Post on 14-Dec-2015
Epic Hero?
• Achilles - military prowess
• Odysseus - ingenuity
• Jason… - sexual prowess? (repopulate Lemnos)
Women of Lemnos
• Hypsipyle• Thracian Women• Aphrodite’s Rage• Herakles (&
Atalanta) intervene• Fleece & Glory• Women & Obscurity• Odyssean parallel?
Harpies• Harpazo• The Snatchers• Winged Women
or Birds with Women’s Heads
• Phineus, son of Apollo
• Zeus’s anger• Zetes & Calais• Iris intervenes
Medea
• Daughter of Aeetes & Idyuia (or Hecate)
• Granddaughter of Helios• Niece of Circe• Priestess of Artemis/Hecate• Iconic Woman of Power
Tension in Athens
• Aethra & Aegeus or Poseidon
• Sandals & Sword of Theseus
• Beast-slayer• Poison but
Recognition• Exile from
Athens• Medus• W. Russell Flint
Return to Colchis
• Perses, brother Aeetes
• Has Medus kill Perses
• Isles of the Blest! With Achilles
Medea as Iconic Figure• Women with Power• Medea or Jason for 3
a.m. phone call?• Euripides, Ovid,
Seneca• Clytemnestra and
her man-scheming heart
• Sympathetic portrayal in Apollonius?
Folktale Elements in the Argonautica
• Son’s search for lost father?
• Hero’s adventures in quest?
• Hero’s Return in disguise to save beloved (from marriage)?
Folktale Women in the Argonautica
• Protectress– non-sexual
admiration for virtue, lineage, heroic deed
• Enchantress– “evil witch in
wood”– if outwitted, will
serve
• Object of Striving– reason for quest