Abstract
This article undertakes a diachronic survey of the literary and artistic reception of Valerius Flaccus’Argonautica, from the Flavian period down to the 20th century. The epic was influential in its own time, but has left fewer marks on the literature of later antiquity. It appears to have been in only limited circulation in the medieval period: but Chaucer, for one, makes various references to it, and Joesph Iscanus probably used it as well. Following rescue from obscurity by Poggio and a proliferation of editions in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, it seems to have enjoyed a vogue in elevated literary circles, to have supplied the subject for one or more Renaissance artists, and to have prompted more acts of literary reception than is generally recognized—including sustained engagements by CamÕes in theLusiadas and William Morris in hisLife and Death of Jason.
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Zissos, A. Reception of valerius flaccus’Argonautica . IJCT 13, 165–185 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02856291
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02856291