'Pentasilee,
Which was the quene of Feminee.'
867. Scithea, Scythia. Cf. Scythicae in the quotation from Statius in note to l. 859.
868. Ipolita, Shakespeare's Hippolyta, in Mids. Night's Dream. The name is in Statius, Theb. xii. 534, spelt Hippolyte.
880. In this line, Athenes seems to mean 'Athenians,' though elsewhere it means 'Athens.' Athénès is trisyllabic.
884. tempest. As there is no mention of a tempest in Boccaccio, Tyrwhitt proposed to alter the reading to temple, as there is some mention of Theseus offering in the temple of Pallas. But it is very unlikely that this would be alluded to by the mere word temple; and we must accept the reading tempest, as in all the seven MSS. and in the old editions.
I think the solution is to be found by referring to Statius. Chaucer seems to have remembered that a tempest is there described (Theb. xii. 650-5), but to have forgotten that it is merely introduced by way of simile. In fact, when Theseus determines to attack Creon (see l. 960), the advance of his host is likened by Statius to the effect of a tempest. The lines are:—
'Qualis Hyperboreos ubi nubilus institit axes
Iupiter, et prima tremefecit sidera bruma,