Nishimura-Jensen, Julie. “The Poetics of Aethalides: Silence and Poikilia in Apollonius’ Argonautica,” Classical Quarterly 48.2 (1998) 456-69.
The story, language, and immediate context of the digressive account of Aethalides' Underworld experiences (1, 640-649) help to explain the digression, its abrupt ending, and the absence of a speech for the messenger. Through this episode, Apollonius offers a picture of a contemporary rendering of archaic ideas, reveals the discontinuity between past and present, and suggests that the new, abbreviated style of message-relaying reflects Hellenistic aesthetics. By limiting the appearances of heralds in the epic and then by undercutting their effectiveness, Apollonius himself, and not the messengers, controls the passage of messages.