__NOTOC__ The ''Orphic Argonautica'' or ''Argonautica Orphica'' () is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...

dating from the 4th century CE.Meisner
p. 4
West, p. 37 states that "it can hardly be earlier and may well be later than the fourth century AD". It is narrated in the first person in the name of

Orpheus In Greek mythology, Orpheus (; , classical pronunciation: ) was a Thracians, Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned Ancient Greek poetry, poet and, according to legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in se ...

and tells the story of

Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece is featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Med ...

and the

Argonauts The Argonauts ( ; ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War (around 1300 BC) accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, ''Argo'', named after it ...

. It is not known who the real author is. The poem is found in manuscripts either on its own or together with the '' Orphic Hymns'' and other hymns such as the ''

Homeric Hymns The ''Homeric Hymns'' () are a collection of thirty-three ancient Greek hymns and one epigram. The hymns praise deities of the Greek pantheon and retell mythological stories, often involving a deity's birth, their acceptance among the gods ...

'' and those of

Proclus Proclus Lycius (; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485), called Proclus the Successor (, ''Próklos ho Diádokhos''), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major classical philosophers of late antiquity. He set forth one of th ...

and

Callimachus Callimachus (; ; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar, and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works, most of which ...

. The poem was lost, but in the fifteenth century it was found and copied in a manuscript (Codex Matritensis gr. 4562) by the Neoplatonic Greek scholar Constantine Lascaris, who is considered a Pythagorean Orpheus. Another related work is the '' Lithica'' (describing the properties and symbolism of different stones). The narrative is basically similar to that in other versions of the story, such as the ''

Argonautica The ''Argonautica'' () is a Greek literature, Greek epic poem written by Apollonius of Rhodes, Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only entirely surviving Hellenistic civilization, Hellenistic epic (though Aetia (Callimachus), Callim ...

'' of Apollonius Rhodius, on which it is probably based. The main differences are the emphasis on the role of Orpheus and a more mythological, less realistic technique of narration. In the ''Argonautica Orphica'', unlike in Apollonius Rhodius, it is claimed that the ''

Argo In Greek mythology, the ''Argo'' ( ; ) was the ship of Jason and the Argonauts. The ship was built with divine aid, and some ancient sources describe her as the first ship to sail the seas. The ''Argo'' carried the Argonauts on their quest fo ...

'' was the first ship ever built.

Translations and editions

* * ''Les argonautiques orphiques'', ed. Francis Vian (Collection des universités de France), Belles Lettres 2003, , (Greek with French translation) * Johann Matthias Gesner, ''Orphic Argonautica'' in ''Argonautica, Hymni Libellus de lapidibus et fragmenta cum notis'', Leipzig, Sumtibus Caspari Fritsch, 1764
Internet Archive
(Greek text with Latin translation)

Notes

References

* Meisner, Dwayne A., ''Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2018.
Online version at Oxford University PressGoogle Books
* West, M. L. (1983), ''The Orphic Poems'',

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

Oxford, 1983. . pp. 37–38.

External links

* Ancient Greek epic poems Byzantine literature Orpheus Works based on the Argonautica {{Greek-myth-stub

Translations and editions

Notes

References

Further reading

External links