Excellent Quotes: The Argonautica

In 1911 publisher James Loeb founded the Loeb Classical Library, setting out "to make the beauty and learning, the philosophy and wit of the great writers of ancient Greece and Rome once more accessible by means of translations that are in themselves real pieces of literature, a thing to be read for the pure joy of it, and not dull transcripts of ideas that suggest in every line the existence of a finer original form from which the average reader is shut out, and to place side by side with these translations the best critical texts of the original works...." According to Wikipedia, the library's volumes provide important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each left-hand leaf, and a fairly literal translation on the facing page.

Today, Harvard University Press hosts the series and on a trip to the People's Republic of Cambridge I dropped by their store and purchased the first volume, Argonautica, by Apollonius Rhodius. It is in the classic green cover (green for Greek, red for Roman/Latin) and, as is not surprising, tells the tale of the Argonauts as interpreted by Apollonius, who so impressed the people of Rhodes that they conferred upon him the freedom of their city--take that, Alexandria.

"Hereupon Jason snatched the golden fleece from the oak, at the maiden's bidding; and she, standing firm, smeared with the charm of the monster's head, till Jason himself bade her turn back towards their ship, and she left the grove of Ares, dusky with shade. And as a maiden catches on her finely wrought robe the gleam of the moon at the full, as it rises above her high-roofed chamber; and her heart rejoices as she beholds the fair ray; so at that time did Jason uplift the mighty fleece in his hands; and from the shimmering of the flocks of wool there settled on his fair cheeks and brow a red flush like a flame." -- Apollonius Rhodes, Argonautica, R.C. Seaton, trans. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press, 2003. P. 305.

PS - Unlike my friend Paula, I am woefully ancient language-illiterate so this series is neigh unto useless to me. Moreover, better translations usually exist so I only own the one volume. Oh, and "The Commander Thinks Aloud" by The Long Winters is solid; now playing on iTunes.