Pelias. . . succeeded Cretheus: Jason’s father, Aison, might have been expected to succeed his father Cretheus on the Iolcian throne, so the position of Pelias (the son of Tyro by Poseidon and thus Aison’s half-brother) was at least dubious. Ap. is uninformative on the background; in Hes. Cat. fr. 40, and Pind. Pyth. 4. 102 ff. (where Pelias is definitely a usurper), Jason was reared in the country by the Centaur Cheiron.
the wrath of Hera: for its cause, see p. 45; Medea will return from Colchis with Jason and cause Pelias’ death, p. 57.
the golden fleece: for its origins see p. 43.
Colchis: a land south of the Caucasus at the eastern end of the Black Sea; a remote area for the early Greeks.
the Argo after its builder: it is likely that its name was originally derived from the adjective argos, meaning swift (mentioned in DS 4. 41. 3, as an alternative etymology).
Dodona: an ancient oracle of Zeus at Epirus in north-western Greece (known to Homer, Il. 16. 233–5). The great oak, whose rustling leaves were supposed to reveal the will of Zeus, was a suitable source for the speaking (and oracular) timber.
they set out to sea: for further details on all the following, see Ap.’s main source, the Argonauticaof Apollonius of Rhodes; this is a relatively late epic dating from the third century BC, but it draws extensively on early sources. Significant divergences will be noted.
Polyphemos: a Lapith from Thessaly, who is said by Homer, Il. 1. 264 ff., to have played a heroic role in the war between the Lapiths and the Centaurs (see p. 142): he was married to Heracles’ sister Laonome (sc. AR 1. 1241a).
snatched away by nymphs: Hylas was drawn into the spring by a water-nymph (AR 1. 1228 ff.) or nymphs (three in Theocritus Idyll13. 43 ff.), and was never seen again; in AR 1, 1310 ff. the prophetic sea-god Glaucos appears to the Argonauts and tells them that a nymph has made him her husband.
There they abandoned Heracles. . . leader of the Argonauts: the initial narrative follows AR 1. 1207 ff. Views on Heracles’ involvement in the expedition vary greatly. Some deny that he ever joined the expedition (e.g. Herodoros, mentioned here, a fifth-fourth-century mythographer, and Ephoros, the fourth-century historian, and doubtless the earliest tradition). According to the sixth-century Hesiodic Marriage of Ceuxhe was left behind accidentally at Aphetai when sent for water (sc. AR 1. 1289); but the Hylas story, probably of later origin (fifth century?), is most favoured by later authors. Only in late novelistic accounts (e.g. by Dionysios ‘the leather-armed’, second/first century, cited here) does he travel all the way to Colchis and, inevitably, overshadow Jason.
by Boreas . . . their stepmother: see p. 135 and note.
the Harpies: for their parentage see p. 29, cf. Theog. 265 ff. The meaning of their name, ‘Snatchers’, is reflected in their characteristic action of swooping down and snatching away people (or here, Phineus’ food).
failed to catch those they pursued: so here both of them die, because the Harpies fall down exhausted before they can catch them; for the birth of the Boreads, and another account of their death, see p. 134 and notes. Boreas was the North Wind, so it is natural that his sons should be swift-moving and winged.
Ocypode according to Hesiod: not in Theog. 267, where the Harpies are called Aello and Ocypete(meaning swift flier as against Ocypode, swift of foot), but this may be a reference to Hes. Cat. (which contained an account of the pursuit, frs. 150–7).
Strophades: these islands, which lie to the west of the Peloponnese opposite Messenia, mark the point where she ‘turned’ (estraphe). Ap. is wrong to suggest that this name was given to the Echinadian Islands (which were known under that name in historical times, and lie further north, near the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf facing Acarnania); according to AR 2. 297, the islands thus renamed were formerly known as the Plotai or ‘Floating Islands’.
in the Argonautica: see 2. 284 ff. Iris (who was the messenger of the gods, but was acting on her own initiative here, presumably as a sister of the Harpies, Theog. 266 f.) intervened to say that the Harpies were simply performing their duties as the ‘hounds of Zeus’ and it was unlawful to destroy them. AR is misreported on the oath, for it is Iris who swore that the Harpies would never approach Phineus again. They departed to their den in Crete.
that Cadmos had sowed at Thebes: see p. 100; not of course the same teeth, but half of the teeth from the Theban dragon that Athene (or Athene and Ares, sc. Pind. Isth. 4. 13, citing Pherecydes) had held back and given to Aietes, cf. AR 3. 1183 f. This is a secondary motif, directly modelled on the Theban story.
a potion: see AR 3. 844 ff; extracted from the Colchicum, or autumn crocus, which came into existence when the blood from the tormented Prometheus, p. 36, fell to the earth. The drug from its seed, used until modern times for treating rheumatism and gout, is here endowed with magical properties.
he put them under the yoke: on the bulls and their yoking by Jason, see also Pind. Pyth. 4. 224–41.
murdered her brother: Ap. prefers an earlier and more primitive version of this story to that in AR 4. 303 ff. where Apsyrtos is of military age and is sent in pursuit of Jason and Medea by his father, and is treacherously killed by Jason in a temple of Artemis on an island at the mouth of the Danube. Ap.’s version is similar to that in Pherecydes (sc. AR 4. 223 and 226), but there Medea takes the infant child from his bed in Colchis on Jason’s instructions, and Jason participates in the killing and dismemberment. In the earlier tradition and AR alike the murder is of central importance as the cause of the Argonauts’ diversion to the western Mediterranean.
Tomoi: meaning ‘Pieces’; on the western shore of the Black Sea.
past the Ligurian and Celtic peoples: cf. AR 4. 646 f. In AR (592 ff.) they sail from the Adriatic up the Eridanos (or Po), down the Rhone, and then towards Italy and along its coast. The Ligurians lived in north-western Italy and the eastern Riviera, and the Celts to the west and north of that; the vagueness of the language here may be deliberate, reflecting the author’s awareness that the river voyage is geographically impossible.