sis. Its bite was said to
produce a lethargic sleep, ending in death. Cleopatra ended her
life by the bite of one, which she ordered to be conveyed to her
in a basket of fruit. Some commentators have supposed that the
crocodile is here alluded to; but, as others have justly observed,
the crocodile has no poisonous sting, but rather a capacity for
devouring.]

[Footnote 72: _A befriending Goddess._--Ver. 698. Diodorus Siculus
says, that Isis was the discoverer of numerous remedies for
disease, and that she greatly improved the healing art.]

[Footnote 73: _Be deceiving._--Ver. 709. The name 'Iphis' being
equally well for a male or a female.]

[Footnote 74: _Of her daughter._--Ver. 770. We must suppose that
Iphis wore the 'vitta,' which was an article of female dress, in
private only, and in presence of her mother. Of course, in public,
such an ornament would not have suited her, when appearing in the
character of a man.]

[Footnote 75: _Paraetonium._--Ver. 772. Strabo says, that
Paraetonium was a city of Libya, with a capacious harbour.]

[Footnote 76: _Mareotic fields._--Ver. 772. The Mareotic Lake was
in the neighbourhood of the city of Alexandria.]

[Footnote 77: _Pharos._--Ver. 772. This was an island opposite to
Alexandria, famed for its light-house, which was erected to warn
sailors from off the dangerous quicksands in the neighbourhood.]

[Footnote 78: _This girl._--Ver. 778. Pointing at Iphis, who had
attended her, Antoninus Liberalis says, that Telethusa prayed that
Iphis might be transformed into a man, and cited a number of
precedents for such a change.]

[Footnote 79: _Her horns too._--Ver. 783. Isis was sometimes
worshipped under the form of a cow, to the horns of which
reference is here made.]

[Footnote 80: _The social fires._--Ver. 795. On the occasion of
marriages, offerings were made on the altars of Hymenaeus and the
other Deities, who were the guardians of conjugal rites.]

EXPLANATION.

The story of Iphis being changed from a young woman into a man,
of which Ovid lays the scene in the isle of Crete, is one of those
facts upon which ancient history is entirely silent. Perhaps, the
origin of the story was a disguise of a damsel in male dress,
carried on, for family reasons, even to the very point of marriage;
or it may have been based upon an ac