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 199 of 245
Book IV · Lines 675–698
Ancient Greek
p. 408The Argonautica: Book IV
p. 409stream thickly out of their folds as they follow the shepherd.
Creatures like these, in the earliest time, sprouted up from the slime,
brought forth by Earth herself and fitted with commingled limbs,
while Earth had not yet been compacted beneath the parching air,
nor from the parching sun's blows had Earth yet gathered
sufficient moisture; but Time marshaled those creatures into species,
sorting them out; with forms unclear, they followed Circe.
Boundless wonder seized them; straightway every hero
fixed his gaze on Circe's form and gleaming eyes,
readily knew her as King Aeetes' own sister.
Then, when at last she had sent off the fears from her night dreams,
straightway she turned and went homeward, commanding the heroes
to follow, with crafty, enticing gestures of her own hand.
There the assembled crew, at the command of Aeson's son,
stayed unconcerned; Jason led the Colchian maiden.
Together the two followed Circe's own path until they arrived
at Circe's palace; there she seated them on gleaming chairs,
perplexed to see two strangers arriving at her hearth.
Silent and voiceless, both rushed straight toward the hearth
and sat, as custom ordains for suppliants burdened by sorrow.
The maiden bowed her forehead deep into both hands,
while Jason planted his great hilted sword deep into the ground,
the blade with which he killed King Aeetes' own son;
Neither ever raised a straight gaze toward Circe.
Socrates
Reading The Argonautica · Book IV · Lines 675–698
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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