‘The finest harbour’: the Argonauts (and the Others) on the Island of Elba

The material and literary evidence is admittedly too scarce to assess the existence of a sanctuary in the Portoferraio Gulf. Even so, it is suggestive in this sense. The stratification of cults and myths in the area (from the Argonauts, to Herakles, to Menelaos) as testified by the written sources parallels the complex history of the island, exposed to different foreign influences and frequented by a variegate crowd of sailors and traders who could perhaps find a safe meeting point in the shared cult place in limēn Argōos.