XIII. HERCULE.
[Ll. 2-4.] Imprudent in being too credulous, Dejanira became the innocent cause of Hercules' death; for, fearing his infidelity, she sent her husband a robe or shirt that the Centaur Nessas had given her, and which he had said would preserve her husband's love to her. No sooner had Hercules put on the garment his wife gave him than he suffered terrible agony, under which he ordered a funeral pile to be kindled, and placed himself in its flames, thus falling a victim to the Centaur, Nessus, whom he had slain. Hercules killed Nessus because, carrying Dejanira over a river, he attempted to run away with her.
[Ll. 5, 6.] ta cime... amoncelle. Literally, 'thy top heaps up,' for 'thy top is heaped up with.'
[L. 9.] du vieux lion, the Nemean lion.
XIV. ÉRICHTHON.
[L. 2.] Érichthon. Erichtonius, fourth king of Athens, son of Vulcan and the Earth, was a cripple, invented chariots, and, after his death, became the constellation of Auriga, or the Waggoner.
[L. 5.] axe, for char. See note to p. 65, XI, l. 2. For this line and the following see Virgil, Georg. iii. 113 ff.
[Ll. 11-14.] Virgil, Georg. iii. 191, 192.
[L. 14.] Agiter... leurs pas. Hurry (cf. agitato, in music=hurried) their pace, in opposition to mesurer, 'compose, moderate.'