"THE ARGONAUTICA" OF 35026 APOLLONIUS RHODIUS. TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE FROM THE BY EDWARD P. COLERIDGE, B.A. E COLL. ORIEL, OXON. LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1889. IN PREFACE. N the following translation I have adhered strictly to the text of Apollonius Rhodius as revised by R. Merkel from the Laurentian MS. (Leipzig, 1852, Teubner's small edition), without noticing any variant readings. As it would obviously be impossible to give reasons for adopting a particular reading out of several without adding greatly to the bulk of the book and running the risk of mystifying the reader, I have thought it advisable to adopt the plan of taking the best critical text which has hitherto appeared, and translating without any deviation. from it. The footnotes added to the translation are of a somewhat mixed nature-classical, mythological, geographical, and occasionally etymological-but all attempts at textual criticism have been avoided, as one could scarcely hope to exhaust the elaborate work on vexed questions in a short footnote, for which reason also the notes on etymology will be found few and brief. The short introductions to the poem and to each separate book are adaptations, more or less free, from the VOOσaç prefixed by the Scholiasts. Wellauer's collation of the Scholia has been consulted throughout. |