Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition
The Argonautica
Ancient Greek with an independent metrical English translation
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English Page · Branch 95 of 245
Book II · Lines 889–912
Ancient Greek
p. 196The Argonautica: Book II
p. 197Therefore I foresee the same evil doom awaiting us
if no road now remains by which to reach the city
of murderous Aeetes, or return again to Hellas
outside the rocks, but right here a wretched fate will cover
us in inglorious, evil doom, growing old in vain.”
Jason spoke; then Ancaeus with the greatest eagerness
took swift Argo's helm, moved by the goddess.
Three heroes followed: Erginus, Nauplius, Euphemus,
each longing to direct the ship; but all three men
the others checked, and many comrades approved Ancaeus.
At dawn thereafter, on day twelve, the heroes boarded,
for a great following wind blew strong from the west.
Quickly with oars they crossed through and out of Acheron,
then spread their canvas, trusting the wind, and far ahead
with sails outspread they cut their course in fair weather.
Swiftly they came beside the mouth of Callichorus River,
where people say the Nysaean son of Zeus once came,
when Dionysus left the Indian tribes and settled Thebes,
and held his mysteries and set dances before the cave,
within which he lodged through sacred, unsmiling nights.
From then onward local dwellers called this river
Callichorus, Fair-Dancing; Aulion, the cave named Resting-Place.
From there they sighted the tomb of Actor's son Sthenelus,
who journeyed homeward from Amazons' fierce, hard-fought battle,
Socrates
Reading The Argonautica · Book II · Lines 889–912
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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