Like as +Minerua+, being late returnd
2 From slaughter of the Giaunts conquered;
Where proud Encelade, whose wide nosethrils burnd
4 With breathed flames, like to a furnace red,
Transfixed with +the+ speare, downe tombled ded
6 From top of Hemus, by him heaped hye;
Hath loosd her helmet from her lofty hed,
8 And her Gorgonian shield gins to vntye
From her left arme, to rest in glorious victorye.
1 Minerua > Bellona 1590 5 the > her 1590
1 Like Minerva, being late returned
Minerva > (Roman goddess of war; Bellona (see Textual Appendix) is another name for her. Bellona is sometimes represented as the wife of Mars, while Minerva, specifically, is identified with Pallas Athene, the virgin goddess. Cf. 307.52:6, 706.3:7, 706.32:4-8; SC, "October", 114 and gloss) late > lately
2 From slaughter of the Giants conquered
Giants > (The vast beings which, sprung from the blood that fell from Uranus on the earth, piled Mount Ossa on Mount Pelion in order to launch an unsuccessful attack on Olympus, abode of the gods)
3 (Where proud Enceladus, whose wide nostrils burnt
Enceladus > (One of the Giants; traditionally, he was killed by Jupiter and buried under Mount Etna, whence he still breathes fire. In Myth. 6.21 it is Minerva who kills him)
4 With breathed flames, like a furnace red, 5 Transfixed with the spear, down tumbled dead 6 From top of Haemus, by him heaped high),
Haemus > (The Balkan Haemi are a lofty range of mountains separating Thrace and Moesia. Spenser's source for this detail is not known; Jupiter killed Typhoeus on Mount Haemus)