[867-889]. Listen, and appear to us: Oceanus was the most ancient sea-god, . . . Neptune, with his trident, was a later being. Tethys was the wife of Oceanus, and mother of the river-gods. Hoary Nereus is the 'aged Nereus' of line 835. The Carpathian wizard is the subtle Proteus, ever shifting his shape: . . . Triton, son of Neptune and Aphrodite, . . . he was 'scaly,' because the lower part of him was fish. Glaucus was a Bœotian fisherman who had been changed into a marine god: . . . was an oracle for sailors and fishermen. Leucothea ('the white goddess') was originally Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, and had received her new name after she had drowned herself and been converted into a sea-deity. Her son that rules the strands was Melicertes, drowned and deified with her, and thenceforward known as Palæmon, or Portumnus, the god of bays and harbours. Thetis, one of the daughters of Nereus, and therefore a sea-deity by birth, married Peleus, and was the mother of Achilles: . . . Of the Sirens, or singing sea-nymphs . . . Parthenope and Ligea were two. The 'dear tomb' of the first was at Naples . . . the 'golden comb' of the second is from stories of our own mermaids.—Masson's note, condensed.
[900]. gentle swain: the attendant spirit is still in the person and habit of the shepherd Thyrsis.
[913]. cure: curative power.
[919]. his: old neuter genitive, its.
[921]. to wait: to attend in the bower (court) of Amphitrite (wife of Neptune).
[922]. daughter of Locrine: see vv. 827, 828. The order of the legendary 'line' is, Anchises, Æneas, Ascanius, Silvius, Brutus, Locrine.
[924]. brimmed: full to the brim or edge of the bank; cf. 'full-fed river.'—Tennyson's Palace of Art.
[929]. scorch: optative subj.
[934-937]. The true construction of these lines is pointed out by Mr. Calton, quoted in Todd's variorum ed.: 'May thy lofty head be crowned
round with many a tower and terrace, and here and there [may] thy banks [be crowned] upon with groves of myrrh and cinnamon.'