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Apollonius' epic, the Argonautica, is not just a masterpiece of Hellenistic poetry drawing on the entire tradition of previous Greek literature, but was enormously influential on Latin epic, especially Virgil's Aeneid. Book IV tells the story of the Argonauts' return to Greece with the Golden Fleece, their nightmarish trips through the uncharted rivers of central Europe and the desert wastes of North Africa, the terrible killing of Medea's brother, and the anguish of the young girl which foreshadows her bloody future. This is the first modern commentary in English. Problems of syntax and language are fully explained, and there is a sophisticated discussion of the poem as literature. It will be useful for advanced undergraduates and graduate students studying Greek poetry, as well as of interest to scholars.

Apollonius' epic, the Argonautica, is not just a masterpiece of Hellenistic poetry drawing on the entire tradition of previous Greek literature, but was enormously influential on Latin epic, especially Virgil's Aeneid. Book IV tells the story of the Argonauts' return to Greece with the Golden Fleece, their nightmarish trips through the uncharted rivers of central Europe and the desert wastes of North Africa, the terrible killing of Medea's brother, and the anguish of the young girl which foreshadows her bloody future. This is the first modern commentary in English. Problems of syntax and language are fully explained, and there is a sophisticated discussion of the poem as literature. It will be useful for advanced undergraduates and graduate students studying Greek poetry, as well as of interest to scholars.

The Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, composed in the third century BC and the only extant Greek epic between Homer and the later Roman empire, tells of Jason's successful expedition with the Argonauts to recover the Golden Fleece from Colchis on the Black Sea. Book III relates the story of Jason and Medea, a young Colchian princess who falls in love with Jason and helps him by magic to survive the ordeals imposed by her father. The description of Medea's emotional suffering exercised a profound influence on subsequent writers and especially on Virgil in his account of Dido and Aeneas. Dr Hunter's edition provides a full introduction to the poem and its poet, an up-to-date text of Book III and a full commentary which covers problems of language and translation as well as dealing with the poetic meaning of the work and Apollonius' creative use of the Homeric heritage. It is the first full-scale treatment in English of Book III to be written in the modern period of renewed interest in