LATIN EXCERPTS
AND FRAGMENTS
Many of Roman references to the Argonauts' journey are simply allusions or references in longer pieces on primarily unrelated topics. This section collects some (but by no means all) of the most interesting fragments and excerpts that provide Latin-language written accounts of the Jason myth.
Quintus Ennius, Medea Exul
2nd c. BCE
Opening lines to Ennius' lost play Medea Exul, an adaptation of Euripides' Medea, as restored from the fragments:
Nurse:
Would that in the woods of Pelion the fir trunks
Had never come down to the earth, cut with the ax,
Or that the first building of the ship had never started
To commence, that ship which is called by the name
Argo because of the chosen Argives who sailed in her
And sought to carry away the golden fleece of the ram
Of Colchis by the command of King Pelias, through a trick.
For never would my mistress Medea, going astray, sick in her soul,
Wounded by savage love, have stepped foot from her house.
(translation by Jason Colavito)
2nd c. BCE
Opening lines to Ennius' lost play Medea Exul, an adaptation of Euripides' Medea, as restored from the fragments:
Nurse:
Would that in the woods of Pelion the fir trunks
Had never come down to the earth, cut with the ax,
Or that the first building of the ship had never started
To commence, that ship which is called by the name
Argo because of the chosen Argives who sailed in her
And sought to carry away the golden fleece of the ram
Of Colchis by the command of King Pelias, through a trick.
For never would my mistress Medea, going astray, sick in her soul,
Wounded by savage love, have stepped foot from her house.
(translation by Jason Colavito)
Lucius Accius, unidentified tragedy
2nd c. BCE
Marcus Tullius Cicero, De natura deorum 2.88-90:
Yet these people [the Epicureans] doubt whether the universe, from whence all things arise and are made, is not the effect of chance, or some necessity, rather than the work of reason and a divine mind. According to them, Archimedes shows more knowledge in representing the motions of the celestial globe than nature does in causing them, though the copy is so infinitely beneath the original. The shepherd in Attius [i.e., Lucius Accius], who had never seen a ship, when he perceived from a mountain afar off the divine vessel of the Argonauts, surprised and frighted at this new object, expressed himself in this manner:--
What horrid bulk is that before my eyes,
Which o'er the deep with noise and vigour flies:
It turns the whirlpools up, its force so strong,
And drives the billows as it rolls along.
The ocean's violence it fiercely braves;
Runs furious on, and throws about the waves.
Swiftly impetuous in its course, and loud,
Like the dire bursting of a show'ry cloud;
Or, like a rock, forced by the winds and rain,
Now whirl'd aloft, then plunged into the main.
But hold, perhaps the Earth and Neptune jar,
And fiercely wage an elemental war;
Or Triton with his trident has o'erthrown
His den, and loosen'd from the roots the stone;
The rocky fragment, from the bottom torn,
Is lifted up, and on the surface borne.
At first, he is in suspense at the sight of this unknown object; but on seeing the young mariners, and hearing their singing, he says,
Like sportive dolphins, with their snouts they roar
and afterwards goes on--
Loud in my ears methinks their voices ring,
As if I heard the god Sylvanus sing.
As at first view the shepherd thinks he sees something inanimate and insensible, but afterwards, judging by more trustworthy indications, he begins to figure to himself what it, is; so philosophers, if they are surprised at first at the sight of the universe, ought, when they have considered the regular, uniform, and immutable motions of it, to conceive that there is some Being, that is not only an inhabitant of this celestial and divine mansion, but a ruler and a governor, as architect of this mighty fabric.
Source: M. Tullius Cicero, Of the Nature of the Gods, trans. Thomas Francklin (London: William Pickering, 1829), 114-116.
