The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books VIII-XV

36.Not used to bear.]—Ver. 346. He alludes to the twofold nature, or ‘horse-part’ of the Centaur, as Clarke calls it.

37.The Dolopians.]—Ver. 364. They were a people of Phthiotis and Thessaly.

38.Pierces two breasts.]—Ver. 377. He says this by poetical license, in allusion to the two-fold form of the Centaurs.

39.Cyllarus.]—Ver. 393. This was also the name of the horse which Castor tamed, to which Ovid alludes in the 401st line.

40.Then ought I.]—Ver. 445. Nestor here shows a little of the propensity for boasting, which distinguishes him in the Iliad.

41.Pelethronian.]—Ver. 452. Pelethronia was a region of Thessaly, which contained a town and a mountain of that name.

42.Erigdupus.]—Ver. 453. The signification of this name is ‘The noise of strife.’

43.Mopsus.]—Ver. 456. He was a prophet, and one of the Lapithæ. There are two other persons mentioned in ancient history of the same name.

44.Emathian.]—Ver. 462. Properly, Emathia was a name of Macedonia; but it is here applied to Thessaly, which adjoined to that country.

45.Macedonian pike.]—Ver. 466. The ‘sarissa’ is supposed to have been a kind of pike with which the soldiers of the Macedonia phalanx were armed. Its ordinary length was twenty-one feet; but those used by the phalanx were twenty-four feet long.

46.Twist the threads.]—Ver. 475. The woof was called ‘subtegmen,’ ‘subtemen,’ or ‘trama,’ while the warp was called ‘stamen,’ from ‘stare,’ ‘to stand,’ on account of its erect position in the loom.

47.Phylleian.]—Ver. 479. Phyllus was a city of Phthiotis, in Thessaly.

48.Tlepolemus.]—Ver. 537. He was a son of Hercules, by Astioche.

49.Polydamas.]—Ver. 547. He was a noble Trojan, of great bravery, who had married a daughter of Priam.

50.Rhodian fleet.]—Ver. 575. Tlepolemus, when a youth, slew his uncle, Lycimnius, the son of Mars. Flying from his country with some followers, he retired to the Island of Rhodes, where he gained the sovereignty. He went to the Trojan war with nine ships, to aid the Greeks, where he fell by the hand of Sarpedon.

51.After the son.]—Ver. 578-9. ‘A sermone senis repetito munere Bacchi Surrexere toris.’ These words are thus quaintly rendered in Clarke’s translation: ‘From listening to the old gentleman’s discourse, they return again to their bottle; and taking the other glass, they departed.’

52.Smintheus.]—Ver. 585. Apollo was so called, in many of the cities of Asia, and was worshipped under this name, in the Isle of Tenedos. He is said by Eustathius, to have been so called from Smynthus, a town near Troy. But, according to other accounts, he received the epithet from the Cretan word σμίνθος, a mouse; being supposed to protect man against the depredations of that kind of vermin.

53.Thermodontean.]—Ver. 611. He alludes to Penthesilea, the Queen of the Amazons, who, aiding the Trojans against the Greeks, was slain by Achilles. The battle-axe was the usual weapon of the Amazons

54.Had armed him.]—Ver. 614. Vulcan, the God of Fire, made his armour at the request of his mother, Thetis; and now his body was burned by fire.

55.Son of Oïleus.]—Ver. 622. This was Ajax, the King of the Locrians.

56.Descendant of Tantalus.]—Ver. 626. Agamemnon was the son of Atreus, grandson of Pelops, and great-grandson of Tantalus. He wisely refused to take upon himself alone the onus of deciding the contention between Ajax and Ulysses.