Vision and Narrative in Apollonius' Argonautica

This dissertation studies the narrative presentation of Apollonius’ Argonautica and seeks to illuminate the epistemological problems that motivate the poet’s approach to epic song. In addition to presenting a narratological analysis of the poem, the dissertation examines the important role of vision and visualization in the epic, and in particular how the poem’s visual patterns introduce multiple, often conflicting perspectives into the narrative. The study furthermore illuminates Apollonius’ participation in a major cultural project of 3rd century BCE Alexandria. In particular, my analysis shows how the Argonautica seeks to locate the origins of the Ptolemaic kingdom in the mythic past and to figure the kingdom as the end and goal of a Hellenizing progress through history. Finally, this dissertation examines how Apollonius explores the role of a scholar-poet through the Argonautica’s narrative and thereby complicates the traditional task of epic poetry as a means of preserving kleos, or fame. The Introduction establishes important context for understanding the Argonautica’s narrative by relating the narrator’s construction of poetic authority to that of his predecessors in the Greek hexameter tradition, Homer and Hesiod. Chapter 1 examines four essential qualities of the Argonautica’s narrative, of which “self-consciousness” and “positionality” deal with the construction of the narrator’s persona and of the narrative itself within the poem, while “variety” and “recursivity” relate to the narrative’s manner and design as a whole. Chapter 2 treats the visual style of Apollonius’ poem and introduces the concepts of visualization, immersion, and detachment in order to facilitate analysis of this aspect of the epic. With this methodology established, Chapter 2 goes on to identify and analyze three important “patterns of visualization” related to major themes of the poem (marveling, voyeurism, and geography). Finally, Chapter 3 explores the intersection of narrative and visuality in the Argonautica’s aetiological program and demonstrates how aetiologies serve to embody the epic’s ideological and philosophical project by connecting the visual experiences of its mythical characters and its contemporary audience.Doctor of Philosoph