to heaven, and, looking up to the light of the Sun,
she said, "Son, I swear to thee, by this beam, bright with shining rays,
which both hears and sees us, that thou, that thou, {I say}, wast
begotten by this Sun, which thou beholdest; by this {Sun}, which governs
the world. If I utter an untruth, let him deny himself to be seen by me,
and let this light prove the last for my eyes. Nor will it be any
prolonged trouble for thee to visit thy father's dwelling; the abode
where he arises is contiguous to our regions.[116] If only thy
inclination disposes thee, go forth, and thou shalt inquire of himself."

Phaeton immediately springs forth, overjoyed, upon these words of his
mother, and reaches the skies in imagination; and he passes by his own
AEthiopians, and the Indians situate beneath the rays of the Sun,[117]
and briskly wends his way to the rising of his sire.

[Footnote 111: _The Argive mistress._--Ver. 726. Clarke renders
'Pellicis Argolicae,' 'of the Grecian miss.']

[Footnote 112: _The linen-wearing throng._--Ver. 747. The priests,
and worshippers of Isis, with whom Io is here said to be
identical, paid their adoration to her clothed in linen vestments.
Probably, Isis was the first to teach the Egyptians the
cultivation of flax.]

[Footnote 113: _Epaphus._--Ver. 748. Herodotus, in his second
book, tells us, that this son of Jupiter, by Io, was the same as
the Egyptian God, Apis. Eusebius, quoting from Apollodorus, says
that Epaphus was the son of Io, by Telegonus, who married her.]

[Footnote 114: _Clymene._--Ver. 756. She was a Nymph of the sea,
the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.]

[Footnote 115: _Merops._--Ver. 763. He was king of Ethiopia, and
marrying the Nymph Clymene, was either the stepfather of Phaeton,
or, as some writers say, his putative father.]

[Footnote 116: _To our regions._--Ver. 773. Ethiopia, which, in
the time of Ovid, was generally looked upon as one of the regions
of the East.]

[Footnote 117: _The rays of the Sun._--Ver. 778. 'Ignibus
sidereis,' means here the 'heat,' or 'fire of the sun,' the sun
being considered as a 'sidus,' or 'luminous heavenly body.']

EXPLANATION.

To the elucidation of this narrative, already given, we will only add,
that some of the mythologists inform us, that when Mercury had lulled
Argus to sleep, a youth named Hierax awoke him; on which Mercury
killed Ar