ARGONAUTS, in the legendary history of Greece, those heroes who performed a hazardous voyage to Colchis, a far-distant country at the eastern extremity of the Euxine (Black Sea), with Jason in the ship _Argo_, for the purpose of securing a golden fleece, which was preserved suspended upon a tree, and under the guardianship of a sleepless dragon. By the aid of Medea, daughter of the King of Colchis, Jason was enabled to seize the fleece, and, after many strange adventures, to reach his home at Iolcos in Thessaly. Among the Argonauts were Hercules, Castor and Pollux, Orpheus and Theseus.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. R. Hope Moncrieff, _Classic Myth and Legend_; Kingsley, _The Heroes_; N. Hawthorne, _The Wonder-book_.
ARGO-NAVIS, the southern constellation of the Ship, is almost entirely invisible in Britain. It contains Canopus, next to Sirius the brightest fixed star. In the great nebula in Argo is situated the remarkable star Eta Argûs. It is variable, generally faint, but in 1837 it became temporarily one of the brightest stars in the sky.
ARGONNE, a district of France, between the Rivers Meuse, Marne, and Aisne, celebrated for the campaign of Dumouriez against the Prussians in 1792, and for the military movements and actions which took place therein previous to the battle of Sedan, in 1870.
ARGONNE, BATTLE OF. When, in the autumn of 1914, the Allies retreated towards the Marne, the German Crown Prince's army endeavoured to invest Verdun. His right wing advanced through the thick and extensive forest of Argonne, but took precipitate flight after the battle of the Marne before the army of General Sarrail. In the summer of 1915 the Crown Prince endeavoured to hack his way through the French Argonne lines, using much heavy artillery, poison-gas, liquid-fire, and tear-shells. A final effort to break through was made in September, between Le Four de Paris and Vienne-le-Château, but, after gaining a footing in the first line of French trenches, the Germans were hurled back by a dashing counter-attack. The great salient from the Argonne to St. Mihiel was the salvation of Verdun.
AR´GOS, a town of Greece, in the north-east of the Peloponnesus, between the Gulfs of Ægina and Nauplia or Argos. This town and the surrounding territory of Argolis were famous from the legendary period of Greek history onwards. Here, besides Argos, was Mycenæ, where Agamemnon ruled. Modern Argos is a straggling place of 10,000 inhabitants, with some ancient remains. The territory Argolis forms a nomarchy of Greece. Pop., Argolis and Corinthia, 153,172. The capital is Nauplia.