Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Argonautica
Ancient Greek with an independent metrical English translation
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Facing Pages · Branch 174 of 245
Book IV · Lines 73–96
Ancient Greek
p. 358The Argonautica: Book IV
p. 359and Jason himself made it out; their comrades in silence
stood astonished when they learned that the voice was truly hers.
Three times she called aloud; three times at the company's urging
Phrontis cried back in answer; meanwhile the heroes
drove the swift ship toward her, striking water with oars.
They had not yet thrown the ship's cables upon the farther
bank when Jason planted his racing feet on the dry land,
leaping from high on the deck; then Phrontis and Argus behind him,
the two sons of Phrixus, sprang down to the ground; but the maiden
clasped both of their knees with both hands and addressed them:
Friends, save me in my misery, and save yourselves
from Aeetes; everything now lies openly revealed,
and no remedy comes. But come, let us flee in the ship
before Aeetes mounts his team of swift, high-racing horses.
I shall give you the Golden Fleece, once I lull to sleep
its guardian serpent. But you, among all your companions,
stranger, make all the gods witnesses of the promises
you made me; and do not, when I have fled so far from here,
leave me reviled, dishonored, utterly bereft of kin.
She spoke in anguish; Jason's heart rejoiced greatly.
At once, seeing Medea clasping both his knees,
he gently lifted and embraced her, speaking words of courage:
Lady, let Zeus Olympian guard the oath himself,
and Hera of Marriage, the wife who shares the bed of Zeus:
Socrates
Reading The Argonautica · Book IV · Lines 73–96
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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