Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Argonautica
Ancient Greek with an independent metrical English translation
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Facing Pages · Branch 105 of 245
Book II · Lines 1129–1152
Ancient Greek
p. 216The Argonautica: Book II
p. 217to grant some cloak to wrap our bodies, bring us aid,
men of your own age, taking pity on our wretched affliction.
Honor us, foreign suppliants, for holy Zeus' sake,
the god of guests and suppliants; both strangers and suppliants
belong to Zeus, and surely he keeps watch over us.
Aeson's son then shrewdly questioned Argus in reply,
sure that Phineus' prophetic words had reached fulfillment:
All this and willing aid we'll furnish here at once.
But come, tell me the truth: in what part of the earth
do you live, and what need commands you to cross the sea?
Tell me your own renowned names and tell me your lineage.
Argus replied to him, still helpless in their dire affliction:
Phrixus the Aeolid sailed from Hellas, reaching Aea,
as surely you yourselves have heard reported long before,
Phrixus, who made the upward journey to Aeetes' city
astride a ram made golden through Hermes' craft,
whose fleece you might behold even to this very day.
Then, at the ram's own prompting, Phrixus sacrificed it
to Cronus' son, Zeus Phyxios above all gods;
Aeetes received Phrixus in his palace and gave his daughter,
Chalciope, for no bride-gift, gladly, with free heart.
From those two we descend; but by then old Phrixus
had died inside the palace halls of King Aeetes.
Taking heed of every charge our father gave us,
Socrates
Reading The Argonautica · Book II · Lines 1129–1152
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Apollonius’s Argonautica follows Jason and the Argonauts from their gathering at Pagasae through the voyage to Colchis and the difficult return home. This exact line-for-line edition pairs the Ancient Greek poem with an independent metrical English translation prepared by Diotimos Editions, preserving one English verse for every Greek reading line across all four books.
Historical Text and Translation
The Greek reading text follows the Perseus transcription derived from George W. Mooney’s 1912 edition, pinned to a stable canonical-greekLit commit. Mooney and LSJ provide the principal controls for Books I–III; Peter Hulse’s Dickinson commentary directly supports Book IV. Deleted records and canonical numbering gaps remain documented rather than being silently repaired. The supplied release identifies itself as a complete source-audited working edition and recommends independent classicist review before print publication.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this independent translation directly from the Greek. Its six-beat English house form preserves the poem’s source order, imagery, learned names, narrative delays, shifts of register, and line-by-line correspondence while allowing syntax to move across adjacent verses where the Greek requires it.
Rights
Apollonius’s ancient Greek source work is in the public domain. The 2026 English translation and Diotimos editorial matter are original to this edition and remain © 2026 Diotimos. The pinned Perseus Greek transcription is reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- public-domain-base-witnessPinned Perseus Greek transcription — canonical-greekLit
- print-control-and-commentaryGeorge W. Mooney’s 1912 Argonautica — Internet Archive
- book-four-commentaryApollonius Argonautica, Book IV — Dickinson College Commentaries
- lexical-controlLiddell–Scott–Jones Greek-English Lexicon — Scaife ATLAS
- greek-transcription-licenseCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0