“Strength and boldness in the heroic Hellenistic world”, Conference in Classics and Ancient History, 22 a 25 de Junho de 2021 (original) (raw)

2021

We intend to see if strengths such as alke, sthenos, kratos, menos, bie and tharsos still characterize the hero of the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes. The Iliadic heroes need them all to fight; and Odysseus to restore order to overcome several obstacles. As we shall see those concepts are still present in the Hellenistic epic, but with a new meaning. In the catalogue of the Argonauts alke still characterizes some of them, but we must pay close attention to its demonstration. This energy, together with sthenos and kratos, helps Jason facing Aeetes' challenges; and together with menos, it allows Polydeuces to fight with Amycus (2.44-5). Nevertheless, when there are collective battles, as occurs between the Argonauts and Doliones and the Argonauts and the Bebrycians, that is, when heroes act violently as a group, alke is not even mentioned. The strengths associated with alke are sthenos, menos and kratos, and that happens again in the above situations: the boxing fight between Polydeuces and Amycus (when there are menos and alke, 2.44-5); and Jason's tasks in Colchis (when alke is joined with menos, sthenos and kratos, 3.407, 507, 1307, 1257-8). Considered by itself, sthenos means, in the Argonautica, the effort one wants to do to obtain something. Therefore, in promises of aid, the expression ὅσον σθένος appears as an endeavour, meaning 'as much as possible' (2.1200; 3.63, 716), an expression never to be found in the Homeric Poems. Consequently, in the Argonautica it is often employed the verb σθένω is an auxiliar with the meaning 'to be able to' (1.62; 2.1053; 3.965; 4.1723).