y the cause of my death, my love even now
enduring, while I am perishing, do not allow the Nymph Aura [{breeze}]
to share with thee my marriage ties.' She {thus} spoke; and then, at
last, I perceived the mistake of the name, and informed her of it. But
what avails informing her? She sinks; and her little strength flies,
together with her blood. And so long as she can look on anything, she
gazes on me, and breathes out upon me, on my face,[118] her unhappy
life; but she seems to die free from care, and with a more contented
look."

In tears, the hero is relating these things to them, as they weep, and,
lo! AEacus enters, with his two sons,[119] and his soldiers newly levied;
which Cephalus received, {furnished} with valorous arms.

[Footnote 117: _Groundless charge._--Ver. 829. Possibly, Ovid may
intend to imply that her jealousy received an additional stimulus
from the similarity of the name 'Aura' to that of her former
rival, Aurora.]

[Footnote 118: _On my face._--Ver. 861. He alludes to the
prevalent custom of catching the breath of the dying person in the
mouth.]

[Footnote 119: _His two sons._--Ver. 864. These were Telamon and
Peleus, who had levied these troops.]

EXPLANATION.

The love which Cephalus, the son of Deioneus, bore for the chase,
causing him to rise early in the morning for the enjoyment of his
sport, was the origin of the story of his love for Aurora. His wife,
Procris, as Apollodorus tells us, carried on an amour with Pteleon,
and, probably, caused that report to be spread abroad, to divert
attention from her own intrigue. Cephalus, suspecting his wife's
infidelity, she fled to the court of the second Minos, king of Crete,
who fell in love with her. Having, thereby, incurred the resentment of
Pasiphae, who adopted several methods to destroy her rival, and, among
others, spread poison in her bed, she left Crete, and returned to
Thoricus, the place of her former residence, where she was reconciled
to Cephalus, and gave him the celebrated dog and javelin mentioned by
Ovid.

The poets tell us, that this dog was made by Vulcan, and presented by
him to Jupiter, who gave him to Europa; and that coming to the hands
of her son Minos, he presented it to Procris. The wild beast, which
ravaged the country, and was pursued by the dog of Procris, and which
some writers tell us was a monstrous fox, was probably a pirate or sea
ro