“Claros,” claˈros. A small town on the Ionian coast, with a celebrated temple and oracle of Apollo.
“Tenedos,” tĕnˈe-dŏs. A small island of the Ægean, off the coast of Troas, also sacred to Apollo.
“Patarian,” pa-taˈri-an. From Patara, one of the chief cities of Asia Minor, in Lycia. Apollo had an oracle here, and a celebrated temple.
P. 114.—“Narcissus.” A youth who was fabled to be so hard of heart that he never loved. The nymph Echo died of grief because of him. Nemesis caused him to fall in love with his own image as he saw it in a fountain, and Narcissus died because he could not approach the shadow. His corpse was metamorphosed into the flower which has his name.
“Dædalus.” A character of Grecian mythology, fabled to be the inventor of many contrivances, as well as a sculptor and architect. Having incurred the displeasure of the king of Crete, he was obliged to flee from the island. Accordingly he made wings for himself and his son Icarus. Dædalus flew safely to shore, but Icarus went so near the sun that the wax by which his wings were fastened melted, and he was drowned in that part of the Ægean called the Icarian Sea.
“Baucis.” Baucis and Philemon were an aged couple living in Phrygia. Jupiter and Mercury having occasion to visit this part of the world, went in the disguise of flesh and blood. Nobody would receive them until Baucis and Philemon took them into their hut. Jupiter took the couple to a hill near by, while he punished the inhospitable by an inundation; he then rewarded them by making them guardians of his temple, allowing them to die at the same moment, and changing them into trees.
“Lycidas,” lĭsˈi-das. A poetical name under which Milton laments the death of his friend Edward King, who had been drowned.
“Comus.” In the later age of Rome, a god of festive joy and mirth. In Milton’s poem entitled “Comus, a Masque,” he is represented as a base enchanter who endeavors, but in vain, to beguile and entrap the innocent by means of his “brewed enchantments.”—Webster.
P. 123.—“Rhodes.” An island of the Eastern Ægean. It was long celebrated for its schools of Greek art and oratory.
“Pontifex,” ponˈtĭ-fex. A Roman high priest, a pontiff. The pontifices constituted a college of priests, superintended the public worship, and gave information on sacred matters. Their leader was called pontifex maximus.