[110.] The favour'd guest of Circe. Ulysses. See note, l. 71.
[120.] Muses. Daughters of Jupiter and Minemosyne, nine in number. According to the earliest writers the Muses were only the inspiring goddesses of song; but later they were looked to as the divinities presiding over the different kinds of poetry, and over the arts and sciences.
[130-135.] Note the poet's device for presenting a [p.181] series of mental pictures. Compare with Tennyson's plan in his Palace of Art. Does Arnold's plan seem more or less mechanical than Tennyson's?
[135-142.] Tiresias. The blind prophet of Thebes (l. 142), the chief city in Boeotia, near the river Asopus (l. 138). In his youth, Tiresias unwittingly came upon Athene while she was bathing, and was punished by the loss of sight. As a recompense for this misfortune, the goddess afterward gave him knowledge of future events. The inhabitants of Thebes looked to Tiresias for direction in times of war.
[143.] Centaurs. Monsters, half man, half horse.
[145.] Pelion. A mountain in eastern Thessaly, famous in Greek mythology. In the war between the giants and the gods, the former, in their efforts to scale the heavens, piled Ossa upon Olympus and Pelion upon Ossa.
[151-161.] What in these lines enables you to determine the people and country alluded to?
[162-167.] Scythian ... embers. The ancient Greek term for the nomadic tribes inhabiting the whole north and northeast Europe and Asia. As a distinct people they built no cities, and formed no general government, but wandered from place to place by tribes, in their rude, covered carts (see l. 164), living upon the coarsest kind of food (ll. 166-167).
[177-180.] Clusters of lonely mounds, etc. That is, ruins of ancient cities.
[183.] Chorasmian stream. See note, l. [878], Sohrab and Rustum.