2nd c. BCE
Marcus Tullius Cicero, De natura deorum 2.88-90:
Yet these people [the Epicureans] doubt whether the universe, from whence all things arise and are made, is not the effect of chance, or some necessity, rather than the work of reason and a divine mind. According to them, Archimedes shows more knowledge in representing the motions of the celestial globe than nature does in causing them, though the copy is so infinitely beneath the original. The shepherd in Attius [i.e., Lucius Accius], who had never seen a ship, when he perceived from a mountain afar off the divine vessel of the Argonauts, surprised and frighted at this new object, expressed himself in this manner:--
What horrid bulk is that before my eyes,
Which o'er the deep with noise and vigour flies:
It turns the whirlpools up, its force so strong,
And drives the billows as it rolls along.
The ocean's violence it fiercely braves;
Runs furious on, and throws about the waves.
Swiftly impetuous in its course, and loud,
Like the dire bursting of a show'ry cloud;
Or, like a rock, forced by the winds and rain,
Now whirl'd aloft, then plunged into the main.
But hold, perhaps the Earth and Neptune jar,
And fiercely wage an elemental war;
Or Triton with his trident has o'erthrown
His den, and loosen'd from the roots the stone;
The rocky fragment, from the bottom torn,
Is lifted up, and on the surface borne.
At first, he is in suspense at the sight of this unknown object; but on seeing the young mariners, and hearing their singing, he says,
Like sportive dolphins, with their snouts they roar
and afterwards goes on--
Loud in my ears methinks their voices ring,
As if I heard the god Sylvanus sing.
As at first view the shepherd thinks he sees something inanimate and insensible, but afterwards, judging by more trustworthy indications, he begins to figure to himself what it, is; so philosophers, if they are surprised at first at the sight of the universe, ought, when they have considered the regular, uniform, and immutable motions of it, to conceive that there is some Being, that is not only an inhabitant of this celestial and divine mansion, but a ruler and a governor, as architect of this mighty fabric.
Source: M. Tullius Cicero, Of the Nature of the Gods, trans. Thomas Francklin (London: William Pickering, 1829), 114-116.
Catullus, Poem 61: On the Nuptials of Peleus and Thetis
Before 54 BCE
When Argos' sons, the golden fleece to gain
That hung in Colchis, dared the briny main
In a swift vessel, and the azure sea
Cleaving with oars, urged on their rapid way,
Then the tall pines that grew on Pelion's steep
First learned to float along the watery deep,
Far as where Phasis rolls its copious waves,
And the wide realms of old Aeetes laves:
The inventive Goddess, whose imperial throne
From the proud citadel o'erlooks the town,
First bade the ship each varying blast obey,
And curved to floating hulks the obedient tree;
Fair Amphitrite's crystal bosom taught
To bear the work her magic hands had wrought;
Scarce its swift prow through the cleaved ocean flew;
And, vexed with oars, the billows whiter grew;
Then rose the Nereids from the foamy tide,
To see this wonder o'er their dwellings ride:
Daily the enormous structure they beheld,
To mortal eyes their naked frames revealed;
And full to view, emerging from the flood,
Their swelling breasts and shapes half-human stood.
Source: Gaius Valerius Catullus, The Poems, vol. 2 [trans. F. Nott] (London: J. Johnston, 1795), 3, 5, and 7.
Before 54 BCE
When Argos' sons, the golden fleece to gain
That hung in Colchis, dared the briny main
In a swift vessel, and the azure sea
Cleaving with oars, urged on their rapid way,
Then the tall pines that grew on Pelion's steep
First learned to float along the watery deep,
Far as where Phasis rolls its copious waves,
And the wide realms of old Aeetes laves:
The inventive Goddess, whose imperial throne
From the proud citadel o'erlooks the town,
First bade the ship each varying blast obey,
And curved to floating hulks the obedient tree;
Fair Amphitrite's crystal bosom taught
To bear the work her magic hands had wrought;
Scarce its swift prow through the cleaved ocean flew;
And, vexed with oars, the billows whiter grew;
Then rose the Nereids from the foamy tide,
To see this wonder o'er their dwellings ride:
Daily the enormous structure they beheld,
To mortal eyes their naked frames revealed;
And full to view, emerging from the flood,
Their swelling breasts and shapes half-human stood.
