Customer Reviews

Jason and the Golden Fleece: (The Argonautica) (Oxford World's Classics)

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I teach a classics in translation course at the University of Washington and I have had a few students who buy this edition of "Jason and the Golden Fleece" through Amazon.com. While I have no problem with the translation, I do have a problem with the fact that this edition does not state clearly that it is an abridged version of the epic. It is essentially books 2 and 3 of the four book epic. If you are buying this to read Apollonius' epic then get a different version like the Oxford World Classics version which is complete. You can find this much better edition under: Jason and the Golden Fleece: (The Argonautica) (Oxford World's Classics). Please be aware that this Penguin version is ONLY books 2 and 3 of Apollonius' epic.

As a classical studies major, I have a great appreciation for classical epics. Familiar with Greek and Latin, and having read several translations of Vergil and Homer, I was rather disappointed with this edition.

Apollonius's Argonautica is the most complete version of the myth, and deserves a more poignant translation than this Oxford World's Classic. Changing the epic from poetry to prose definately does not do this tale justice. Apollonius, an Alexandrian scholar, is already complex enough, but to have a translation that fails to capture the full aspect of the myth makes it even more confusing.

It's one redeeming quality, however, is a very useful map of Jason's voyage, as well as fairly complete set of notes. The notes refer mainly to allusions to myths, however, and it would have been nice if they had more on the Homeric references found throughout the epic.

Overall, for a translation, it's not the best, and it is fairly confusing to read. Still, until someone comes out with a better translation (hopefully retaining the poetic format), this will just have to do.

I don't approve of poems being translated into prose form as a matter of principle. In the case of this poem, which has so many features derived from Homer (e. g. Apollonius' hero list as compared to Homer's ship list or the description of Jason's shield after that of Achilles'), it would be even more interesting to have a line-by-line rendering. Were it not for this and Mr. Hunter's translation would be just nice as his clear and useful introduction is. Therefore I have to go for another translation which suits my requirements, I guess Peter Green's. By the way, this same problem unfortunately seems to occur in the Loeb Classical Collection translations of poetry.