The Shelves · Epic and hexameter poetry

Argonautica

Ἀργοναυτικά

Known · Attestedin Alexandria?Conjecturedvery likely classLegend · Told storya told story on its tag

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I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Epic and hexameter poetry

Conjecturedvery likely class

Apollonius of Rhodes

c. 295–215 BCE. An Alexandrian, called "the Rhodian" after a stay on Rhodes, pupil of Callimachus and poet of the Argonautica. P.Oxy.

Argonautica

Ἀργοναυτικά

Opening words

Ἀρχόμενος σέο, Φοῖβε, παλαιγενέων κλέα φωτῶν μνήσομαι

Beginning with you, Phoebus, I will recall the famous deeds of men of old

Length: 5,835 lines

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives whole

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Attested

Written in Alexandria.

In the cupboard: written at Alexandria by a scholar or court writer a source places there.

Read it today

III · In the show

The show has not yet spoken of this work.

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (2)
  • P.Oxy. X 1241
  • Vitae Apollonii (in the scholia)
Modern scholarship (2)
  • R. Hunter, The Argonautica of Apollonius: Literary Studies (Cambridge, 1993)
  • M. R. Lefkowitz, The Lives of the Greek Poets, 2nd ed. (London: Bristol Classical Press, 2012)

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

ΑΡΓΟΝΑΥΤΙΚΑ

Read what is told

The back of the tag: a story told of this work, in its teller's voice.

Legend: told story

The failed first reading

The ancient Lives of Apollonius, copied with the poem's medieval manuscripts, tell that his first reading of the Argonautica failed, that he left Alexandria for Rhodes in shame, and that he quarrelled bitterly with Callimachus.

Told by The ancient Lives of Apollonius, in the Lives copied with the poem (manuscripts from the 10th century), at an unknown distance; the Lives' own date is uncertain

What the evidence supports

Apollonius headed the Library and tutored a king (P.Oxy. X 1241). The failure and the feud are probably later inventions built from the poets' own allusions.

Sources (2)
  • Vitae Apollonii (in the scholia)
  • P.Oxy. X 1241
The Hall of Told Stories

Beside it in the cupboard