n that he is not there, and in his indolence, is not enjoying a
sight of the sport afforded them. He wished, indeed, he had been away,
but there he was; and he wished to see, not to feel as well, the cruel
feats of his own dogs. They gather round him on all sides, and burying
their jaws in his body, tear their master in pieces under the form of an
imaginary stag. And the rage of the quiver-bearing Diana is said not to
have been satiated, until his life was ended by many a wound.
[Footnote 14: _Mars and Venus._--Ver. 132. The wife of Cadmus was
Hermione, or Harmonia, who was said to have been the daughter of
Mars and Venus. The Deities honored the nuptials with their
presence, and presented marriage gifts, while the Muses and the
Graces celebrated the festivity with hymns of their own
composition.]
[Footnote 15: _So many sons._--Ver. 134. Apollodorus, Hyginus, and
others, say that Cadmus had but one son, Polydorus. If so, 'tot,'
'so many,' must here refer to the number of his daughters and
grandchildren. His daughters were four in number, Autonoe, Ino,
Semele, and Agave. Ino married Athamas, Autonoe Aristaeus, Agave
Echion, while Semele captivated Jupiter. The most famous of the
grandsons of Cadmus were Bacchus, Melicerta, Pentheus, and Actaeon.]
[Footnote 16: _Before his death._--Ver. 135. This was the famous
remark of Solon to Croesus, when he was the master of the opulent
and flourishing kingdom of Lydia, and seemed so firmly settled on
his throne, that there was no probability of any interruption of
his happiness. Falling into the hands of Cyrus the Persian, and
being condemned to be burnt alive, he recollected this wise saying
of Solon, and by that means saved his life, as we are told by
Herodotus, who relates the story at length. Euripides has a
similar passage in his Troades, line 510.]
[Footnote 17: _The Hyantian youth._--Ver. 147. Actaeon is thus
called, as being a Boeotian. The Hyantes were the ancient or
aboriginal inhabitants of Boeotia.]
[Footnote 18: _Gargaphie._--Ver. 156. Gargaphie, or Gargaphia, was
a valley situate near Plataea, having a fountain of the same name.]
[Footnote 19: _Crocale._--Ver. 169. So called, perhaps, from
+kekruphalos+, an ornament for the head, being a coif, band, or
fillet of network for the hair called in Latin 'reticulum,' by
which name her offic
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