Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Argonautica
Ancient Greek with an independent metrical English translation
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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 189 of 245
Book IV · Lines 433–456
Ancient Greek
p. 388The Argonautica: Book IV
p. 389breast of the maiden daughter of Minos, whom once Theseus
left on the island of Dia after she followed from Cnossus.
When Medea and the heralds fully settled every message,
to charm Apsyrtus when she first came beside the goddess's temple
under the compact, and night's black darkness closed around her,
she bade Apsyrtus come and frame a trick together, whereby
she could seize the mighty Golden Fleece and journey back
once more to Aeetes' halls; for, she said, by force
the sons of Phrixus had given her to the strangers to carry away.
With such persuasive words she scattered beguiling drugs
upon the air and breezes, charms that even from far away
would draw a savage beast down from the sheerest peak.
Murderous Eros, bane and great abhorrence of mortals,
from you come deadly strife, lamentation, and groaning,
and countless further griefs storm down upon all mortals.
Rise, spirit, arm yourself against the children of our enemies,
as once you cast that hateful ruin into Medea's mind.
How did you crush Apsyrtus with an evil death
as he pursued her? This grim tale comes next in song.
When both sides left the maiden on Artemis' island
under the compact, the two sides beached their ships apart,
each force divided from the other; Jason went to ambush,
waiting for Apsyrtus first, then all his comrades.
But Apsyrtus, fooled by promises most deadly of all,
Socrates
Reading The Argonautica · Book IV · Lines 433–456
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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