A CRITICAL RACE STUDIES APPROACH: RACE AND RACECRAFT IN APOLLONIUS’S ARGONAUTICA

This chapter brings a critical race studies approach to Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica (third century BCE), the Greek epic about the adventures of the Argonauts, the Greek heroes who sailed around the world in Argo, on their quest for the Golden Fleece. The Argonauts’ adventures featured in many of the foundation myths of ancient Greek settlements around the then-known world, providing justifications and rationalizations for some of the more brutal aspects of Greek colonization. Generally, Apollonius’ Argonauts are not conquerors; they do not overthrow the cities of foreign heroes. Nevertheless, they behave differently when the foreigners are herders; the Argonauts commit acts of violence that rob human dignity from their victims, the herders. I argue that the heroes’ dehumanizing violence toward herders reflects one particular racial hierarchy in the ancient Greek mythical imagination. Drawing on the work of Barbara and Karen Fields, I argue that the discourse of monstrosity in the Argonautica that naturalizes and justifies the heroes’ violence is what they have theorized as racecraft.