Narrator and poetic divinities in Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica

Abstract The role of poetic divinities in the proem of Apollonius’ Argonautica (1.1–22) has been discussed extensively in scholarly literature, often in conjunction with subsequent references to them. As several discussions are based on tendentious hypotheses or contain inaccuracies, I revisit the relationship of narrator and divinities in the proem and the rest of the poem. Apollonius’ proem is innovatively ambiguous but does not mark a radical break with tradition. The invocations of the Muses in fragments of Simonides (fr. 11.20–24 W2) and Empedocles (DK 31 B 131) are important precedents. Apollonius’ subsequent references to poetic divinities clarify the ambiguity in the proem and form a consistent picture, which does not portray a reversal of the relationship between poet and divinities sketched in the proem.