Rhodius Apollonius

Apollonius Rhodius, also known as Apollonius of Rhodes, was an ancient Greek poet and scholar who flourished in the first half of the 3rd century BC. He is chiefly remembered for the Argonautica, an epic poem about Jason and the Argonauts that stands apart from Homer by giving more space to emotion, psychology, and character.

Ancient sources connect him with Alexandria’s learned literary world, and later tradition says he was associated with the Library of Alexandria. Details of his life are uncertain, but he seems to have been linked both with Alexandria and with Rhodes, the island that gave him the name "Rhodius."

What keeps his writing alive is the way it bridges old myth and a newer literary taste: grand adventure on one page, intimate feeling on the next. For listeners coming to him today, he offers a rare chance to hear a classical epic that is both scholarly and vividly dramatic.