アポロニオス・ロディオス『アルゴナウティカ』の比喩の特徴

Abstract

There is fairly general agreement that the similes of the Argonautica are more apposite to the narrative than those of the Homeric poems. The 'appositeness' is, however, not the only characteristic of the simile of the Argonautica. We must draw attention to the rhetorical and compositional devices, which are characteristic of Hellenistic literature. Take the 'dew on the roses' simile (3.1019ff.) for example. We can find here an elegant chiasmus of vocabulary (ianeto ... tekomene ... iainomene), which is used to tie the narrative and the simile together. The same observation applies to the simile of the saffron flower(3.851ff.), in which alliteration is effectively used to enhance the exoticism of Medea's magical medicine. This alliteration also ties the narrative and the simile together. Turning now to the compositional devices. Apollonius attempts to force the subject of the simile into closer parallelism with the narrative than Homer does. As J. F. Carspecken acutely points out, such parallelism opens to the simile a new possibility, that of acting as a hinge or a transitional phase in the narrative construction. In Homer, some similes may be regarded as such a transitional type, but they mark merely a shifting of the poet's interest from one aspect of a scene to another. In the Argonautica, however, the transitional similes appear at the climax of episode and mark the shift of the poet's interest from the cause of one action to the effect of that action. The simile of 'the grieving bride' (3.656ff.) is a typical example. It begins with a description of a young bride grieving for the loss of her husband (Medea' s fear for the death of Jason), and continues by describing her shedding tears in secrecy (Medea's reticence about her desire to save Jason). It should be concluded that the rhetorical and compositional devices are inseparable with the appositeness and are united to bring about the beauty aud strength of the simile in the Argonautica.