The Argonautica

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The Argonautica has impacted our culture from the Aeneid to Star Trek. The Golden Fleece has become a byword for 'an unobtainable object.' And who can forget Ray Harryhausen's classic stop motion animation in the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts? The pre-Raphaelite John William Waterhouse painting above, which is a favorite college dorm room poster, depicts an incident from the Argonautica where Hylas (or Aeolas), the companion of Heracles, is seduced and carried away by a water-nymph, to Heracles' inconsolable sorrow. the first book, the ship Argo is built and a crew of around fifty heroes is assembled in response to an oracle received by King Pelias. Led by Jason, the heroes include Heracles and his companion Hylas, Castor and Pollux (the Dioscuri: sons of Tyndareus and brothers of Hele...