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Significant Other(ness): Deconstruction of the Other in Apollonius' Lemnian Episode

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posted on 2024-03-25, 01:55 authored by Mary Margaret Ryland

This paper seeks to examine the deconstruction of a traditional Greek v. Other dichotomy that takes place in the Lemnian episode of the Argonautica. This deconstruction has implications for Apollonius’ Ptolemaic context since it exalts cultural nuance and diplomacy rather than the perpetuation of the Greek/Other binary which demands that Greekness be preferred. This reading of the Lemnian episode makes it a relevant political statement for the Ptolemaic world, in which cultural interactions between Greeks and indigenous populations require a greater degree of mutuality and understanding than the eras of Apollonius’ primary literary ancestors, Homer and Herodotus.

Past scholarship has thoroughly treated the episode’s implications for Jason’s heroism (Beye 2003, Clauss 1993), the significance of rhetoric in the exchanges on Lemnos (Clare 2002), and the meaning of the episode within Apollonius’ Ptolemaic political context (Mori 2008, Stephens 2003). This paper combines elements of these previous works and add the lens of scholarship on ‘the Other’ in Greek thought (Hall 1989, Hartog 1988) to analyze this episode’s implications for Greek identity in the Hellenistic age.

Section 1 examines how a traditional, Odyssean binary between Greekness and Otherness is constructed in Book 1 prior to the Lemnian episode. Building on the work of Thalmann (2011) and Clauss (1993), I argue that the Catalogue of Heroes (1.23-233) construes the Argonauts as quintessentially Greek figures who represent Hellenistic cultural identity to foreign peoples. The ritual sacrifices in the departure scenes at Iolchos (1.410-423) and Orpheus’ song (1.496-511) tie the Argonauts closely to Greek custom and cosmology, further cementing their cultural identity. This section also mentions previous literary accounts of the Lemnian women that would have made them ‘Other’ in the mind of a Greek reader in the Hellenistic age. Thus, before the Lemnian episode, expectation is built for a simplistic Greek/Other encounter between the Argonauts and Lemnians.

The second section analyzes how the Lemnian episode deconstructs the cultural dichotomy that Book 1 has created thus far by depicting the Lemnian women with strongly Greek cultural markers: they conduct a political assembly in a passage crammed with Homeric intertexts (Finkmann 2016, Mori 2008) and they reverence traditional Greek xenia by welcoming the Argonauts with guest-gifts. Additionally, the action of the narrator throughout the episode is unexpectedly sympathetic to the Lemnian women rather than the Greek ‘protagonists,’ even directly flipping the Greek/Other binary at one point (1.636-637) by allowing the reader to see the Argonauts as barbaric invaders through the women’s eyes. Through its complex characterizations of both peoples, the episode rejects a simplistic dichotomy in favor of cultural nuance and the mixing of categories.

The third section expounds on the implications of this deconstruction of a binary for Apollonius’ political and cultural context. Utilizing the work of Mori (2008), who proves the new importance of diplomacy in the Hellenistic Age, I argue that Apollonius diminishes the Otherness of the Lemnian women for the purpose of emphasizing their xenia, the prerequisite for functional diplomatic relationships in the Hellenistic world. Additionally, the reduction of gendered ‘Otherness’ through Hypsipyle and Jason’s mutually beneficial relationship promotes the importance of women in the political sphere, a new Hellenistic reality in the form of powerful Ptolemaic queens. The work of Stephens, Mori, and Hunter is essential for exploring how this deconstructed binary holds implications for Greek identity in the Hellenistic age.

History

Alt Title

Deconstruction of the other in Apollonius' Lemnian episode

Date Created

2023-06-01

Date Modified

2023-06-01

CIP Code

  • 16.1200

Research Director(s)

Aldo C. Tagliabue

Committee Members

Christopher Baron Janet Downie

Degree

  • Master of Arts

Degree Level

  • Master's Thesis

Alternate Identifier

1380847780

OCLC Number

1380847780

Additional Groups

  • Classics

Program Name

  • Classics

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