The tale of the Argonauts features a winged ram that, before ending up in a constellation, leaves his golden fleece on earth, a leader raised by a centaur and who proves to be not always up to his task, a dreamy little girl who turns into a rabid witch, and an endless voyage through perilous waters. This is enough to narrate the emergence of our humanity. The Argonauts’ journey unifies the ancient world and foreshadows its future. It tells the story of the first contact between East and West, an account of mutual acquaintance, and the emergence of a potential dialogue. By retracing the routes of the ship Argo and its intrepid crew, the author reconstructs the geography and the mythical ethnography of the heart of Europe, the Mediterranean, its shores, and the unbounded ocean.

Tommaso Braccini teaches Classical Philology at the University of Siena. His research interests focus on ancient and medieval Greek folk beliefs and narratives.