Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Argonautica
Ancient Greek with an independent metrical English translation
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English Page · Branch 203 of 245
Book IV · Lines 771–794
Ancient Greek
p. 416The Argonautica: Book IV
p. 417and cleft through the air, stretching wide her light pinions; then
plunged in Aegean depths, where Nereus kept his halls.
First she came to Thetis and made the message known
through Hera's charge, and urged her straight to Hera's side.
Second she came to Hephaestus, then made him stop--
swiftly--from iron hammers; breathing stopped dead in
the soot-black bellows. Third along her road she reached
Aeolus, famed son of Hippotas; for him too
she gave the message, resting her swift knees from travel,
Meanwhile Thetis, leaving Nereus and all her sisters,
came out of the sea to Olympus, seeking Hera.
Hera seated her close at her side and unfolded her purpose:
Listen now, divine Thetis, to all I desire to tell you.
You know how highly the hero is honored within my own heart,
the son of Aeson, and all his companions who help in the trial,
and how I rescued every hero crossing Wandering
Rocks, where terrible storms have thundered from the days of old,
and the waves boil all around the unyielding reefs.
Now their road meets Scylla's rock and Charybdis,
fiercely belching terror. Yet from earliest childhood
I raised you myself from infancy, always cherished you dearly
above all other goddesses dwelling in the sea,
because you refused to submit to the bed of Zeus when he longed
to take you; such deeds always occupy his mind,
Socrates
Reading The Argonautica · Book IV · Lines 771–794
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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