# Hypsipylê — The Argonautica character guide

> Hypsipylê in The Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0000-book-i

## Snapshot

Queen of Lemnos, where the women have killed their men, she welcomes the Argonauts and finds in Jason a brief, complicated respite from a kingdom built on blood.

## Who they are

Hypsipyle rules an island of women who slaughtered their husbands, and her authority rests on a crime she did not prevent and cannot undo. When the Argonauts land, she offers hospitality that slides quickly into something more intimate, and Jason becomes for her both a political guest and a private hope. Her episode is the poem's first real encounter with desire and its costs — a queen who knows how easily welcome can curdle into abandonment, and who lets the heroes leave anyway.

## In the story

### [Book I: The Gathering of Heroes and the Voyage Begins](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_argonautica_se/chapters/book-i)

Queen of Lemnos; becomes Jason's lover and bids him a tearful farewell, asking him to remember her.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_argonautica_se/characters/hypsipyle
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_argonautica_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_argonautica_se/characters