Recent studies on Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica draw attention to the aetiological narrative of the poem, as far as the concept of time and space is concerned. In the Argonautica the starting point is the Argonauts’ adventures in the past, which leave traces that ‘even now’ people can observe (M.A. Harder, Hermes 131 [2003], 290–306). In this context, M.'s new book examines Apollonius’ Argonautica with respect to its intertextual relationship, ‘the study of which has been the focus of much of the flowering of Hellenistic studies in the last thirty years’ (p. ix). Here the intertextual dimension of Hellenistic poetry is thoroughly examined through the historiographical genre and especially through Herodotus’ Histories in Apollonius’ Argonautica; indeed, many historiographical elements and features are adopted in the Argonautica, such as narrative structures, multiple depictions of characters, aetiology, ethnographical features, kingship (and tyranny). Subsequently, in M.'s book the historiographical intertexts play a crucial part that help the readers articulate the Argonautica's relationship to and difference from Homer (p. ix).

Unfortunately, the great majority of scholarly studies on the intertwined affiliation of historiography and epic has discussed how the former adapts the latter, especially Homer. The main question about to what extent Greek epic after Homer responds to and makes use of the historiographical genre still remains. In his elaborate introduction M. gives a satisfying answer and focuses on the complex narrative formed by epic poetry and history, which deals with similar locations although with different perspectives and aims (p. 2). M.'s approach can be characterised as ‘both a reader-response and intertextual analysis and forms part, therefore, of the recent and ongoing investigation into the complex literary texture of Hellenistic poetry’ (p. 4). Herodotus effectively represents the historiographical genre of the Hellenistic period and for Apollonius Rhodius serves as the model for particular ‘specific interactions’ (Herodotus, thus, becomes the modello codice for historiography and for a wide range of texts at an early stage). Thus, M. proposes to examine Herodotus’ ‘double function’ in the Argonautica as both ‘a key intertext for particular, important passages in the epic, and as a more general reference-point as the representative for a type of discourse’ (p. 20).

In the first chapter, ‘Receiving Herodotus’, M. looks at Herodotus’ crucial, leading role within ‘the most extensive critical analysis’ of historiography's evolution that has survived from antiquity, Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ On Thucydides (p. 27). Herodotus’ pivotal presence within ‘Hellenistic culture’ allows M. to determine the importance he held for Apollonius and the uses to which he was put in the Argonautica. Herodotus sets the frame of thinking about the distant past in historical terms and for depicting an ethnographic interest in other places and their peoples, both of which are crucial for Apollonius’ epic about ‘an expedition from the long-past heroic age to the far shore of the Black Sea’ (p. 33). What is more, Herodotus’ comparison with local history is markedly wider; Herodotus’ narrative about local customs and rituals is incorporated into a narrative of ‘transcontinental conflict between Greeks and non-Greeks’ (p. 38). The Argonautica also pertains to a Panhellenic character within mythical narratives about contact and conflict between Greeks and non-Greeks; thus, Apollonius’ epic narrates the Argonautic journey into and back from non-Greek territory and explores a wide range of geographical, ethnographic and aetiological features of non-Greek peoples and places (pp. 38–9).

Furthermore, Herodotus typically cites his sources in such a way as to establish the construction of an ‘authoritative narrative on the basis of careful investigation into the events of the past’ (p. 45). In the second chapter, ‘Creating Authorities’, M. examines the Argonautica's involvement with crucial features of the historiographical genre, such as Herodotus’ proem of his Histories. Furthermore, in the Catalogue of Argonauts the ‘careful establishing of the extent of the narrator's knowledge resembles a prominent concern at the beginning of key works of historiography with establishing the proper limits of historical enquiry’ (p. 47). Herodotus usually makes comments upon the limitations of the narrator's knowledge, provides his readers with alternative explanations that cannot be decided between and questions the truth of the accounts offered. M. elaborately explores these Herodotean features that Apollonius certainly seems to adapt in his Argonautica (p. 66). Finally, M. discusses the way in which the historiographical genre presents the customs of different ethnoi and considers it as a ‘careful restriction of a particular nomos or tropos to a given group or body’ (p. 89). For example, in the Argonautica the transformation of the epic term θέμις in the primary narrator's narrative and its usage with σφιν resembles the use of νόμος with σφι in Herodotus and Xenophon (Ap. Rhod. 2.1172–6).

