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.