The Vocabulary of Fate in Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica

Abstract:Apollonius updates the usage of terms around the concept of fate from their earlier poetic usages, particularly his primary Homeric models, so that they reflect 3rd-century philosophical discussions. He uses the general terms for fate (αἶσα, μοῖρα, πότμος, οἶτος) more narrowly than Homer, avoiding personifications and their use as synonyms for "death" or "day of one's death;" he introduces a pattern where "fulfilling one's fate" refers to the fulfillment of a prophecy introduced in the Argonautica. These usages are congruent with Stoic doctrines of an impersonal and universal fate, which is supported by the truth of prophecies. With ἀνάγκη, likewise, Apollonius narrows the Homeric usage, but more significantly he rejects later developments of "necessity" to become coextensive with "fate" in Greek thought, so that his usage seems to refer to the 3rd-century controversy about the relation of the two. He expands occasional Homeric uses of κήρ as a personification and as escapable, so that this term expresses the themes excluded from his stricter use of the central terms for fate. Experiments with new senses of χρεώ further support the picture of Apollonius consciously remodeling his vocabulary of fate.