Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Tiphys.
The gallery
Henri II as Tiphys
Unknown, 1549
French royal-entry allegory: Henri II cast as Tiphys at the helm — the Argonaut steersman as Renaissance emblem of the king who guides the ship of state.
Building the Argo
Unknown (Roman terracotta), c. 1st century AD
British Museum terracotta relief: Athena oversees the building of the Argo — Tiphys' ship under construction, the vessel he will steer to Colchis.
Tiphys Batavus (frontispiece)
Unknown (for Willebrord Snellius), 1624
Frontispiece to Snellius' Tiphys Batavus — the Argonaut helmsman's name borrowed for a Dutch treatise on navigation, Tiphys as early-modern science's steersman.
In play
Argonautica
Apollonius of Rhodes
Tiphys steers the Argo until his death in the Propontis — the voyage's first helmsman in the canonical epic.
Tiphys
The Argonauts' steersman — Athena's pupil at the helm, dead before Colchis, remembered whenever a voyage needs a guide.