Source: Gaius Valerius Catullus, The Poems, vol. 2 [trans. F. Nott] (London: J. Johnston, 1795), 3, 5, and 7.
Marcus Terrentius Varro, On Agricultural Things
1st c. BCE
The most important persons of antiquity were all keepers of live stock, as both the Greek and Latin languages reveal, as well as the earliest poets, who describe their heroes some as poluarnos (rich in lambs), some as polumelos (rich in sheep), and others as poluboutes (rich in herds), and tell of flocks which on account of their value were said to have golden fleeces, like that of Atreus in Argos which he complained that Thyestes stole away from him: or that ram which Aeetes sacrificed at Colchis, whose fleece was the quest of those princes known as the Argonauts: or again like those so called golden apples (mala) of the Hesperides that Hercules brought back from Africa into Greece, which were, according to the ancient tradition, in fact goats and sheep which the Greeks, from the sound of their voice, called mela indeed, much in the same way our country people, using a different letter (since the bleat of a sheep seems to make more of the sound of bee than of me) say that sheep "be = alare," whence by the elision of a letter as often happens, is derived the word belare (or balare), to bleat.
Source: Marcus Porcius Cato and Marcus Terrentius Varro, Roman Farm Management (New York: Macmillan, 1913), 185.
1st c. BCE
The most important persons of antiquity were all keepers of live stock, as both the Greek and Latin languages reveal, as well as the earliest poets, who describe their heroes some as poluarnos (rich in lambs), some as polumelos (rich in sheep), and others as poluboutes (rich in herds), and tell of flocks which on account of their value were said to have golden fleeces, like that of Atreus in Argos which he complained that Thyestes stole away from him: or that ram which Aeetes sacrificed at Colchis, whose fleece was the quest of those princes known as the Argonauts: or again like those so called golden apples (mala) of the Hesperides that Hercules brought back from Africa into Greece, which were, according to the ancient tradition, in fact goats and sheep which the Greeks, from the sound of their voice, called mela indeed, much in the same way our country people, using a different letter (since the bleat of a sheep seems to make more of the sound of bee than of me) say that sheep "be = alare," whence by the elision of a letter as often happens, is derived the word belare (or balare), to bleat.
Source: Marcus Porcius Cato and Marcus Terrentius Varro, Roman Farm Management (New York: Macmillan, 1913), 185.
Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
77-79 CE
Natural History 2.109
Naphtha is a substance of a similar nature (it is so called about Babylon, and in the territory of the Astaceni, in Parthia), flowing like liquid bitumen. It has a great affinity to fire, which instantly darts on it wherever it is seen. It is said, that in this way it was that Medea burned Jason’s mistress; her crown having taken fire, when she approached the altar for the purpose of sacrificing.
Source: Pliny, The Natural History of Pliny, vol. 1, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855), 139.
Natural History 3.22:
Six miles beyond this place lies the river Formio, 189 miles distant from Ravenna, the ancient boundary of enlarged Italy, and now the frontier of Istria. That this region takes its name from the river Ister which flows from the Danube, also called the Ister, into the Adriatic opposite the mouth of the Padus, and that the sea which lies between them is rendered fresh by their waters running from opposite directions, has been erroneously asserted by many, and among them by Nepos even, who dwelt upon the banks of the Padus. For it is the fact that no river which runs from the Danube discharges itself into the Adriatic. They have been misled, I think, by the circumstance that the ship Argo came down some river into the Adriatic sea, not far from Tergeste; but what river that was is now unknown. The most careful writers say that the ship was carried across the Alps on men's shoulders, having passed along the Ister, then along the Savus, and so from Nauportus, which place, lying between Æmona and the Alps, from that circumstance derives its name.
Source: Pliny, The Natural History of Pliny, vol. 1, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855), 250.
