Cri animal et voix humaine dans les Argonautiques d’Apollonios de Rhodes

Abstract

In Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica, animal sounds appear in the main narrative and are also used as point of comparison to the human voice within the numerous Homeric similes found in the poem.Outside similes, Apollonius abundantly uses animal-specific and specie-specific vocabulary. Vocabulary characteristic of the human voice is occasionally used, mostly for animal which are by nature exceptional, such as the talking crow and the Halcyon bird.Within similes, animal-specific vocabulary still occurs but Apollonius abundantly uses either vocabulary which can apply to both humans and animals or voice-specific vocabulary to describe the sounds produced by the animal.

Keywords

• Apollonius Rhodius
• Hellenistic poetry
• Homeric simile
• epic language
• voice
• animal