The Argonautica
Apollonius Rhodius (3rd Cent. - 3rd Cent.)
The story of how Jason and a group of famous heroes of Greece took to sea in the Argos has been told many times, before and after Apollonius of Rhodes, wrote his Argonautica, in the 3rd century b.C.. It is not only the oldest full version of the tale to arrive to our days, but also the only extant example of Hellenistic epic. This was already a popular myth by the times of Apollonius, who makes the story of how Jason and the Argonauts sail to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece, and have to go through a lot of adventures...

The Argonautica is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC and tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from Colchis. Their heroic adventures and Jason's relationship with the Colchian sorceress Medea were already well known to Hellenistic audiences, which enabled Apollonius to go beyond a simple narrative, giving it a scholarly emphasis suitable to the times. It was the age of the great Library of Alexandria and his epic incorporates his researches in geography, ethnography, comparative religion and Homeric...