Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Argonautica
Ancient Greek with an independent metrical English translation
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English Page · Branch 108 of 245
Book II · Lines 1201–1224
Ancient Greek
p. 222The Argonautica: Book II
p. 223from helping you, not even slightly, when need arrives.
But Aeetes stands rooted in savage, murderous cruelty;
and therefore I am terribly afraid to make this voyage.
He boasts descent from Helios; round him countless Colchian
tribes inhabit boundless country all around him;
he could rival Ares in dreadful war-cry and mighty strength.
Even without opposing Aeetes, seizing the fleece is not
an easy task: such is the serpent that guards it all around,
deathless and sleepless, whom Earth herself caused to grow
on Caucasus' rugged slopes, where Typhaonian Rock stands,
where men say Typhaon, struck by the bolt of Cronian Zeus
when Typhaon stretched his powerful hands against the god,
dripped hot blood from his head; wounded in that fashion,
he reached the mountains and the Nysaean Plain, where even now
he lies submerged beneath the waters of Serbonian Lake.
So Argus spoke, and green pallor seized the cheeks of many
at once when they heard of such a trial; Peleus quickly
answered with words of courage, raising his voice to say:
Do not be so greatly frightened in spirit, good friend.
Our courage does not fail so far that we stand weaker
than Aeetes when our weapons test his strength in hard battle.
I believe that we too are well versed in battle,
and journey there, born nearly from the blessed gods' blood.
Therefore, unless he grants the Golden Fleece in friendship,
Socrates
Reading The Argonautica · Book II · Lines 1201–1224
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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