The first is a very practical one. They need water. Rowing is thirsty work and they are three days out of Anaphe and going at blistering pace (4.1765 below). Typically for an Alexandrian poet A. makes the refuelling stop an excuse for an aition. The Argonauts compete to see who can first draw water for ship. This contest becomes the Hydrophoria and this is the second reason and maybe the most important: Callimachus” eighth Iambos celebrated the victory of Polycles at this festival in the what was called the Diaulos Amphorites and probably described the competition in some detail. The Iambos and this passage are definitely related, but the priority of composition is not clear. However, what is clear, is that the end of the Argonautica is full of illusions to Callimachus” poetry (see notes passim). The relative proximity of Aegina to the Argo”s return route gives the opportunity for a final tip of the hat to a poet whom he thought worthy of imitating on some considerable scale. There are other reasons why a stop on Aegina is significant for the Argonauts. Peleus and Telamon (Arg. 1.90—4) come from Aegina and have both played prominent Argonautic roles, and, despite the part that the murder of their half-brother plays in their personal history, they are the fathers of the heroes of the Trojan war (Achilles and Ajax). Aegina is also linked, this time in literary history, with one of A.”s most important predecessors, Pindar, whose Pythian 4 (see above) is such an important text for the last sections of the Argonautica and who also wrote three Odes with particular connections to Aegina: Nem. 5, Nem. 3, Pythian 8. The two Nemean Odes mention Peleus and Telamon (the sons of Aeacus) in particular, with Nemean 5 alluding to the contest of the Hydropohobia, which is “dear to Apollo” (p. 174–Delphinios), the protector of seamen, ships, and harbours (Homeric Hymn Apollo 19–24).