BOOK III
The time covers about six years. It begins with events immediately following the fall of Troy, June, B.C. 1184.
[51:7.] Antandros. A city on the southern side of Mount Ida, near Troy.
[51:19.] Lycurgus. An early king of Thrace who stoutly opposed the introduction of the rites of Bacchus into his realm, was blinded and afterward destroyed by Jupiter. The present king was Polymnestor, who had married Priam’s daughter Ilione.
[51:24.] Æneadæ. Literally, descendants of Æneas, translated by Conington in Book I, line 157, as “the family of Æneas.” Really used to mean the “household” of Æneas, or followers of Æneas, nation of Æneas. So Greek artists of the early time called themselves Dædalides, or followers of Dædalus. One is reminded of the tale of Jacob with his “household” meeting Esau with his “household.” Indeed, the Romans themselves were sometimes called Romulides, followers of Romulus.
[51:25.] Dione. Mother of Venus.
[52:13.] Gradivus. Mars, god of war, who decides the issue of all battles, and goes forth to war with giant strides. Gradivus is derived from a Latin word meaning to march, Mars was father of Romulus and Remus by Rhea Sylvia.
[53:11.] Manes. The souls of the dead, also the spirit or shade of a single person.
[53:16.] Farewell call. The cry valē, made three times at the funeral pyre as a final farewell to the dead.
[53:35.] Thymbra. A city near Troy having a famous temple of Apollo.
[64:35.] Gnossus. A common name for Crete, from one of its towns.
[55:4.] Idomeneus. A king of Crete, leader of the Cretan forces against Troy. On his return to Crete, in accordance with a vow, he sacrificed his son to the gods. Because of the pestilence that followed this act, the Cretans banished Idomeneus.
[56:17.] Hesperia. Land of the evening star, or western land, Italy. Also called Ausonia.
[56:25.] Corythus. Legendary ancestor of the Trojans.
[56:26.] Dicte. A mountain in the eastern part of Crete.
[57:32.] Celæno. Queen of the Harpies, which were foul winged monsters described as daughters of Electra and Oceanus.
[57:33.] Phineus. King of Salmydessus in Thrace. He put out the eyes of his son, and so was himself blinded by the gods, and the Harpies were sent to torment him by carrying off or defiling all his food. The house of Phineus was shut to the Harpies when they were driven off by the Argonauts.
[59:5.] Tables. Not so dreadful a portent as it seemed. See [page 153].
[59:18.] Zacynthos. The island Zante.
[59:29.] Actium. Actium is introduced here because of the epoch-making battle of Actium between Augustus and Antony, and the fact that Augustus, after the victory, initiated games there.
[60:5.] Phæacian. The island Corfu.
[61:4.] Daughter. Polyxene, sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles.
[61:11.] Hermione. Granddaughter of Leda, daughter of Menelaus and Helen; had been betrothed in Menelaus’ absence to Orestes. Menelaus, not knowing this, gave her to Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, Achilles’ son.
[61:36.] Scæan gate. Famous gate of Troy.
[63:4.] Circe. The famous sorceress, who by her magic cake turned men into animals. She was called Ææan, from Æa, a city in Colchis, in Asia Minor, famous for its magic. Circe came from Colchis. Her island is fabled to have become a promontory of Latium.
[64:5.] Scylla and Charybdis. Whirlpools, bordering the straits of Messina, dangerous to the ancient navigator. This is the description of Scylla used by Milton in describing one of the guardians of the gate of Hell.
[64:15.] Trinacrian. Sicilian. The word is of Greek origin, and signifies triangular, referring to the contour of Sicily. Pachynus itself was the southeastern point of Sicily, the modern Capo di Passaro.
[66:8.] Astyanax. Son of Hector and Andromache, who perished in the sack of Troy.
[67:8.] Aurora. Goddess of the dawn. Wife of Tithonus.
[68:32.] Enceladus. One of the giants who was defeated by Jupiter and imprisoned in a burning cave beneath Mount Ætna. See Longfellow’s Enceladus.
“Under Mount Etna he lies,
It is slumber, it is not death;
For he struggles at times to arise,
And above him the lurid skies
Are hot with his fiery breath.”
All this region, as has been newly shown by the late terrible earthquake, is peculiarly subject to seismic disturbances.
[72:17.] Arethusa. According to fable, pursued by Alpheus, river-god of Elis in Greece, was turned into a subterranean river, still pursued by the river-god under the Ægean until she emerged harmoniously blent with her pursuer in the famous fountain of Ortygia. Shelley uses the legend as follows in his Arethusa:—
“And now from their fountains
In Enna’s mountains,
Down one vale where the morning basks,
Like friends once parted
Grown single-hearted,
They ply their watery tasks.
At sunrise they leap
From their cradles steep
In the cave of the shelving hill;
At noontide they flow
Through the woods below
And the meadows of asphodel;
And at night they sleep
In the rocking deep
Beneath the Ortygian shore:—
Like spirits that lie
In the azure sky
Where they love but live no more.”