In the following chapter, ‘Explaining the Past’, M. explores the interconnection of the different attitudes to the mythical past with the historical present: once again, historiography plays a pivotal role in the epic's engagement with the different types of explanation in historiographical texts, such as ‘explanations of human action or motivation, explanation of events, and explanations of origins or causes, which together account for why things happened as they did in the past, and what effect this has on the present’ (p. 96). For example, the use of mythical aetiology plays a leading part in authorising connections between past and its present in Pindar's Pythian 4, a key poetic intertext of the Argonautica, which is contrasted with respect to the different historiographical approach to the mythic past (p. 96).

Furthermore, it is also important to pay attention to the various narratives within the Histories and how the Argonautica engages with them. Subsequently, in the fourth chapter, ‘Telling Stories’, it is observed that Herodotean passages contain specific logoi, narratives and locations, which M. rightly identifies as significant reference points for the readers of the epic. These references to Herodotean passages prove the characterisation of Herodotus as a modello esemplare for particular parts of the Argonautica, in which a given section of the Histories forms the model on which the Apollonian passages are based. Such instances reinforce the intertwined relationship of Apollonius’ epic with Herodotus and invite readers to seek even more of such interactive examples from Herodotus in the Argonautica. M. highlights these instances including them as potential exemplars for Ptolemaic rulers or institutions through the Herodotean reading of the Argonautica (p. 124).

Herodotean ethnography is crucial to Apollonius not only for its ethnographical features, but also for the Panhellenic character he fruitfully perceives. Herodotus extensively narrates about the Greeks and the non-Greeks, because both categories are pivotal for Herodotus to explore the world; ‘understanding each of them and their relationship is crucial to understanding how they came to war with one another’ (p. 145). Thus, in the fifth chapter, ‘Greeks and Non-Greeks’, it would be an omission for M. not to investigate the different ethnicities described in the Herodotean narrative as crucial reference points for Apollonius and his readers; that is because the Argonautica contains complex descriptions of Greeks, non-Greeks and their interaction, and M.'s discussion of this subject cleverly proves once again the importance of the Herodotean intertexts in Apollonius’ epic poem. Finally, in the last chapter, ‘Kings and Leaders’, M., following the subject of the previous chapter, provides readers with exemplars of Greek and non-Greek rulers and kings to further validate his arguments on Apollonius’ Panhellenic character (adapted by Herodotus); M. investigates the degree to which we should see these portrayals as playing a role in justifying or promoting the notion of Hellenistic kingship, especially by ‘providing exemplars or models for Hellenistic kings, royal practices or institutions’ (p. 179).

Overall, M.'s inspiring book offers plenty of food for thought about Hellenistic poetry and its wider intertexts, especially the Argonautica's relationship with the historiographical genre and Herodotus. However, I believe that Rhianus of Crete also recalls Apollonius’ Panhellenic character inherited by Herodotus, since Rhianus, as with Apollonius, connects the legendary times with his own day (cf. M. Spanakis, Eikasmόs 29 [2018], 313–34), through aetiologies and ethnographical stories; the combination of the historical, ethnographical and literary-mythical sources with the central stories of Rhianus’ epics makes them a vital part of Greek history as well. Pausanias chooses Rhianus as his source for the fourth book of his periegesis in Messenia, saying: ‘a historiographer is turned into an epic poet and the opposite’ (cf. J.J. Clauss, Hellenistica Groningana 4 [2000], p. 28).