Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/298

Rh 280 ARGONAUTAE. (b. c. 367) in counteracting Spartan negotiation and attaching Artaxerxes to the Theban cause. (Xen. Hell. vii. 1. § 33.) He is again mentioned by Xenophon {Hell. vii. 4. § 15), in his account of the war between the Arcadians and Eleans (b. c. 365), as one of the leaders of the democratic party at Elis. (Comp. Diod. xv. 77.) [E. E.] ARGE'LIUS, wrote a work on the Ionic temple of Aesculapius, of which he was said to have been the architect. He alse wrote on the proportions of the Corinthian order {de Symmetriis Corinthiis). His time is unknown. (Vitruv. vii. praef. § 12.) [P.S.] ARGENNIS ('Ap76J/j/£s), a surname of Aphro- dite, which she derived from Argennus, a favourite of Agamemnon, after whose death, in the river Cephissus, Agamemnon built a sanctuaiy of Aph- rodite Argennis. (Steph. Byz. s. v. 'Apyevuis ; Athen. xiii. p. 608.) [L. S.] M. ARGENT A'RI US, the author of about thirty epigrams in the Greek Anthology, most of which are erotic, and some are plays on words. We may infer from his style that he did not live before the time of the Roman empire, but nothing more is known of his age. (Jacobs, Atitkol. Graec. xiii. pp. 860, 861.) [P. S.] ARGES. [Cyclopes.] ARGILEONIS (^ KpyiKeuvis), mother of Bra- sidas. When the ambassadors from Araphipolis brought the news of his death, she asked if he had behaved bravely ; and on their speaking of him in reply as the best of the Spartans, answered, that the strangers were in error ; Brasidas was a brave man, but there were many better in Sparta. The answer became famous, and Argileonis is said to have been rewarded for it by the ephors. (Plut. Lye. 25, Apophih. Lac.) [A. H. C] ARGl'OPE ('Ap7»o7rrj), a nymph by whom Philammon begot the celebrated bard, Thamyris. She lived at first on mount Parnassus, but wiien Philammon refused to take her into his house as his wife, she left Parnassus and went to the coun- try of the Odrysians in Thrace. (Apollod. i. 3. § 3; Paus. iv. 33. § 4.) Two other mythical personages of this name occur in Diod. iv. 33, and Hygin. Fab. 178. [L. S.J ARGIUS, a sculptor, was the disciple of Poly- cletus, and therefore flourished about 388 B. c. (Plin. xxxiv. 19.) Thiersch {EpocIie7i^ p. 275) supposes that Pliny, in the words '"''Aryius, Asopo- dorns" mis-translated his Greek authority, which had 'Apyeios 'AacoTrSSwpos, "Asopodorus the Ar- give." But Argius is found as a Greek proper name in both the forms, "Apyios and 'Apyetos. (Apollod. ii. 1.^5; Aristoph. Eccles. 201.) [P. S.J ARGO. [Argonautae.] ARGONAUTAE {'ApyovaOTai)., the heroes and demigods who, according to the traditions of the Greeks, undertook the first bold maritime expedi- tion to Colchis, a far distant country on the coast of the Euxine, for the purpose of fetching the golden fleece. Thej' derived their name from the ship Argo, in which the voyage was made, and which was constructed by Argus at the command of Jason, the leader of the Argonauts. The time which the Greek traditions assign to this enter- prise is about one generation before the Trojan war. The story of the expedition seems to have been known to the author of the Odyssey (xii. 69, &c.), who states, that the ship Argo was the only one that ever passed between the whirling rocks {ir4rpai irhayKrai). Jason is mentioned several ARGONAUTAE.

times in the Iliad (vii. 467, &c., xxi. 40, xxiii. 743, &c.), but not as the leader of the Argonauts. [.] Hesiod (Theoy, 992, &c.) relates the story of Jason saying that he fetched Medeia at the command of his uncle Pelias, and that she bore him a son, Medeius, who was educated by Cheiron. The first trace of the common tradition that Jason was sent to fetch the golden fleece from Aen, the city of Acetes, in the eastern boundaries of the earth, occurs in Mimnermus (ap. Strab. i. p. 46, &c.), a contemporary of Solon; but the most ancient detailed account of the expedition of the Argonauts which is extant, is that of Pindar. (Pyth. iv.) Pelias, who had usurped the throne of lolcus, and expelled Aeson, the father of Jason, had received an oracle that he was to be on his guard against the man who should come to him. with only one sandal. When Jason had grown up, he came to Iolcus to demand the succession to the throne of his father. On his way thither, he had lost one of his sandals in crossing the river Anaurus. Pelias recognised the man indicated by the oracle, but concealed his fear, hoping to destroy him in some way; and when Jason claimed the throne of his ancestors, Pelias declared himself ready to yield; but as Jason was blooming in youthful vigour, Pelias entreated him to propitiate the manes of Phrixus by going to Colchis and fetching the golden fleece. [{{sc|Phrixus; Helle.] Jason accepted the proposal, and heralds were sent to all parts of Greece to invite the heroes to join him in the expedition. When all were assembled at Iolcus, they set out on their voyage, and a south wind carried them to the mouth of the Axeinus Pontus (subsequently Euxinus Pontus), where they built a temple to Poseidon, and implored his protection against the danger of the whirling rocks. The ship then sailed to the eastern coast of the Euxine and ran up the river Phasis, in the country of Aeetes, and the Argonauts had to fight against the dark-eyed Colchians. Aphrodite inspired Medeia, the daughter of Acetes, with love for Jason, and made her forget the esteem and affection she owed to her parent. She was in possession of magic powers, and taught Jason how to avert the dangers which her father might prepare for him, and gave him remedies with which he was to heal his wounds. Aectes promised to give up the fleece to Jason on condition of his ploughing a piece of land with his adamantine plough drawn by fire-breathing exen. Jason undertook the task, and, following the advice of Medeia, he remained unhurt by the fire of the oxen, and accomplished what had been demanded of him. The golden fleece, which Jason himself had to fetch, was hung up in a thicket, and guarded by a fearful dragon, thicker and longer than the ship of the Argonauts. Jason succeeded by a stratagem in slaying the dragon, and on his return he secretly carried away Medeia with him. They sailed home by the Erythraean sea, and arrived in Lemnos. In this account of Pindar, all the Argonauts are thrown into the background, and Jason alone appears as the acting hero. The brief description of their return through the Erythraean sea is difficult to understand. Pindar, as the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (iv. 259) remarks, like some other poets, makes the Argonauts return through the eastern current of Oceanus, which it must be supposed that they entered through the river Phasis; so that they sailed from the Euxine through the river Phasis into the