Description

Apollonius of Rhodes, also known as Apollonius Rhodius (early 3rd century BCE-after 246 BCE), was an epic poet, scholar, and director of the Library of Alexandria. He is best known for his epic poem The Argonautica, which told the mythological story of Jason and the Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece, and which is one of the chief works in the history of epic poetry. He did not come from Rhodes, but was a Hellenistic Egyptian. He lived in Rhodes for part of his life and while living there adopted "Rhodian" as a surname. The Argonautica differs in some respects from traditional or Homeric Greek epic, though Apollonius certainly used Homer as a model. The Argonautica is shorter than Homer's epics, with four books totalling less than 6000 lines, while the Iliad runs to more than 16,000. Apollonius' epic also differs from the more traditional epic in its weaker, more human protagonist Jason and in its many discursions into local custom, aetiology, and other popular subjects of Hellenistic poetry.