was one for an epic poem, for its unity might have been found in
the working out of the expiation due for the crime of Athamas;
but this motive is barely mentioned by our author.

As we have it, the motive of the voyage is the command of Pelias
to bring back the golden fleece, and this command is based on
Pelias' desire to destroy Jason, while the divine aid given to
Jason results from the intention of Hera to punish Pelias for his
neglect of the honour due to her. The learning of Apollonius is
not deep but it is curious; his general sentiments are not
according to the Alexandrian standard, for they are simple and
obvious. In the mass of material from which he had to choose the
difficulty was to know what to omit, and much skill is shown in
fusing into a tolerably harmonious whole conflicting mythological
and historical details. He interweaves with his narrative local
legends and the founding of cities, accounts of strange customs,
descriptions of works of art, such as that of Ganymede and Eros
playing with knucklebones, (3) but prosaically calls himself back
to the point from these pleasing digressions by such an
expression as "but this would take me too far from my song." His
business is the straightforward tale and nothing else. The
astonishing geography of the fourth book reminds us of the
interest of the age in that subject, stimulated no doubt by the
researches of Eratosthenes and others.

The language is that of the conventional epic. Apollonius seems
to have carefully studied Homeric glosses, and gives many
examples of isolated uses, but his choice of words is by no means
limited to Homer. He freely avails himself of Alexandrian words
and late uses of Homeric words. Among his contemporaries