AEsar._--Ver. 23. The AEsar was a little
stream of Calabria, which flowed into the sea, near the city of
Crotona.]

[Footnote 3: _Son of Amphitryon._--Ver. 49. Hercules was the
putative son of Amphitryon, king of Thebes, who was the husband of
his mother Alcmena.]

[Footnote 4: _Tarentum._--Ver. 50. Tarentum was a famous city of
Calabria, said to have been founded by Taras, the son of Neptune.
It was afterwards enlarged by Phalanthus, a Lacedaemonian, whence
its present epithet.]

[Footnote 5: _Neaethus._--Ver. 51. This was a river of the
Salentine territory, near Crotona.]

[Footnote 6: _Thurium._--Ver. 52. Thurium was a city of Calabria,
which received its name from a fountain in its vicinity. It was
also called Thuria and Thurion.]

[Footnote 7: _Fields of Iapyx._--Ver. 52. Iapygia was a name which
Calabria received from Iapyx, the son of Daedalus. There was also a
city of Calabria, named Iapygia, and a promontory, called
Iapygium.]

EXPLANATION.

To the story here told of Micylus, or Myscelus, as most of the
ancient writers call him, another one was superadded. Suidas, on the
authority of the Scholiast of Aristophanes, says that Myscelus,
having consulted the oracle, concerning the colony which he was
about to lead into a foreign country, was told that he must settle
at the place where he should meet with rain in a clear sky, +ex
aithrias+. His faith surmounting the apparent impossibility of
having both fair and foul weather at the same moment, he obeyed the
oracle, and put to sea; and, after experiencing many dangers, he
landed in Italy. Being full of uncertainty where to fix his colony,
he was reduced to great distress; on which his wife, whose name was
Aithrias, with the view of comforting him, embraced him, and bedewed
his face with her tears. He immediately adopted the presage, and
understood the spot where he then was to be the site of his intended
city.

Strabo says that Myscelus, who was so called from the smallness of
his legs, designing to found a colony in a foreign land, arrived on
the coast of Italy. Observing that the spot which the oracle had
pointed out enjoyed a healthy climate, though the soil was not so
fertile as in the adjacent plains, he went once more to consult the
oracle; but was answered that he must not refuse what was offered
him; an answer which was afterwards