Apollonius of Rhodes and the Spaces of Hellenism (review)

When Apollonius' Argonautica began to reemerge as an epic worthy to be read as a classic in its own right in the 1960s and following, scholarly interest focused largely on topics such as the nature of the hero, narrative technique, limited scholarly audience, realism, the poem's engagement with archaic, classical, and contemporary texts, and its reception among later writers. In the 1990s, scholars began to examine the rehabilitated epic for evidence of possible engagement with contemporary political and cultural issues. Thalmann's new monograph builds upon this productive trend, offering a detailed analysis of the "space" defined by the Argonautic journey, "the medium through which it raises and probes those cultural questions" (x). Cultural geography and anthropology inform the author's analytical method (e.g., the work of Tuan, Foucault, Lefebvre, Soja, Massey, Harvey, and Warf), according to which "human cultures do not just use space but produce it and are shaped in turn by it" (ibid.).

In the first chapter, "Outline of an Approach," following an informative reading of the episode in Book 1 in which the Argonauts view the terrain before them from the vantage point of Mount Dindymon, Thalmann establishes six propositions regarding space (e.g., "Proposition 1: Space is not simply the inert setting for human cultural activity but the medium for social and political relations, which organize and order it," 14), and concludes that the spaces the Argonauts enter cannot be understood as absolute, but rather as a dynamic process that manifests itself in the cultural activities and social and political relations that are encountered (13); that is, the narrative represents relative space. Moreover, since many of the places visited will become Greek colonies, these sites are constructed as Greek-centered. "The poem thus offers its readers a relational understanding of the world" (24).

In the second chapter, "Space and Time in the Argonautica," Thalmann continues his exploration of space, defined as cultural and not geographical, and adds the dimension of time. The Argo, serving as a "locus of Hellenism" (34), sails along pathways that over time established a sense of direction in a world that has no inherent spatial order per se. As for time, while Apollonius sets the narrative after the birth of Achilles and before the Calydonian boar hunt, the original readers experienced the epic as both past and present through the numerous aetia. In particular, the description of Sesostris' conquests and foundation of cities presents his achievement as an organization of space that supports the development of human civilization, a model for Ptolemaic Egypt. Nonetheless, as Thalmann states and will argue later in the book, the theme of Hellenic appropriation is not unquestioned.

The third chapter, "Greece as Center," begins with a look at the Catalogue of Argonauts. Thalmann argues that Greece appears as the center of Argonautic identity and the space around which the journey will take place. As a periplous, the catalogue creates a spatial ordering of the participants and constructs Greece, called the "Panachaean land" (1.243), as a network of places and a reference point for the Argonauts when they encounter other peoples. The events at Pagasae further elucidate a significant feature of Hellenic culture: its multilayered governance. The egalitarian model, familiar from Athenian democracy, plays out in the election but allows for a hierarchical model as evidenced by its acceptance of individual achievement and prestige in the acknowledgement of Heracles' predominant status. On the suggestion of a referee, Thalmann adds the parallel of the Companions of Alexander and the philoi of the Ptolemies, but provides no support for why a reader might think of these groups. The Hellenic values evinced on Pagasae will be challenged at the first stop on Lemnos where women rule, a challenge to the normal boundary between male and female seen in Iolcus.

Chapter 4, "Colonial Spaces," offers an in-depth examination of three episodes that reflect Greek ideas of colonization: Libya/Thera/Cyrene, Cyzicus...