Natural History 7.57
We learn from Philostephanus, that Jason was the first person who sailed in a long vessel; Hegesias says it was Paralus, Ctesias, Semiramis, and Archemachus, Ægeon. According to Damastes, the Erythræi were the first to construct vessels with two banks of oars; according to Thucydides, Aminocles, the Corinthian, first constructed them with three banks of oars; according to Aristotle, the Carthaginians, those with four banks; according to Mnesigiton, the people of Salamis, those with five banks; and, according to Xenagoras, the Syracusans, those with six; those above six, as far as ten, Mnesigiton says were first constructed by Alexander the Great. From Philostephanus, we learn that Ptolemy Soter made them as high as twelve banks; Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, with fifteen; Ptolemy Philadelphus, with thirty; and Ptolemy Philopater, who was surnamed Tryphon, with forty. Hippus, the Tyrian, was the first who invented merchant-ships; the Cyrenians, the pinnace; the Phœnicians, the passage—Boat; the Rhodians, the skiff; and the Cyprians, the cutter
Source: Pliny, The Natural History of Pliny, vol. 2, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855), 233-234.
Natural History, 33.15:
Before this time too, Saulaces, the descendant of Æëtes, had reigned in Colchis, who, on finding a tract of virgin earth, in the country of the Suani, extracted from it a large amount of gold and silver, it is said, and whose kingdom besides, had been famed for the possession of the Golden Fleece. The golden arches, too, of his palace, we find spoken of, the silver supports and columns, and pilasters, all of which he had come into possession of on the conquest of Sesostris, king of Egypt; a monarch so haughty, that every year, it is said, it was his practice to select one of his vassal kings by lot, and yoking him to his car, celebrate his triumph afresh.
Source: Pliny, The Natural History of Pliny, vol. 6, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley (London: George Bell and Sons, 1898), 93-94.
77-79 CE
Natural History 2.109
Naphtha is a substance of a similar nature (it is so called about Babylon, and in the territory of the Astaceni, in Parthia), flowing like liquid bitumen. It has a great affinity to fire, which instantly darts on it wherever it is seen. It is said, that in this way it was that Medea burned Jason’s mistress; her crown having taken fire, when she approached the altar for the purpose of sacrificing.
Source: Pliny, The Natural History of Pliny, vol. 1, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855), 139.
Natural History 3.22:
Six miles beyond this place lies the river Formio, 189 miles distant from Ravenna, the ancient boundary of enlarged Italy, and now the frontier of Istria. That this region takes its name from the river Ister which flows from the Danube, also called the Ister, into the Adriatic opposite the mouth of the Padus, and that the sea which lies between them is rendered fresh by their waters running from opposite directions, has been erroneously asserted by many, and among them by Nepos even, who dwelt upon the banks of the Padus. For it is the fact that no river which runs from the Danube discharges itself into the Adriatic. They have been misled, I think, by the circumstance that the ship Argo came down some river into the Adriatic sea, not far from Tergeste; but what river that was is now unknown. The most careful writers say that the ship was carried across the Alps on men's shoulders, having passed along the Ister, then along the Savus, and so from Nauportus, which place, lying between Æmona and the Alps, from that circumstance derives its name.
Source: Pliny, The Natural History of Pliny, vol. 1, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855), 250.
Natural History 7.57
We learn from Philostephanus, that Jason was the first person who sailed in a long vessel; Hegesias says it was Paralus, Ctesias, Semiramis, and Archemachus, Ægeon. According to Damastes, the Erythræi were the first to construct vessels with two banks of oars; according to Thucydides, Aminocles, the Corinthian, first constructed them with three banks of oars; according to Aristotle, the Carthaginians, those with four banks; according to Mnesigiton, the people of Salamis, those with five banks; and, according to Xenagoras, the Syracusans, those with six; those above six, as far as ten, Mnesigiton says were first constructed by Alexander the Great. From Philostephanus, we learn that Ptolemy Soter made them as high as twelve banks; Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, with fifteen; Ptolemy Philadelphus, with thirty; and Ptolemy Philopater, who was surnamed Tryphon, with forty. Hippus, the Tyrian, was the first who invented merchant-ships; the Cyrenians, the pinnace; the Phœnicians, the passage—Boat; the Rhodians, the skiff; and the Cyprians, the cutter
Source: Pliny, The Natural History of Pliny, vol. 2, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855), 233-234.
