Commentators are at a loss to
know why Seriphos should here have the epithet 'plana,' 'level,'
inasmuch as it was a very craggy island. It is probably a corrupt
reading.]

[Footnote 89: _Sithonian._--Ver. 466. This was Arne, whose story
is referred to in the Explanation, p. 242 / p. 270.]

EXPLANATION.

If it is the fact, as many antiquarians suppose, that much of the
Grecian mythology was derived from that of the Egyptians, there can be
but little doubt that their system of the Elysian Fields and the
Infernal Regions was derived from the Egyptian notions on the future
state of man. The story too, of Cerberus is, perhaps, based upon the
custom of the Egyptians, who kept dogs to guard the fields or caverns
in which they kept their mummies.

It is, however, very possible that the story of Cerberus may have been
founded upon a fact, or what was believed to be such. There was a
serpent which haunted the cavern of Taenarus, in Laconia, and ravaged
the districts adjacent to that promontory. This cave, being generally
considered to be one of the avenues to the kingdom of Pluto, the poets
thence derived the notion that this serpent was the guardian of its
portals. Pausanias observes, that Homer was the first who said that
Cerberus was a dog; though, in reality, he was a serpent, whose name
in the Greek language signified 'one that devours flesh.' The story
that Cerberus, with his foam, poisoned the herbs that grew in
Thessaly, and that the aconite and other poisonous plants were ever
after common there, is probably based on the simple fact, that those
herbs were found in great quantities in that region.

Women, using these herbs in their pretended enchantments, gave ground
for the stories of the witches of Thessaly, and of their ability to
bring the moon down to the earth by their spells and incantations;
which latter notion was probably based on the circumstance, that these
women used to invoke the Night and the Moon as witnesses of their
magical operations.

FABLE V. [VII.469-613]

Minos, having engaged several powers in his interest, and having been
refused by others, goes to the island of AEgina, where AEacus reigns,
to endeavor to secure an alliance with that prince; but without
success. Upon his departure, Cephalus arrives, as ambassador, from
Athens, and obtains succors from the king; who gives him an account of
the desolati