Transgressive Heroism

Roman epic is traditionally understood to advance a masculine, martial form of heroism. In his version of the Argonaut legend, the Argonautica, however, Valerius Flaccus challenges that prevailing ethos of the genre by turning Medea, Jason’s love interest in the story, into a heroic figure and Jason himself into her emasculated victim. The present study charts this plotline as it unfolds in the se...