Natural History, 33.15:
Before this time too, Saulaces, the descendant of Æëtes, had reigned in Colchis, who, on finding a tract of virgin earth, in the country of the Suani, extracted from it a large amount of gold and silver, it is said, and whose kingdom besides, had been famed for the possession of the Golden Fleece. The golden arches, too, of his palace, we find spoken of, the silver supports and columns, and pilasters, all of which he had come into possession of on the conquest of Sesostris, king of Egypt; a monarch so haughty, that every year, it is said, it was his practice to select one of his vassal kings by lot, and yoking him to his car, celebrate his triumph afresh.
Source: Pliny, The Natural History of Pliny, vol. 6, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley (London: George Bell and Sons, 1898), 93-94.
Martial, On the Spectacles
80 CE
Epigram 27:
If the ages of old, Caesar, had begotten Carpophorus, a barbarous land had not dreaded Parthaon's wild-boar, nor Marathon the bull, leafy Nemea the lion, Arcadia the Maenalian boar. When he armed his hand the hydra had died a single death, all the shapes of Chimaera had been stricken by him once. The fire-breathing bulls he might have yoked without the Colchian's aid, he might have vanquished either monster of Pasiphae. Were the story of the sea monster renewed, he alone would loose Hesione and Andromeda. Let the glories of Hercules' honour be summed : tis more to have quelled twice ten beasts at one time.
Source: Martial, Epigrams, trans. Walter C. A. Kerr, vol. 1 (London: William Heinemann, 1919), 21.
80 CE
Epigram 27:
If the ages of old, Caesar, had begotten Carpophorus, a barbarous land had not dreaded Parthaon's wild-boar, nor Marathon the bull, leafy Nemea the lion, Arcadia the Maenalian boar. When he armed his hand the hydra had died a single death, all the shapes of Chimaera had been stricken by him once. The fire-breathing bulls he might have yoked without the Colchian's aid, he might have vanquished either monster of Pasiphae. Were the story of the sea monster renewed, he alone would loose Hesione and Andromeda. Let the glories of Hercules' honour be summed : tis more to have quelled twice ten beasts at one time.
Source: Martial, Epigrams, trans. Walter C. A. Kerr, vol. 1 (London: William Heinemann, 1919), 21.
Martial, Epigrams
86-103 CE
10.4, To Mamurra
You who read of Oedipus, of Thyestes deserted by the sun, of the Colchian princess (Medea), and of the Scyllas, of what do you read but fabulous wonders? Of what advantage to you is the story of the rape of Hylas, or of Parthenopseus, or of Atys, or of the sleeper Endymion? Or of the youth Icarus despoiled of his falling wings? or of Hermaphroditus, who shuns the amorous waters? What do the empty tales of such frivolous writings profit you? Read in this book of mine of real life, of which you may say, "It is mine." Tou will not find here Centaurs, or Gorgons, or Harpies; my pages savour of man. But if you have no wish, Mamurra, to study the manners of the times, or to know yourself, you may read the myths of Callimachus.
Source: Martial, The Epigrams of Martial, trans. Henry G. Bohn (London: Bell & Daldy, 1871), 163.
11.1, To His Book
Whither, my book, whither are you going so much at your ease, clad in a holiday dress of fine linen? Is it to see Parthenius? certainly. Go, then, and return unopened ; for he does not read books, but only memorials; nor has he time for the muses, or he would have time for his own. Or do you esteem yourself sufficiently happy, if you fall into hands of less note? In that case, repair to the neighbouring portico of Romulus; that of Pompeius does not contain a more idle crowd, nor does that of Agenor's daughter, or that of the inconstant captain [Jason] of the first ship [Argo]. Two or three may be found there who will shake out the worms that infest my trifles; but they will do so only when they are tired of the betting and gossip about Scorpus and Incitatus.
