Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Argonautica
Ancient Greek with an independent metrical English translation
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English Page · Branch 201 of 245
Book IV · Lines 723–746
Ancient Greek
p. 412The Argonautica: Book IV
p. 413and why they settled there as silent hearth-suppliants; truly,
the woeful memory of her dreams sank deep within her mind;
Circe longed to hear the maiden's kindred voice
as soon as she noticed the maiden lift her eyes from the ground.
For all the family of the Sun shows plainly to the eye,
far from their eyelids bright, glittering flashes streamed,
they sent out before them a radiance gleaming like gold.
Medea, closely questioned, told her every detail,
in Colchian speech; Aeetes' daughter, deeply grief-oppressed,
spoke gently of the heroes' expedition and all their journeyings,
and every toil endured through all the swift-moving trials,
how Chalciope's anguished counsel led her deep in error
and how, far away, she escaped her father's overwhelming terrors
with Phrixus' sons; she shunned all mention of the murder
of Apsyrtus; Circe discerned the hidden truth, yet still
she pitied the weeping girl and spoke these words in answer:
Wretched girl, you have planned an evil and shameful homecoming.
I do not expect you to flee the weight of Aeetes' anger
for long; he will soon reach even the territories of Hellas,
to avenge his son; these deeds defy all mortal bounds.
Still, since you have come as my suppliant and one of my own blood,
No further evil shall I plot now you are here.
Go out from my halls and walk beside the stranger,
whoever this unknown man is whom you carried off from your father.
Socrates
Reading The Argonautica · Book IV · Lines 723–746
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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