context, and the
well-known savage epigram upon Callimachus.[1] Various combinations have
been attempted by scholars, notably by Couat, in his _Poesie
Alexandrine_, to give a connected account of the quarrel, but we have
not _data_ sufficient to determine the order of the attacks, and
replies, and counter-attacks. The _Ibis_ has been thought to mark the
termination of the feud on the curious ground that it was impossible for
abuse to go further. It was an age when literary men were more inclined
to comment on writings of the past than to produce original work.
Literature was engaged in taking stock of itself. Homer was, of course,
professedly admired by all, but more admired than imitated. Epic poetry
was out of fashion and we find many epigrams of this period--some by
Callimachus--directed against the "cyclic" poets, by whom were meant at
that time those who were always dragging in conventional and commonplace
epithets and phrases peculiar to epic poetry. Callimachus was in
accordance with the spirit of the age when he proclaimed "a great book"
to be "a great evil," and sought to confine poetical activity within the
narrowest limits both of subject and space. Theocritus agreed with him,
both in principle and practice. The chief characteristics of
Alexandrianism are well summarized by Professor Robinson Ellis as
follows: "Precision in form and metre, refinement in diction, a learning
often degenerating into pedantry and obscurity, a resolute avoidance of
everything commonplace in subject, sentiment or allusion." These traits
are more prominent in Callimachus than in Apollonius, but they are
certainly to be seen in the latter. He seems to have written the
_Argonautica_ out of bravado, to show that he _could_ write an epic
poem. But the influence of the age was too strong. Instead of the unity
of an Epic we have merely a series of episodes, and it is the great
beauty and power of one of these episodes that gives the poem its
permanent value--the episode of the love of Jason and Medea. This
occupies the greater part of the third book. The first and second books
are taken up with the history of the voyage to Colchis, while the fourth
book describes the return voyage. These portions constitute a metrical
guide book, filled no doubt with many pleasing episodes, such as the
rape of Hylas, the boxing match between Pollux and Amycus, the account
of Cyzicus, the account of the Amazons, the legend of Talos, but there
is no unity ru