[9.] Son of Nauplius.]—Ver. 39. Palamedes was the son of Nauplius, the king of Eubœa, and a son of Neptune.
[10.] The contrivance.]—Ver. 38. Ulysses forged a letter from Priam, in which the king thanked Palamedes for his intended assistance to the Trojan cause, and begged to present him a sum of money. By bribing the servants of Palamedes, he caused a large quantity of gold to be buried in the ground, under his tent. He then caused the letter to be intercepted, and to be carried to Agamemnon. On the appearance of Palamedes to answer the charge, Ulysses appeared seemingly as his friend, and suggested, that if no gold should be found in his possession, he must be innocent. The gold, however, being found, Palamedes was stoned to death.
[11.] Son of Pœas.]—Ver. 45. Philoctetes was the possessor of the arrows of Hercules, without the presence of which Troy could not be taken. Accompanying the Greeks to the Trojan war, he was wounded in the foot by one of the arrows; and the smell arising from the wound was so offensive, that, by the advice of Ulysses, he was left behind, in the island of Lemnos, one of the Cyclades.
[12.] Is being clothed.]—Ver. 53. The Poet Attius, as quoted by Cicero, says that Philoctetes, while in Lemnos, made himself clothing out of the feathers of birds.
[13.] Or by death.]—Ver. 61. Exile in the case of Philoctetes; death, in that of Palamedes.
[14.] Forsaking of Nestor.]—Ver. 64. Nestor having been wounded by Paris, and being overtaken by Hector, was on the point of perishing, when Diomedes came to his rescue, Ulysses having taken to flight. See the Iliad, Book iii.
[15.] And upbraided.]—Ver. 69. He alludes to the words in the Iliad, which Homer puts in the mouth of Diomedes.
[16.] And covered him.]—Ver. 75. Ajax, at the request of Menelaüs, protected Ulysses with his shield, when he was wounded.
[17.] Fall to my lot.]—Ver. 85. He alludes to the occasion when some of the bravest of the Greeks drew lots which should accept the challenge of Hector: the Greeks wishing, according to Homer, that the lot might fall to Ajax Telamon, Ajax Oïleus, or Agamemnon.
[18.] Rhesus.]—Ver. 98. He was slain by Ulysses and Diomedes on the night on which he arrived, Iliad, Book x.