. But now I will tell the lineage and the names of the
heroes, and of the long sea-paths and the deeds they wrought in their
wanderings; may the Muses be the inspirers of my song!

(ll. 23-34) First then let us name Orpheus whom once Calliope bare, it
is said, wedded to Thracian