THE THERA EPISODE IN ARGONAUTICA 4 RECONSIDERED IN LIGHT OF THE POETIC INTERACTION BETWEEN APOLLONIUS AND CALLIMACHUS

In the following, I undertake a number of things: after briefly reviewing scholarly findings about the significance of the Thera-episode in Apollonius’ Argonautica, I will go into the importance of Thera (and the Cyrenaean foundation story in general) for Callimachus. This theme features not only in the Apollo Hymn and Aetia fr. 7c 1-5, but in several other Callimachean poetic fragments. I will then point out what I believe is a neglected element of the Herodotean subtext of Apollonius’ Thera episode. Finally I present a reading of the Apollonian passage, which takes into account both the importance of Callimachus’ Cyrenean connections and the neglected Herodotean subtext.