accessing *args from within a function in Python

args is simply a tuple:

def nodeMethod(self, *args):
    return args[0], args[1]

Is that what you mean?

Note that there's nothing special about "args". You could use any variable name. It's the * operator that counts.

>>> class Node(object):
...     def nodeMethod(self, *cornucopia):
...         return cornucopia[0], cornucopia[1]
... 
>>> n = Node()
>>> n.nodeMethod(1, 2, 3)
(1, 2)

Still, "args" is the most idiomatic variable name; I wouldn't use anything else without a good reason that would be obvious to others.

def nodeFunction(self, arg1, arg2, *args)

*arg in argument list means: pass the remaning arguments as a list in variable arg. So check how to handle lists. Note: list index starts from 0.