Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Argonautica
Ancient Greek with an independent metrical English translation
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Facing Pages · Branch 83 of 245
Book II · Lines 601–624
Ancient Greek
p. 172The Argonautica: Book II
p. 173Still, the rocks sheared Argo's stern-crest at its tip;
clashed face to face and hammered ceaselessly; Athena
sprang back to high Olympus once they escaped unharmed.
The rocks were rooted afterward in one fixed place,
close side by side and motionless forever, as the blessed gods
had fated, once a man had seen them and passed through by ship.
The heroes now drew breath from their ice-cold terror,
gazing together upon clear air and the broad sweep
of sea spread open far away; they thought themselves
delivered out of Hades. Tiphys spoke before the rest:
“I trust that Argo brought us safely through that peril;
and no one else bears more responsibility than Athena,
who breathed divine strength into Argo while craftsman Argus
joined her with pegs: by sacred law she cannot be caught.
Aeson's son, regarding your own king's command--
now that a god has granted safe flight through the rocks--
fear it no longer; trials lying still ahead
will prove easy, Phineus, Agenor's son, declared.”
So Tiphys spoke and urged Argo onward, hugging
Bithynian land, through open middle sea. But Jason
answered in turn, speaking gentle, soothing words:
“Tiphys, why offer vain consolation while I grieve?
I missed the mark and blundered into helpless ruin.
When Pelias urged the quest, I should have stood against him
Socrates
Reading The Argonautica · Book II · Lines 601–624
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