Evan Hayes and Stephen Nimis, who have written a number of other intermediate textbooks for Faenum Publishing, have taken on the improbable project of writing two such volumes for Apollonius’ Argonautica Books 1 and 2. When I saw them listed among BMCR’s books for review, I was curious to see what such a text would look like and whether it would serve as an intermediate reader for students in their second year of Greek, if that is what intermediate signifies. The authors clearly expended many hours of detailed work on this project, for which students approaching Apollonius for the first time will undoubtedly be grateful. The resulting texts, however, are not without problems.
Both books begin with a clear and succinct introduction to the Argonautica in its Hellenistic and Ptolemaic contexts and a short paragraph on what we know of the life of its author. These are followed by a list of editions, commentaries and translations, which oddly does not include the critical work of Francis Vian and Émile Delage (Apollonios de Rhodes Argonautique2, 3 Vols. Paris 2002), but instead lists Herman Fränkel’s idiosyncratic OCT (1986, originally published in 1961) and Noten zu den Argonautika des Apollonios (Munich 1968). Each text offers a list of critical studies, which are largely the same except for a few works specific to their books. Each text also has a summary of the book in question followed by short discussions of linguistic peculiarities, meter, glossing and commentary conventions. Apart from the summaries, most of this preliminary material is repeated in each book. We learn in the introduction that the text used is that of George Mooney (The Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius, London 1912), which was available through the Perseus Project and a Creative Commons license. The authors duly note that Mooney’s text is not a scholarly edition, for which we are directed to consult Fränkel’s OCT, a recommendation that few would make.
The first pages of both Greek texts do not begin propitiously, as the Greek title for each work is shown as Ἡ ἈΡΓΟΝΑΥΤΙΚΑ Α and Ἡ ἈΡΓΟΝΑΥΤΙΚΑ B. The title of the epic is not feminine singular (as the terminal alpha should make clear) but neuter plural. Rather it should read ΑΡΓΟΝΑΥΤΙΚΩΝ Α and ΑΡΓΟΝΑΥΤΙΚΩΝ Β. But the authors do in fact offer readers of Greek new to Apollonius much help by way of an extensive running vocabulary on each page and grammatical help below (identification of epic or dialectical forms as well as assistance with cases, tenses, moods, voices, constructions, etc.). They provide something for almost every line. In order to accomplish this extraordinary feat, however, they had to sacrifice accuracy for inclusivity. Given the number and dates of their publications listed on the Faenum Publishing website, speed would also appear to have factored negatively in their work.
I will only point out three infelicities that occur on one page (Book 1, p. 11) to illustrate what both teacher and student will need to address in using the books. The epithet for Alcimede Φυλακηίδα (1.47) is translated in the notes as “from Phylace,” identified as a toponym, instead of “daughter of Phylacus,” a patronymic (the error is repeated on p. 6); Φθιάς (1.55) is the feminine adjective (Φθιάς, -άδος) meaning “from Phthia, while Φθία in the running vocabulary, correctly glossed as the place name, is erroneously explained in the notes as a “genitive of place where, ‘she bore him in Phthia’;” κῆδος in the running vocabulary is glossed only as “care for,” but its other meaning, “connection by marriage” (LSJ II) is clearly the meaning required in the context, especially as it is coupled with πηοσύνη in 1.48.
It would be most unkind to list other examples, as these suffice in calling attention to the sorts of issues readers will encounter in both books. Both books include frank disclaimers (Book 1 xxiii and Book 2 xx) that read: “This volume is a self-published ‘Print on Demand’ (POD) book, and it has not been vetted or edited in the usual way by publishing professionals. There are sure to be some factual and typographical errors in the text, for which we apologize in advance. The volume is also available only through online distributors, since each book is printed when ordered online. However, this publishing channel and format also account for the low price of the book; and it is a simple matter to make changes when they come to our attention. For this reason, any corrections or suggestions for improvement are welcome and will be addressed as quickly as possible in future versions of the text.”
I should point out that Hayes and Nimis are Faenum Publishing and they have made it their mission to provide inexpensive texts with lots of vocabulary and grammatical help. All of their texts are relatively inexpensive (ca. $15) or free by way of downloads from their website. The vocabulary, which includes basic dictionary forms (e.g., nominative and genitive for nouns and first principal part for verbs), will certainly jump start the process of reading Apollonius, at times a challenging author precisely for his esoteric word choices. Teachers should be able to instruct their students in how to identify problem areas by way of Logeion, Perseus and a good grammar. Mistakes often provide useful avenues toward learning. Moreover, the authors have provided handy inserts in both books, such as the maps with the location of most of the cities and towns listed in the Catalogue of Argonauts on pp. 10 and 18 (Book 1) or the section on nautical terminology on p. 116 (Book 2). I sense a great deal of genuine care for students of both Latin and Greek in the authors’ painstaking work and pedagogical goals of expanding the number of available school texts.
A larger issue arises when thinking about these texts. Should undergraduates at the intermediate level in Greek read Apollonius at all? Homer’s Iliad, for which there is an outstanding older textbook (A.R. Benner, Selections from Homer’s Iliad, first published in 1903 and republished by Oxford University Press in 2001, which includes a forward by Mark Edwards), makes much better sense. Students in their fourth year of Greek would benefit from reading some of the Argonautica, but Hopkinson’s second and expanded A Hellenistic Anthology (Cambridge 2020) would offer a better transitional text that situates Apollonius in his broader historical and literary context. The books under consideration could offer graduate students interested in the Argonautica the opportunity to read Books 1 and 2 with greater speed and with more focus on the story. They might even be motivated to provide the authors with the feedback they invite.
Evan Hayes, Stephen Nimis and their company Faenum Publishing offer students affordable texts that, while far from perfect, offer more vocabulary help than one finds even in the Bryn Mawr Commentaries series , whose texts, I would point out, are also equally affordable, though not available free by download. All of this said, I admire the authors’ Herculean efforts and commitment to teaching.