Uncharted Territory: Receptions of Philosophy in Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica

The Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius is often studied in terms of how the author uses previous literary poets such as Homer. This project asks whether Apollonius Rhodius also uses philosophical authors in his Argonautica and looks particularly at Empedocles, Parmenides, Xenophanes, and Plato. In addition to building on references by earlier scholars such as Malcolm Campbell, I use plagiarism-tracking software (WCopyFind) to identify places of potential connection and then evaluate the passages in question to see whether these connections are significant. I conclude that Apollonius does use the works of Empedocles and Parmenides and perhaps Xenophanes, and he uses Parmenides’ and Empedocles’ works in ways that indicate he is interested in their ideas as well as vivid images and rare words. I conclude that although there are good reasons for considering Plato’s works as a source of interest for Apollonius, Apollonius does not use Plato’s work in the same significant ways that he uses Empedocles’ and Parmenides’ works. Instead, Apollonius’ project as a poet-scholar contradicts many of the views on poetry, inspiration and skill that Plato’s Socrates develops in the Ion. The works of Empedocles and Parmenides provide an alternative model of poetry that involves thoughtful mixing of elements from previous poets.