1.

Apollonius’ Medeia is one of the great female characters created in antiquity, enormously influential on later literature, and it is hard to do her justice. As a start consider her role in books 3 and 4 of the Argonautica. Pay particularly close attention to her numerous speeches and to the language the narrator uses to describe her actions and emotions. Some questions to consider include whether consistency is an aspect of her characterization; how her mental processes are presented; whether or not the poet has sympathy for her. How is Medeia similar to and different from other epic females with whom you are familiar (e.g., Helen, Penelope, Nausikaä)?

2.

Certainly related to Apollonius’ depiction of Medeia is his elevation of love (and Love) as an epic subject. What are some of the distinguishing characteristics of love in the poem? What physical and emotional effects does it have in humans, and how does love affect the course of events? How, for instance, do Jason and Medeia conceive and experience love differently? Also what relation does the earlier episode of the Argonauts’ dalliance with the women of Lemnos to the later episode of their collaboration with Medeia? Where else do themes associated with sex, love, desire, marriage, etc. appear in the poem?

3.

Book 3 also contains Jason’s accomplishment of the feat set for him by king Aietes. How do he and the other Argonauts react to the terms set for them for obtaining the golden fleece? When Jason does finally accomplish the task, what impression of him are we left with? Is he "heroic"? To what degree does the portrayal in book 3 and 4 accord with the picture of Jason that emerges from books 1 and 2? Consider not only the ways in which Jason acts, but also the social context within which he acts and the reasons why he acts the way he does. Comparison with Homer again will be fruitful.

4.

As we have already been discussing imitation of Homer is a particularly important aspect of Apollonius’ epic style, but "Homer" can be subdivided. From all four books of the poem identify what are some specifically "Iliadic" elements and some specifically "Odyssean" elements. How do you define these two categories? Where in the poem do they appear? Does the poem tend to combine the two, keep them separate, give more prominence to one over the other, have more affinities to one, or give them equal time? What might the specific combination of elements from the Iliad and the Odyssey say about the nature of the Argonautica as epic?

5.

Apollonius has departed from other tellings of the Argonautica myth in the way he presents the killing of Apsyrtos by Jason and Medeia; the event commonly takes place before they leave Kolchis or just after. In book 4 pay careful attention to where and how this scene is represented, what the effects of this death are, and how these effects are compensated for. How does or does not the killing of Apsyrtos accord with the ethics of violence elsewhere within the Argonautica or outside the poem in the tradition?

6.

In book 3 and particularly in book 4 the presence of the voice of the narrator, through interjections and the like, becomes particularly striking. How, if at all, does the narrator’s self-presentation change over the course of the poem? At what sorts of moments does he tend to dramatize his own presence? Is the narrator "Homeric"? How does he relate specifically to the Muse, to the audience, to his characters? The ultimate end of the poem is particularly important in this regard. Where and how does the poem conclude, and how does the poet draw our attention to the problematic nature of bringing an epic poem to a conclusion? How satisfying or unsatisfying an ending point is this?