[197.] milk-barr'd onyx-stones. A reference to the white streaks, or bars, common to the onyx.
[206.] Happy Islands. Mythical islands lying far to the west, the abode of the heroes after death.
[220.] Hera's anger. Hera (or Juno), wife to Jupiter, was noted for her violent temper and jealousy. She is here represented as visiting punishment upon the bard, perhaps out of jealousy of the [p.182] gods who had endowed him with poetic power, and his life, thus afflicted, seems lengthened to seven ages.
[228-229.] Lapithæ. In Greek legends, a fierce Thessalian race, governed by Pirothous, a half-brother to the Centaurs. Theseus. The chief hero of Attica, who, according to tradition, united the several tribes of Attica into one state, with Athens as the capital. His life was filled with adventure. The reference here is to the time of the marriage of Pirothous and Hippodamia, on which occasion the Centaurs, who were among the guests, became intoxicated, and offered indignities to the bride. In the fight that followed, Theseus joined with the Lapithæ, and many of the Centaurs were slain.
[231.] Alcmena's dreadful son. Hercules. On his expedition to capture the Arcadian boar, his third labor, Hercules became involved in a broil with the Centaurs, and in self-defence slew several of them with his arrows.
[245.] Oxus stream. See note, l. [2], Sohrab and Rustum.
[254.] Heroes. The demigods of mythology.
257. Troy. The capital of Troas, Asia Minor; the seat of the Trojan war.
[254-260.] Shortly after the close of the Trojan war, a party of heroes from all parts of Greece, many of whom had participated in the expeditions against Thebes and Troy, set out under the leadership of Jason to capture the Golden Fleece. Leaving the shores of Thessaly, the adventurers sailed eastward and finally came to the entrance of the Euxine Sea (the unknown sea, l. 260), which was guarded by the Clashing Islands. Following the instructions of the sage Phineus, Jason let fly a dove between the islands, and at the moment of rebound the expedition passed safely through. The ship in which the adventurers sailed was called the Argo, after its builder, Argus; hence our term Argonauts.
[261.] Silenus. A divinity of Asiatic origin; [p.183] foster-father to Bacchus and leader of the Fauns (l. 265), satyr-like divinities, half man, half goat, sometimes represented in art as bearing torches (l. 274).