Greek PantheonDesert
Libyan Desert Shore
The desert coast of North Africa where, in Argonautica Book 4, the Argonauts were stranded in the shallows of the Syrtis and carried the Argo overland for twelve days before Triton showed them the sea.
About Libyan Desert Shore
The Argo on sand
Argonautica 4 strands the crew on a Libyan syrtis. They portage the Argo inland for days, meet the Hesperides after Heracles has already taken the apples, and lose companions to snake and exhaustion. Triton finally shows the sea-road. This is not Odysseus's lotus shore. Apollonius is expanding a North African detour. There is no Libyan Argonaut cult. The desert is a second labor of carrying a ship where water should have been.
On the map
Libyan Desert Shore among other places of the Greek Pantheon.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
Keep exploring
One myth a week, with its sources in a short email. The sign-up form is just below.