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 70 of 245
Book II · Lines 289–312
Ancient Greek
p. 146The Argonautica: Book II
p. 147the Harpies with sharp swords, those hounds of mighty Zeus;
but I myself pledge they shall never come close to him again.”
So Iris spoke and swore by Styx's streaming water,
most dread and most revered to every one of the gods,
that never again would these draw near the house of
Phineus, Agenor's son, since fate had so ordained.
They yielded to her oath and turned again toward the ship
to speed back. Men call those islands the Strophades
for that very cause; before, they called them the Plotae.
The Harpies and Iris parted ways. The Harpies plunged
into their den in Minoan Crete; but Iris sprang
toward Olympus, soaring high aloft on swift wings.
Meanwhile the heroes cleansed the old man's filthy skin
all round, then carefully sacrificed the chosen victims,
sheep carried away in the sack of Amycus' holdings.
They spread a mighty banquet wide across the hall,
they sat and feasted; Phineus feasted there among them,
ravenously, while dreamlike joy warmed all his heart.
There, once supper and drink had sated them fully,
all night they watched, awaiting Boreas' two sons.
The old man sat among them, close beside the hearth,
declaring voyage's bounds and how their road would end:
“Now listen. It is not lawful you should learn all things
exactly; what the gods will, though, I shall not conceal.
Socrates
Reading The Argonautica · Book II · Lines 289–312
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