Customer Reviews

The Argonautika: The Story of Jason and the Quest for the Golden Fleece (Hellenistic Culture and Society)

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The Argonautika should be as widely read as the Iliad and the Odyssey (or for that matter the Aeneid). Before reading this particular version one should first study the structure of the work, completly discarding Green's Introduction to it, unless, of course, you happen to be a working classical scholar! The translation of Apollonios Argonautika is an excellent read, made much more understandable by the excellent Glossary, which provides background information on all the characters and gods mentioned in the epic, and on geographical locations as well. This glossary is either an excellent first source of information or as a refresher to what the reader might already know. Excellent maps detailing the route the Argonauts took are found in the back of the book. Although an excellent read, it's not one that should be done at a rapid pace! The bibliography makes no mention of Robert Graves narative work on Jason and the Golden Fleece, Hercules My Shipmate.

i was shocked on aquiring the softback to discover that it was lacking the commentary, thus making the book semi-useless to me. and when i write 'shocked' i am being polite. the saving grace is that at least i got a good cheap copy of the poem in verse form.

I liked it. The translation was well done and quite readable. I was surprised, however when I ran out of translation and hit the extensive commentary at the back. As I am not a scholar of Greek or Roman writings or mythology the depth of the commentary was generally too much for me. I would have preferred the split page method, where the text and commentary relevant to it appear on the same page. The glossary at the back was helpful to identify which god, goddess or hero was referred to. Some of them are obscure and some unfamiliar names and spellings are used in place of more familiar ones (Kirke = Circe for example).

I no longer doubt Green's skills as a classics editor. All of his seem a pleasure to read. The introduction to this translation is specially well-written, and that's to say nothing of the poem itself--a memorable experience. However, this translation does have one major snag. The book uses end notes instead of a footnotes (these are very extensive, I might add).

Green writes like a pompous ass. He throws in whatever tropes will push the academic buttons but he totally misses Apollonius. A truly excellent translation has yet to be written.