Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Argonautica
Ancient Greek with an independent metrical English translation
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English Page · Branch 46 of 245
Book I · Lines 1082–1105
Ancient Greek
p. 96The Argonautica: Book I
p. 97lay sleeping through the last allotted watch; but Acastus
and Mopsus son of Ampycus guarded their deep slumber.
High over the golden head of Aeson's son
a halcyon fluttered, foretelling in a clear and piercing voice
the end of storm-tossed winds; Mopsus grasped its meaning,
hearing the shore-bird's clear and favorable prophetic cry.
A goddess turned the bird again away from its course; it
flew upward and perched atop the ship's stern-ornament.
Mopsus touched Jason reclining on soft sheepskins,
stirred him awake nearby, and spoke these urgent words:
Aeson's son, a sacred climb now lies before you:
rugged Dindymum; appease the gracious, well-throned Mother
of all the blessed gods; the tempests then will cease
in violence; for such a cry I heard just now
from the sea's halcyon; above your sleeping head the bird
flew circling widely, revealing each matter in order.
From her the winds, the sea, and all deep earth depend,
bound firm, together with the snowy seat of Olympus;
and when the mighty goddess climbs from high peaks into heaven,
Zeus himself, the son of Cronus, gives way before her;
so all the other deathless blessed ones attend the dread goddess.
He spoke; Jason heard him and welcomed his prophetic word.
Jason sprang joyfully from bed and roused his comrades
all, urging haste; and when the sleeping crew awakened,
Socrates
Reading The Argonautica · Book I · Lines 1082–1105
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
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