[XXXVII.] 'Phlegethon' was the 'burning' river of the lower world.
[XXXIX.] The beast of Lerna is the Lernean Hydra, slain by Hercules; the others are terrible monsters slain by various heroes.
[XLI.] Charon was the ferryman of the dead.
[LIV.] Apollo was called Amphrysian because he tended the herds of Admetus near the river Amphrysus in Thessaly. Here the epithet is strangely transferred to Apollo's servant.
[LVII.] Minos, king of Crete, became one of the judges of the dead, in the under-world. His brother Rhadamanthus was the other. See [stanza lxxv.]