THE ARGO

Argus, by Athena's advice, built a ship of fifty oars named Argo after its builder; and at the prow Athena fitted in a speaking timber from the oak of Dodona. - Apollodorus, Library 1.9.16

The Argo, Constantine Volanakis, before 1907 (Wikimedia Commons)

The Argo was the divinely-inspired ship said to have been built by Argus with the aid of the goddess Athena and to have carried Jason and his crew from Thessaly to Colchis and back again. According to (pseudo) Eratosthenes' Catasterismi, the Argo was the first ship ever to sail, a concept followed by Valerius Flaccus (though very inconsistently--where do all the other ships in his poem come from?), who describes the world just before the construction of the Argo:

In their mind's eye they see the promised fleece of Phrixus, and Argo returning triumphant' with gilded figure-heads. [...] Lights are seen dotted here and there along the winding coast, but as yet there are no sailors to observe the land whereof they give warning. -- Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, 1.273-276

Simiarly, Catullus 64.11 states:

Illa rudem cursu prima imbuit Amphitriten.
(That ship [the Argo] first wetted the virgin Amphitrite [the sea] with its passage.)

And in the Orphic Argonautica (64ff.), the Argo is most explicitly the first ship to sail:

Summoning Athena Tritogeneia, she [Hera] ordered the goddess to build the first ship out of wood, the first to pierce the salty deep with its wooden oars, the first to disturb the sea with its passage.

However, this was a relatively late, minority view. Apollonius and most other ancient writers considered Argo the greatest, though not the first, ship ever to sail.

And in the first place he built a ship at the mountain Pelion, much larger in every respect than was usual in those times; for then they used to sail only in boats and little skiffs. Every one, therefore, at the sight of the vessel, was amazed, and the intended design and the building of this ship, was noised over all Greece, so that many of the noble and brisk youths were eager to join and go away with Jason in order to partake of the honour in this expedition.
- Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library 3

From The Stars in Song and Legend by Jermain Gildersleeve Porter
This ship was built for Jason, the leader of the Argonautic expedition which sailed from Greece to Colchis in quest of the golden fleece. Pallas Athene herself took a hand in its construction and placed in the vessel's prow a timber from the speaking oak of Dodona, which should serve to guide and warn the adventurous chieftains who formed the crew. One of the most thrilling adventures on the outward voyage was the passing of the Symplegades, or clashing rocks. These guarded the entrance to the Euxine sea; and, tossing back and forth, were almost sure to crush any boat that attempted to sail between them. By the advice of Phineus the Argonauts first let go a dove, which skimmed through in safety, losing only some of the feathers of her tail. Taking advantage of the rebound, they bent to their oars and barely succeeded in effecting the passage before the rocks again crashed together. The stern of their vessel, indeed, did not wholly escape, but was more or less broken; and so it is represented on the maps, though some writers insist that it is the bow of the ship that is wanting. This, however, is evidently a mistake. On Bayer's map of 1639 [see below], we have a very interesting delineation of the passage of the swinging rocks, the Argo being pictured as just emerging, with her stern torn off by their deadly impact. After the fortunate completion of the voyage the vessel was placed in the sky by Athene. If, as many hold, this story contains a substratum of truth, and actually brings down to us the account, highly colored of course, of the first important commercial expedition to what was then the far east, we may well look upon the celestial Argo with more than ordinary interest.

Source: Jermain Gildersleeve Porter, The Stars in Song and Legend (Boston: Ginn & Company, 1901), 111-112.

Argo Navis, after Bayer's Star Map of 1639. (Illustration from Porter, The Stars in Song and Legend)

THE EQUIPMENT OF THE ARGO
Terra cotta relief.
1st c. CE

Equipment of the Argo (© Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons)

[This relief] represents the fitting out of the Argo, the famous vessel in which the Greeks risked the first great national undertaking, ingeniously embellished by the legend. Pallas herself, as Ergane, the goddess of labour, presides; and whilst the mythic builder of the miraculous vessel is engaged in timbering the hull; she, as it were, imparts to it life and breath, by teaching the steersman to clothe the towering masts with sails, which are to serve as wings to the vessel.

The goddess sits upon a stool, supported on lion's paws; and is occupied in attaching, with her own hands, the swelling canvass to the yards, which Tiphys holds in readiness. She has laid aside the gorgon shield, and appears without the aegis. The owl, her faithful attendant, has perched on the stump of a pillar standing behind her. The surrounding landscape is simply indicated by the city-gate leading towards the haven; and by the trunk of an aged tree. It would be a useless labour to seek out mythical, local, references in such picturesque accessories.

Source: Emil Braun, The Ruins and Museums of Rome (Brunswick: Frederick Vieweg and Sons, 1854), 410.

The ship Argo was built by Argus, who [was] identified with the Argive Zeus, and had inserted in her framework a portion of the oracular Dodonaean oak--obviously in order that Zeus might be aboard his own vessel to direct her course.
                -- Arthur Bernard Cook, “The European Sky-God,” Folklore 15 (1904), 270.

More about the Argo in star lore and scholarship:

ARGO NAVIS

THE ARGO AND THE ARK