ARGOLIS and ARGIA, '7r-0-a, a country of Peloponnesus, between Arcadia and the lEgean : its capital was Argos (q.v.). ARGON, ar'-gda, a descendant of Hercules, reigned in Lydia sos years before Gyges. ARGONAUTIE, ar-go-narl -Ea, the heroes who went with Jason on the Argo (q.v.) to Colchis, 7263 B.C., seventy-nine years before the fall.of Troy. This expedition was caused as follows:— King Atha'mas of Thebes had married Ino, daughter of Cadmus, whom he divorced to marry Nepheld, who bore him Phryxus and Helle; Nepheld was subject to madness, and Athamas divorced her to again marry Ino, who bore him Learchus and Melicerta. Ino, who hated Nephele's children, caused Thebes to be visited by a pestilence by poisoning all the grain that had been sown,and the oraele,which she had corrupted, ordained the sacrifice of Nephele's children ; they fled to Colchis, where Phryxus (Helle having been lost on the voyage) was received by his near relation King "Eetes. The voyage had been performed through the air on a ram—the offspring of Neptune and the nymph Theoph'ine'—which had a golden fleece and wings, and could speak, and from his back Helle had fallen into the sea (thence named the Helies,tont): at Colchis Phryxus sacrificed the ram and dedicated the fleece to Jupiter, and married Chalcilip; daughter of JEetes, but iEetes murdered him to get the fleece. Soon after Perim promised to give the crown he usurped to his nephew Jason (q. v.), iEson's son, if he would avenge their common relation Phryxus, and Jason at once embarked with the young princes of Greece in the Argo : they spent two years at Lemnos, and became pro genitors of a new race by the Lemnian women who had murdered their husbands (see HIT SIBYLS): thence visited Samothrace, Troas, and Cyzicum. Driven back by a storm at night to Cyzicum, they were mistaken for Pelasgi, and attacked. when King Cyzicus was killed by Jason, who atoned for the involuntary homicide by a splendid funeral, a sacrifice to Cybele, and a temple to her on Mount DindY mus ; thence they went to Bebrycia (Bithynia), where Pollux slew King Amycus in the coin bat of the cestus ; next to Salmydessa, where they delivered from the harpies King Phineus, who steered them through the Cyarfem ; entering the Euxine, they visited the Marian dyni, where„ they lost two companions, Idmon and the pilot Tiphys ; next the isle Arecia, where they found Phryxus' children, whom /Eetes had sent to Greece to take their father's kingdom and then they went to /Ea, the capital olColchis. IEetes promised to deliver the fleece if Jason would, in a single day, tame two bulls,—which had brazen feet and horns, and vomited fire,—and tie them to an adamant plough, and plough a field of two acres never before cultivated ; then sow the teeth of a dragon from which armed men were to spring, and slay them with his own hand ; and lastly go and kill the sleepless dragon guarding the tree on which the fleece hung. By the aid of the magical arts of Medea, who had fallen in love with him, and whom he promised to marry and take to Greece, Jason did all this in a day, the armed men at once turning their weapons against themselves on his throwing a stone in their midst. He and Medea immediately set out with the fleece, murdered her brother Absyrtus, who pursued them, and strewed his limbs in the way to stop dEetes's pursuit ; they entered the Palus Mmotis, and came to the isle Peucestes, and to that of Circe, who refused to purify Jason from the murder of Absyrtus ; they entered the Mediterranean by the Pillars of Hercules, and passed the straits of Charyb dis and Scylla, where Tethys, wife of the argo naut Peleus, preserved them, and Orpheus's eloquence saved them from the Sirens : they arrived at the isle of the Phmacians, where they met the enemy's fleet, which had come up a different course : it was agreed that Medea should be restored, if she had not been actually married to Jason, but the umpire, King Alcintius's wife, had the marriage performed by night, and declared zEetes's claim void. From
Phmacia the Argonauts came to the bay of Ambracia, and, after being driven to Africa, and many disasters, at last reached Medea in Peloponnesus, where Jason was purified, and soon after arrived in Thessaly. The imprac ticability of the above voyaging is apparent. According to Apollonius Rhodius, they sailed from the Euxine up a mouth of the Danube for some way, then carried the ship across to the Adriatic, where they met and killed Absyrtus, who had similarly crossed ; but the Dodonean beam on the prow of the Argo (q. v.) declared Jason would never return home, unless puri fied ; so they went to the isle lEa, where lEetes's sister Circe unwittingly purified him. According to a third tradition, they a second time visited Colchis, and went to many parts of Asia. The number of the Argonautm is variously given at fifty-four, fifty, and forty-five : the following are usuallyenumerated :—Jason (the chief), Acastus, Actor, Admetus, /Esculapms, /Etalides, Almenus, Amphiaraus, Amphi damns, Amphion, Ancmus son of Lycurgus, Ancwus son of Neptune, Areus, Argus son of Danaus, Argus son of Phryxus, Armenus, Ascalaphus, Asterion, Asterius, Augeas, Atalanta daughter of Schceneus (disguised as a man), Autolycus, Azorus, Bupliagus, Butes, Calais, Canthus, Castor, Ceneus, Cepheus, Cius, Clytius, Iphitus, Coronus, Deucalion, Echion, Ergynus, Euphemus, Eribotes, Eury alus, Eurydamus, Eurythion, Eurytus, Glau cus, Hercules, Idas, Ialmenus, Idmon, lolaus, Iphiclus son of Thestius, Iphiclus son of Philacus, Iphis, Lynceus, Iritus, Laertes, Laocoon, Leodatus, Leitus, Meleager, Alenm• tius, Mopsus, Nauplius, Neleus, Nestor, Oileus, Orpheus, Palemon, Peleus, Telamon, Periclymenes, Peneleus, Philoctetes, Phlias, Pollux, Polyphemus, Pceas, Phanus, Phalerus, Phocas, Priasus, Talaus, Tiphys, Staphilus, Iphitus (two of the name), Theseus, and Pirithous : lEsculapius was physician, and Tiphys pilot, to the crew.
ARGos, ar'-gar(sing. neut., and ARC'. ar'-gi, masc. pl.). r. The capital of Arg6lis, two miles from the Argolicus Sinus, was built by seven Cyclopes (not Vulcan's) from Syria. The kingdom was founded by Inachus, r856 B.C., and, after flourishing 55o years, was united to the crown of Alycenm : his eight successors, the buieh'ider, were Phoroneus, Apis, Argus, Chryasus, Phorbas, Triopas, Stelenus, and (=clamor, the last of whom was expelled by Danaus, whom he had received hospitably, and who reigned next with his descendants the Beli'dce, over Argos. Agamemnon was king of Argos during the Trojan war, and, eighty years after, the Heraclidw seized the Pelopon nesus and deposed the kings. The chief deity was Juno. 2. PELASG1CON, pil-as'-gfc-on, a town of Thessaly. 3. AMPHILOCEIIUM, am fiht-ach'-i-ron, a town of Epirus.