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 Hellenistic poetry. This edition makes Argonautica III available to students of Greek at university and in the upper forms of schools, but scholars of Greek and Latin, especially those interested in Hellenistic literature and in epic, will also find it valuable.
