[XXIX.] The Strophades were a small group of islands off the south-west coast of Greece. The story alluded to is that Phineus, king of Thrace, unjustly put out the eyes of his sons. As a punishment the gods blinded him, and sent the Harpies—loathsome monsters with the bodies of birds and the faces of women—to defile and seize all the food that was set before him. Phineus was at last freed from them by Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind, who drove the Harpies from Thrace to the Strophades.
For Celaeno's prophecy, see note on [Book VII. stanza xvi.]
[XXXVI.] Ulysses, the most cunning of the Greek leaders before Troy, was king of Ithaca, and son of Laertes.
[XXXIX.] Phaeacia means Corcyra, and Chaonia is a district of Epirus. Its chief harbour was Buthrotum.
[XLIII.] Hermione was the daughter of Menelaus and Helen. Orestes was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. He slew his mother on account of her treacherous murder of Agamemnon when the latter returned home from Troy, and killed Pyrrhus for having deprived him of his promised bride, Hermione.
[XLVI.] Xanthus was a river that flowed near Troy. The 'Scaean Gate' was the western gate of Troy and looked towards the sea. It was the best known of the gates because most of the fighting took place before it.