Source: Martial, The Epigrams of Martial, trans. Henry G. Bohn (London: Bell & Daldy, 1871), 500
86-103 CE
10.4, To Mamurra
You who read of Oedipus, of Thyestes deserted by the sun, of the Colchian princess (Medea), and of the Scyllas, of what do you read but fabulous wonders? Of what advantage to you is the story of the rape of Hylas, or of Parthenopseus, or of Atys, or of the sleeper Endymion? Or of the youth Icarus despoiled of his falling wings? or of Hermaphroditus, who shuns the amorous waters? What do the empty tales of such frivolous writings profit you? Read in this book of mine of real life, of which you may say, "It is mine." Tou will not find here Centaurs, or Gorgons, or Harpies; my pages savour of man. But if you have no wish, Mamurra, to study the manners of the times, or to know yourself, you may read the myths of Callimachus.
Source: Martial, The Epigrams of Martial, trans. Henry G. Bohn (London: Bell & Daldy, 1871), 163.
11.1, To His Book
Whither, my book, whither are you going so much at your ease, clad in a holiday dress of fine linen? Is it to see Parthenius? certainly. Go, then, and return unopened ; for he does not read books, but only memorials; nor has he time for the muses, or he would have time for his own. Or do you esteem yourself sufficiently happy, if you fall into hands of less note? In that case, repair to the neighbouring portico of Romulus; that of Pompeius does not contain a more idle crowd, nor does that of Agenor's daughter, or that of the inconstant captain [Jason] of the first ship [Argo]. Two or three may be found there who will shake out the worms that infest my trifles; but they will do so only when they are tired of the betting and gossip about Scorpus and Incitatus.
Source: Martial, The Epigrams of Martial, trans. Henry G. Bohn (London: Bell & Daldy, 1871), 500
Statius, The Thebaid
c. 80-96 CE
3.516ff:
(Amphiaraus is speaking): Oft indeed, father, have I read omens of various sort from Phoebus. Yea, when in my vigorous youth the pinewood barque of Thessalybore me in company of princes half-divine, even then did the chieftains listen spellbound to my chant of what should befall us on land and sea, nor Mopsus’ self was hearkened to more often by Jason in perplexity than my presagings of the future.
Source: Statius, Thebaid, Achilleid, trans. J. H. Mozley (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1928).
c. 80-96 CE
3.516ff:
(Amphiaraus is speaking): Oft indeed, father, have I read omens of various sort from Phoebus. Yea, when in my vigorous youth the pinewood barque of Thessalybore me in company of princes half-divine, even then did the chieftains listen spellbound to my chant of what should befall us on land and sea, nor Mopsus’ self was hearkened to more often by Jason in perplexity than my presagings of the future.
Source: Statius, Thebaid, Achilleid, trans. J. H. Mozley (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1928).
Tacitus, The Annals
117 CE
Annals 6.34:
They [the Parthians] claim to have been descended from the Thessalians, at the period when Jason, after the departure pf Medea and the children born of her, returned subsequently to the empty palace of Aeetes, and the vacant kingdom of Colchi. They have many traditions connected with his name and with the oracle of Phrixus. No one among them would think of sacrificing a ram, the animal supposed to have conveyed Phrixus, whether it was really a ram or the figure-head of a ship.
Source: Cornelius Tacitus, The Annals of Tacitus, trans. Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb (London: Macmillan, 1895), 171.
117 CE
Annals 6.34:
They [the Parthians] claim to have been descended from the Thessalians, at the period when Jason, after the departure pf Medea and the children born of her, returned subsequently to the empty palace of Aeetes, and the vacant kingdom of Colchi. They have many traditions connected with his name and with the oracle of Phrixus. No one among them would think of sacrificing a ram, the animal supposed to have conveyed Phrixus, whether it was really a ram or the figure-head of a ship.
Source: Cornelius Tacitus, The Annals of Tacitus, trans. Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb (London: Macmillan, 1895), 171.
