Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Argonautica
Ancient Greek with an independent metrical English translation
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Facing Pages · Branch 72 of 245
Book II · Lines 337–360
Ancient Greek
p. 150The Argonautica: Book II
p. 151But if the dove flies straight between and perishes there,
turn back and set your course; for it is far better
to yield to deathless gods. You cannot flee foul doom
Those rocks would doom Argo, though her hull were forged iron.
Poor men, do not dare go counter to my oracle,
even if you think the Children of Uranus hate me
threefold because they count me foe, or hate me more than that;
do not dare sail your ship against the bird's clear sign.
Let matters now unfold as fate decrees. Should you flee
the rocks' collision unscathed, entering broad Pontus,
at once keep Bithynian land along the starboard side,
and sail with watchful care through breakers, pressing onward
round Rhebas' rapid stream and Cape Melaina, the Black,
curve round and reach the harbor of the island Thynias.
From there go doubling back, not far across the sea,
There beach your ship on Mariandynians' facing land.
There lies a downward road that enters Hades' realm,
and high above, the jutting Acherusian Cape extends;
below, the eddying Acheron cleaves through that cape
and from a mighty gorge sends streaming waters out.
Close by this cape you next shall sail past many hills
Paphlagonian hills, where Enetian Pelops entered kingship
first; those people boast their birth from Pelops' bloodline.
There stands a cape across from Helice, called the Bear,
Socrates
Reading The Argonautica · Book II · Lines 337–360
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