Argo

, the name of the famous ship which carried Jason and his 54 companions to Colchis, when they resolved to recover the golden fleece. The derivation of the word Argo has often been disputed. Some derive it from Argos, the person who first proposed the expedition, and who built the ship. Others maintain that it was built at Argos, whence its name. Cicero, Tusculanæ Dis put at i ones , bk. 1 , ch. 20 , calls it Argo, because it carried Grecians, commonly called Argives. Diodorus, bk. 4 , derives the word from ἀργος , which signifies swift . Ptolemy says, but falsely, that Hercules built the ship, and called it Argo after a son of Jason, who bore the same name. The ship Argo had 50 oars. According to many authors, she had a beam on her prow, cut in the forest of Dodona by Minerva, which had the power of giving oracles to the Argonauts. This ship was the first that ever sailed on the sea, as some report. After the expedition was finished, Jason ordered her to be drawn aground at the isthmus of Corinth, and consecrated to the god of the sea. The poets have made her a constellation in heaven. Jason was killed by a beam which fell from the top, as he slept on the ground near it. Hyginus , fable 14; Poetic a astronomic a , bk. 2 , ch. 37 .— Catullus , Marriage of Peleus and Thetis .— Valerius Flaccus , bk. 1 , li. 93 , . — Phædras , bk. 4 , fable 6.— Seneca , Medea .— A poll on i us , Argonautic a .— Apollo dor us. — Cicero , de Natura Deorum .— Pliny , bk. 7 , ch. 56 .— Marcus Manilius , bk. 1 .