Article Summary Your Name: Ben Rogaczewski

Choose one article from your annotated bibliography, and the type up an article summary, using good English. Your responses should fill two to three pages. Please feel free to expand sections D. to F.

A. Article: (Give bibliographical entry in APA style.)

Plantinga, M. (2007). Hospitality and rhetoric: The Circe episode in Apollonius Rhodius' "Argonautica". The Classical Quarterly, New Series, 57(2), 543-564. This article seeks to dissect the Circe episode within the Argonautica, which begins the so called Odyssey episodes.

B. Central thesis of article: (in a sentence)

Using an identity motif, Plantinga reassess the Circe episode at the end of the Argonautica through a new perspective, by focusing on the speeches given between Medea and Circe, and Circe’s dismissal of Jason and Medea.

C. Background: What earlier scholarly argument(s) is the author addressing?

Plantinga states that other articles or works have addressed the Circe episode focusing on either a comparison of Circe and her animals, to the Circe within the Odyssey, or focusing on the purification rituals Circe uses. The portion of the episode Plantinga is looking at has only been briefly discussed in other works and concerned with only some of the speeches within the episode.

D. Some premises to the author’s argument with some data under each:

Plantinga has broken up her article into three main sections for the hospitality scene: the sitting motif, the identity motif, and the sharing of the meal. Each of these sections bears striking similarities to the Odyssey, but contains slight differences.

The Sitting Motif

--The sitting motif is slightly different from its Odyssey kin in that Apollonius has Circe offering Jason and Medea a seat, whereas in the Odyssey, Odysseus assumes a seat near the hearth without being offered.

--Plantinga states that this is important because it shows that the Argonauts and Odysseus have arrived at their hosts’ homes as suppliants but the Argonauts need to be purified, whereas Odysseus has arrived for a ship home to Ithaca. Therefore, the process of the seating motif should be different, as Apollonius has done.

The Identity Motif

--In this portion of the article, Plantinga focuses on recognition motifs via sense of sight and hearing. She focuses on the words used to describe how Circe recognizes her niece, Medea.

Article Summary Your Name: Ben Rogaczewski

--For example, Circe immediately begins to ask Medea questions about her journey, skipping the sharing of a meal, an event often necessary within the hospitality motif. Scholars have stated that this is merely Circe’s recognition of kin and so she foregoes pleasantries by pressing to the matter at hand. However, Plantinga believes that Circe would not forego the custom of the meal, especially concerning one of her relatives. She would not wish to be seen as a poor host. Therefore, her skipping of the meal must have a different purpose, which leads to the final section, the sharing of the meal.

The Sharing of the Meal

--The refusal of the meal is extremely significant for Plantinga since it shows that Circe is not wiling to extend her aid to Jason and Medea just yet. She refuses the chance for reciprocity between herself as host, and Jason and Medea as her guests.

E. What is the article’s value?

It is difficult to say. Plantinga does not state how her article is important to the research of the Argonautica, but does state that she is viewing the Circe episode through different motifs and doing research dissimilar to that of other scholars. However, her research does aid in the understanding of the Argonautica in comparison with the Odyssey.

F: Structural Questions: Answer the following questions

1. Approximately how many pages is the article?

There are approx. 22 pages.

2. How many sources does your article author cite? How does the author use his or her sources? (To further points, to support points, show development of his thesis beyond that of others, to show differences, etc.?)

The author cites about 18 sources, including primary and secondary sources. In most cases the sources are used to supplement her views and research. In other cases, the citations are meant as a comparison to other works, or meant to point the reader to other scholar’s research pertaining to something completely different from Plantinga’s research.

Article Summary Your Name: Ben Rogaczewski

3. At what point in the article does the author make his/her thesis clear?

Plantinga makes her thesis clear before starting her main section on the hospitality motif. Her thesis states that by looking at the Circe episode through the perspective of the epic hospitality motif, one can dissect the episode, and examine the episode from a micro and macro level, viewing the changes from the Homeric hospitality motif to the Apollonian hospitality motif. According to Plantinga, these small alterations between the two epics are rarely discussed in recent scholarship and so examining these motifs at a closer view will help to explain further the episode.

4. Does the author set his or her argument within the line of scholarly debate about the point (s)he is making?

The author brings up other scholar’s work concerning the Circe episode and other Odyssey episodes, but only when talking about how her research is different from their research. She essentially stresses where other scholars lack analysis on the subject.

5. What makes this an article based upon research? Is it?

The fact that Plantinga combines secondary research with her own research based on the reading of the Argonautica, makes this article based on research. Like many well-written and well-researched scholarly works, this article is not based on opinion and is backed up by theory, through the use of motifs, and fact, through the use of the primary source.