And the two stood face to face, silent and speechless, like oaks or tall pines that stand rooted side by side, quiet in the mountains in a calm; but afterward, stirred by a gust of wind, they murmur on and on. So these two were about to say a great deal, under the breath of Love.

A simile in two halves. First the stillness: the lovers stand like trees rooted side by side in a windless calm. παρᾶσσον, which elsewhere in Apollonius means "at once," here means "side by side" (Mooney; LSJ lists this line alone for the sense of place). Then the wind: the same trees, stirred, murmur on and on, and so the two are about to say a great deal once Eros breathes on them. Valerius Flaccus, retelling the scene in Latin, kept the trees: Jason and Medea stand stunned in the dark wood like silent firs or motionless cypresses before the south wind has stirred them (Argonautica 7.403–406, cited by Mooney).