e to the
town and promontory which were on the confines of Latium and
Campania.

II. 'The coast, where Circe'--Virgil identifies 'the island of
Aeaea,' the dwelling-place of Circe in Homer, with the promontory
of Circeii in Italy.

VI. 'Say, Erato:' Erato was the Muse of Love, and the invocation is
not specially appropriate in this place. But the line is an imitation
of Apollonius Rhodius iii, 1.

'Ausonia,' a poetical name for Italy. The _Ausones_ were early
inhabitants of Campania.

VII. _Latinus_ was king of the Latins, a small tribe whose chief town
was Laurentum. _Faunus_ a god of the fields and cattle-keepers, was
afterwards identified with the Greek Pan. _Picus_ was a prophetic
god. We are told by Ovid that he was changed into a woodpecker
(_picus_) by Circe, whose love he had slighted. _Saturnus_ was the
old Latin god of sowing, and was later identified with the Greek
Kronos, father of Zeus.

XII. 'Albunea': apparently refers to a wooded hill with a sulphur
spring. Probably it refers to a shrine near some sulphur springs at
Altieri, near Laurentum.

'Oenotria': originally the southern part of Lucania and Bruttium,
but Virgil uses it poetically for the whole of Italy.

XIII. See note on Book VI. stanzas xvi. and xviii.

XVI. It was not Anchises, but a Harpy who delivered this prophecy.
See Book VIII. stanza xxix. This, and other slight inconsistencies
in the _Aeneid_ are undoubtedly due to the fact that Virgil died
before he had revised the poem.

XVIII. 'Phrygia's Mother' was Cybele, the Phrygian goddess.

XXIV. 'Two-faced Janus.' Janus was an old Latin deity, god of the
morning and of gateways. He was represented as 'two-faced,' looking
before and behind. There was a double archway in the forum, called
_Janus_, which was closed in times of peace, but opened in time of
war. See stanzas lxxxi., lxxxii.

XXVIII. The Auruncans were a tribe living in Campania.

XLI. The _Syrtes_ were two great gulfs on the north coast of Africa.
For Scylla and Charybdis, see note on Book III stanza lv. The Lapithae
were a Thessalian tribe, ruled by Perithous. The Centaurs came to
his marriage feast, and at the instigation of Mars, fought with the
Lapithae until the latter were defeated. 'Diana's ire' was caused
by neglect on the part of king Oeneus of Calydon to sacrifice to her.
She sent a wild boar to ravage the country.

LXIX. 'Trivia's lake' refers to the little lake of Nemi. A famous
temple of Diana stood her