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.

NOTES TO BOOK ELEVEN

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.