Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Argonautica
Ancient Greek with an independent metrical English translation
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Facing Pages · Branch 210 of 245
Book IV · Lines 939–962
Ancient Greek
p. 430The Argonautica: Book IV
p. 431The ship drew near, about to graze the Wandering Rocks,
at once the Nereids lifted their hems over snow-white knees
and high on the tops of the reefs, where the sea-wave breaks
they rushed here and there, each standing apart from the others.
The current buffeted Argo from side to side; around her
a violent wave heaved high, then foamed upon the rocks,
which sometimes, like towering cliffs, reached upward to the air,
and sometimes, deep-submerged beneath the lowest floor of the sea,
stood rooted; savage swell poured high above them.
The Nereids, like young maidens near a sandy beach,
who roll the fold of their gowns away, up over their waists,
and play with a well-rounded ball; for one young woman
catches another's throw, then sends it high in air,
high overhead, and never does the ball come close to the ground,
so each Nereid in turn hurled Argo onward
high over waves, forever keeping her far off
the rocks; round them roaring water seethed and boiled.
The lord Hephaestus himself, high on the smooth rock's summit,
stood upright, leaning the weight of his shoulder on his hammer
handle and watched; from high, gleaming heaven's summit,
the wife of Zeus stood watching, and around Athena she threw
both of her arms, so great was the fear that seized her at the sight.
As springtime daylight stretches through its fullest daily course,
so long the Nereids labored, lifting Argo high
Socrates
Reading The Argonautica · Book IV · Lines 939–962
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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