Assesses how Quintus’ interval poetics is revealed in the compositional components of the poem. Analyses the formal aspects of the Posthomerica: vocabulary, formulae, similes and gnomai. Argues that rather than constituting imitatio cum uariatione, these features offer the reader a series of lenses through which to view the poet’s conception of the Homeric text and his understanding of his role in creating more of it.