SOURCE: An introduction to The Best of the Argonauts: The Redefinition of the Epic Hero in Book I of Apollonius's "Argonautica," University of California Press, 1993, pp. 1-13.

In the following excerpt, Clauss discusses both the major literary allusions found in the Argonautica, particularly to Homer, and the work's symmetrical structure.

Anyone who approaches the Argonautica for the first time, whether in the original or in translation, will find this epic unusual and challenging for a variety of reasons. First, the reader must have a detailed knowledge of the earlier versions of the Argonautic tale; he or she must also be reasonably conversant with archaic, classical, and contemporary Hellenistic literature, with scholarly debates on problematic texts, and even with the literary theories of the day. Second, the poet himself enters the narrative on several occasions to comment on or even apologize for what is taking place and interrupts the...