A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

280 ARGONAUTAE.
(3. C. 367) in counteracting Spartan negotiation
and attaching Artaxerxes to the Theban cause.
(Xen. Hell. vii. 1. ~ 33.) He is again mentioned
by Xenophon (Hell. vii. 4. ~ 15), in his account of
thle war between the Arcadians and Eleans (a. c.
365), as one of the leaders of the democratic party
at Elis. (Comp. Diod. xv. 77.) [E. E.]
ARGE'LIUS, wrote a work on the Ionic temple
of Aesculapius, of which he was said to have been
the architect. Hie alse wrote on the proportions of
the Corinthian order (de Symsmetriis CorintMiis). His
time is unknown. (Vitruv. vii. praef. ~ 12.) [P.S.]
ARGENNIS ('Ap'yevis), a surname of Aphrodite, which she derived from Argennus, a favourite
of Agamemnon, after whose death, in the river
Cephissus, Agamemnon built a sanctuary of Aphrodite Argennis. (Steph. Byz. s. v. 'Apyervis;
Athen. xiii. p. 608.) [L. S.]
M. ARGENTA'RIUS, the author of about
thirty epigrams in the Greek Anthology, most of
which are erotic, and some are plays on words.
We may infer from his style that he did not live
before the time of the Roman empire, but nothing
more is known of his age. (Jacobs, Anthol. Graec.
xiii. pp. 860, 861.) [P. S.]
ARGES. [CYCLOPES.]
ARGILEONIS (Ap-yihewvis), mother of Brasidas. When the ambassadors from Amphipolis
brought the news of his death, she asked if lie had
behaved bravely; and on their speaking of him in
reply as the best of the Spartans, answered, that
the strangers were in error; Brasidas was a brave
man, but there were many better in Sparta. The
answer became famous, and Argileonis is said to
have been rewarded for it by the ephors. (Plut.
Lye. 25, Apophtli. Lac.) [A. H. C.]
ARGI'OPE ('Ap-ynirsl), a nymph by whom
Philammon begot the celebrated bard, Thamyris.
She lived at first on mount Parnassus, but when
Philarnmon refused to take her into his house as
his wife, she left Parnassus and went to the country of the Odrysians in Thrace. (Apollod. i. 3. ~ 3;
Paus. iv. 33. ~ 4.) Two other mythical personages
of this name occur in Diod. iv. 33, and H-ygin.
Fab. 178. [L. S.]
ARGIUS, a sculptor, was the disciple of Polycletus, and therefore flourished about 388 B. c.
(Plin. xxxiv. 19.) Thiersch (ELpocien, p. 275)
supposes that Pliny, in the words "ArgiZus, Asopodorus," mis-translated his Greek authority, which
had 'ApyTeos 'Aocw7esd wpos, "Asopodorus the Argive." But Argius is found as a Greek proper name
in both the forms, "Apyios and 'ApyEos. (Apollod.
ii. 1. ~ 5; Aristoph. Eccles. 201.) [P. S.]
ARGO. [ARGONA UTAE.]
ARGONAUTAE ('Ap-yovavrai), the heroes and
demigods who, according to the traditions of the
Greeks, undertook the first bold maritime expedition to Colchis, a far distant country on the coast
of the Euxine, for the purpose of fetching the
golden fleece. They derived their name from the
ship Argo, in which the voyage was made, and
which was constructed by Argus at the command
of Jason, the leader of the Argonauts. The time
which the Greek traditions assign to this enterprise is about one generation before the Trojan
war. The story of the expedition seems to have
been known to the author of the Odyssey (xii. 69,
&c.), who states, that the ship Argo was the only
onell that ever passed between tihe whirling rocks
(ipa-per 7raycrai). Jason is mentioned several

ARGONAUTAE.
times in the Iliad (vii. 467, &c., xxi. 40, xxiii.
743, &c.), but not as the leader of the Argoniauts.
[JASON.] Hesiod (Thieog. 992, &c.) relates the
story of Jason saying that he fetched Medeia at
the command of his uncle Pelias, and that she bore
him a son, Medeius, who was educated by Cheiron.
The first trace of the common tradition that Jason
was sent to fetch the golden fleece from Aea, tl-he
city of Aeetes, in the eastern boundaries of the
earth, occurs in Mimnermus (ap. Strab. i. p. 46,
&c.), a contemporary of Solon; but the most ancient detailed account of the expedition of tihe
Argonauts which is extant, is that of Pindar.
(Pythi. iv.) Pelias, who had usurped the throne of
lolcus, and expelled Aeson, the father of Jason,
had received an oracle that he was to be on lis
guard against the man who should come to him
with only one sandal. When Jason had grown
up, he came to lolcus to demand the succession to
the -throne of his father. On his way thither, lie
had lost one of his- sandals in crossing the river
Anaurus. Pelias recognised the man indicated by
the oracle, but concealed his fear, hoping to destroy
him in some way; and when Jason claiuned the
throne of his ancestors, Pelias declared himself
ready to yield; but as Jason was blooming in
youthful vigour, Pelias entreated him to propitiate
the manes of Phrixus 1by going to Colchis and
fetching the golden fleece. [Pr-mixus; HELLE.]
Jason accepted the proposal, and heralds were seint
to all parts of Greece to invite the iheroes to join hill
in the expedition. When all were assembled at lolcus, they set out on their voyage, and a south wirnd
carried them to the mouth of the Axeinus Pontus
(subsequently Euxinus Pontus), where they built
a temple to Poseidon, and implored his protection
against the danger of the whirling rocks. The
ship then sailed to the eastern coasto of the Euxine
and ran up the river Phasis, in the country of
Aeetes, and the Argonauts had to fight against tihe
dark-eyed Colchians. Aphrodite inspired Medeia,
the daughter of Aeetes, with love for Jason, and
made her forget the esteem and affection she owed
to her parent. She was in possession of magic
powers, and taught Jason how to avert the dangers which her father might prepare for him, and
gave him remedies with which he was to heal his
wounds. Aeetes promised to give up the fleece to
Jason on condition of his ploughing a piece of land
with his adamantine plough drawn by fire-breathing oxen. Jason undertook the task, and, following the advice of Medeia, he remained unhurt by
the fire of the oxen, and accomplished what had
been demanded of him. The golden fleece, which
Jason himself had to fetch, was hung up in a
thicket, and guarded by a fearful dragon, thicker
and longer than the ship of the Argonauts. Jason
succeeded by a stratagem in slaying the dragon,
and on his return he secretly carried away Medeia
with him. They sailed home by the Erythraean
sea, and arrived in Lemnos. In this account of
Pindar, all the Argonauts are thrown into the
background, and Jason alone appears as the acting
hero. The brief description of their return through
the Erythraean sea is difficult to understand. Pindar, as the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (iv
259) remarks, like some other poets, makes th(
Argonauts return through the eastern current o.
Oceanus, which it must be supposed that they en
tered through the river Phasis; so that they sailec
from the Euxine throungh the river Phasis into thi