I. Olympus was a mountain in Thessaly, and was believed by the Greeks to be the home of the gods. Hence it came to be used for 'heaven'; as in the present passage.
II. Jupiter is referring to the invasion of Italy by Hannibal in 218 B.C.
IV. Diomedes, the son of Tydeus from Aetolia, is said to have settled, after the Trojan war, in Apulia, where he founded the city of Arpi. The Latins, it will be remembered, had asked him to help them against the Trojans. See Book VIII. stanza ii. And for the result of the embassy, Book XI. stanza xxxi. and following.
VI. For the burning of the vessels at Eryx, see Book V. stanzas lxxxii. and following. For Aeolia Book I. stanzas viii. to xx. For Alecto Book VII. stanzas xliv. and following.
VIII. Paphos, Amathus, and Idalium were towns in Cyprus. Cythera is an island off the southern coast of Greece. All four were celebrated in antiquity as centres of the worship of Venus.
XIV. The robber was Paris, who carried off Helen.
XXI. Ismarus was a prince from Lydia, a district in Asia Minor, called Maeonia in ancient times. The Pactolus was a river in Maeonia, famous on account of the quantity of gold it washed down. The 'Capuan town' is Capua.
XXIII. The lions are there because Cybele the Phrygian goddess, worshipped by the Trojans on Mount Ida, was drawn in her chariot by two lions. The figure-head of Aeneas' ship was probably an image of a goddess, personifying the mountain.
XXIV. Mount Helicon is in Boeotia, and was sacred to Apollo and the Muses. Clusium and Cosae were Etruscan cities.
XXV. Populonia: a town on the coast of Etruria. Ilva (the modern Elba): an island off the coast of Etruria near Populonia.
XXVII. Cinyras and Cupavo were sons of Cycnus. The legend tells us that Phaëthon rashly attempted to drive the chariot of the sun, and was killed by a thunderbolt from Jupiter, while so doing. Cycnus, who was devotedly attached to him, was changed into a swan while lamenting his death.
XXVIII. Mantua was Virgil's birthplace. Hence probably the insertion of this tradition as to its origin. Mincius, mentioned in the next stanza, is a Lombard river, the Mincio, and flows out from Lake Benacus (Lago di Garda).
XXXVII. Sirius, the dog-star, whose rising was supposed to coincide with the hot weather, is always spoken of as bringing pestilence and trouble. The connection between Sirius and the hot weather was one of the conventions of poetry which the Augustan writers had borrowed from the Greeks.
LXVII. The story referred to is that of the fifty daughters of Danaus, who were married to the fifty sons of Aegyptus, their cousins. Danaus ordered his daughters to murder their husbands on their wedding night, and they all obeyed except Hypermnestra, who loved her husband Lynceus, and so saved his life.
LXXIII. Trivia here refers to Diana. Gradivus is an archaic Latin name for Mars.
LXXVII. 'Mute Amyclae' was probably so called because the inhabitants had been forbidden, owing to false alarms, to speak of the approach of an enemy. But if Virgil is referring, not to the Amyclae near Naples, but to the original Amyclae in Laconia, then the proverbial taciturnity of those inhabiting the latter country offers sufficient explanation. Aegeon was a monster with 100 arms and 50 heads. He is more often called Briareus.
LXXIX. In the Iliad Aeneas had been rescued from Diomedes and Achilles. Liger is taunting him with this.
XXXI. Iapygia, a Greek name for the southern part of Apulia.
Garganus: name of a mountain in Apulia.
See also note on Book X. stanza iv.
XXXIII. The references in this stanza are (1) to the storm which Minerva (Pallas) raised when the Greeks set sail from Troy. (2) To the story of Nauplius, king of Euboea, who hung false lights over the headland of Caphareus, and so caused the wreck of the Greek fleet.
XXXIV. 'Proteus' Pillars' means Egypt, and the stories of Menelaus, as also the adventures of Ulysses with the Cyclops, will be found in the Odyssey. For Pyrrhus see note on Book III. stanza xliii. For Idomeneus, that on Book III. stanza xvii. Agamemnon was killed by his wife and her lover, when he returned home at the end of the Trojan war.
XXXV. Calydon was the ancient home of Diomedes in Aetolia.
LII. The Myrmidons were the followers of Achilles—Tydides is Diomedes. The Aufidus is a river of Apulia.
LXIX. Opis was a nymph of Diana (Latonia).
LXXXIV. Virgil is comparing Camilla to the two famous Amazons, Hippolyte who was married to Theseus, and Penthesilea who fought for Troy and was slain by Achilles.
CVIII. [Transcriber's note: The rhyme, the meter, and the sense of the phrase require a word here that is missing from the published text. Possibly "flight" or "sight" was intended by the translator.]
XI. Orithyia was the wife of Boreas the North Wind, who according to legend was the father of the royal horses of Troy.
XXV. The two children of Latona were Apollo and Diana.
XXIX. Camers was king of Amyclae. See note on Book X. stanza lxxvii.
XLV. The story of Dolon is taken from the Iliad. He offered to spy upon the movements of the Greeks if Hector would give him the chariot and horses of Achilles. He was however captured and slain by Diomedes (Tydides).
LII. 'Paeon': a name used of Apollo as the Healer.
LXIX. 'Cupencus' was the name given by the Sabines to the priests of Hercules.
XCI. Athos: the mountain at the extreme end of the peninsula between Thrace and Thessaly. Mount Eryx is in the north-west of Sicily.
XCIII. Taburnus: a mountain in Samnium.
Sila: a range of mountains in the extreme south of Italy.
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