Delphi's steep. Cf. Milton, Hymn on Nativ. 178: "the steep of Delphos;" P. L. i. 517: "the Delphian cliff." Both Shakes. and Milton prefer the mediæval form Delphos to the more usual Delphi. Delphi was at the foot of the southern uplands of Parnassus which end "in a precipitous cliff, 2000 feet high, rising to a double peak named the Phædriades, from their glittering appearance as they faced the rays of the sun" (Smith's Anc. Geog.).
[67.] Isles, etc. Cf. Byron:
| "The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece! Where burning Sappho loved and sung," etc. |
[68.] Ilissus. This river, rising on the northern slope of Hymettus, flows through the east side of Athens.
[69.] Mæander's amber waves. Cf. Milton, P. L. iii. 359: "Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream;" P. R. iii. 288: "There Susa by Choaspes, amber stream." See also Virgil, Geo. iii. 520: "Purior electro campum petit amnis." Callimachus (Cer. 29) has [Greek: alektrinon hudôr].
[70.] Ovid, Met. viii. 162, describes the Mæander thus:
| "Non secus ac liquidis Phrygiis Maeandros in arvis Ludit, et ambiguo lapsu refluitque fluitque." |
Cf. also Virgil's description of the Mincius (Geo. iii. 15):