Star-Crossed: Hector, Achilles, Jason, and Medea at Argonautica 3.956-961

Abstract

This note explores the literary resonances of a previously uncommented on Homeric intertext in the famous Jason-Sirius simile at Argonautica 3.956-361. While scholarship on the passage has long recognized that Apollonius primarily draws on the Achilles-Sirius simile from Il. 22.25-32, I present evidence that the passage opens with an allusion to another Iliadic simile whose subject is not Achilles, but rather his rival Hector. I argue that Apollonius, in evoking these Homeric rivals, emphasizes both the instability of Jason's heroic character and the tragic blindness of Medea to the pain and disappointment that she is soon to experience. The appreciation of this allusion to Hector also deepens the contrast between the foreboding Jason-Sirius simile in Book 3 and the hopeful star simile which introduces Jason's arrival before Hypsipyle in Book 1.At Argonautica 3.954, Medea, her heart leaping at the mere hint of a footfall or the rustle of the wind, awaits Jason's arrival outside the temple of Hecate. When Jason appears, bringing the journey of these two characters to a climax, Apollonius lingers over this important moment with what a recent critic has described as "the most splendid of his many intriguing similes".1 αὐτὰρ ὅ γ᾽ οὐ μετὰ δηρὸν ἐελδομένῃ ἐφαάνθη, ὑψόσ᾽ ἀναθρῴσκων ἅ τε Σείριος Ὠκεανοῖο, ὅς δή τοι καλὸς μὲν ἀρίζηλός τ᾽ ἐσιδέσθαι ἀντέλλει, μήλοισι δ᾽ ἐν ἄσπετον ἧκεν ὀιζύν•