[715]. Tarsus: i.e. Tarshish, which Milton avoided from his dislike to the sound sh. He seems to have agreed with those who thought that Tarshish was Tarsus in Cilicia, instead of Tartessus in Spain. In the Bible, 'ships of Tarshish' signify large sea-going vessels in general; the iles,
etc.: i.e. the isles and coasts of Greece and Lesser Asia; Javan (pr. Yawan) is Ἰάονες, Ἴωνες, the Ionians. As these were the best known of the Greeks in the south, their name was given to the whole people, just as the Greeks themselves called all the subjects of the king of Persia, Medes; Gadire: Γαδείρα, Gades, Cadiz.—Keightley.
[717]. bravery: finery, ornament; trim: shipshape, in good order.
[719]. hold them play: keep them in play.
[720]. An amber scent: an ambergris scent.
[731]. makes address: prepares.
[732] et seq. 'The student will notice how thoroughly Euripidean the whole of the following scene is, not merely in the fact that two of the dramatis personæ are pitted dialectically against one another, but in the cast of the language and in the quality of the sentiment.'—John Churton Collins.
[748]. hyæna: 'a creature somewhat like a wolf, and is said to imitate a human voice so artfully as to draw people to it, and then devour them.
"'Tis thus the false hyæna makes her moan,
To draw the pitying traveller to her den;