he son of Phoebus, and the
brother of AEetes. Marrying her uncle AEetes, she is said to have
been the mother of Circe, Medea, and Absyrtus. By some writers she
is confounded with the Moon and with Proserpine; as identical with
the Moon, she has the epithets 'Triceps' and 'Triformis,' often
given to her by the poets, because the Moon sometimes is full,
sometimes disappears, and often shows but part of her disk.]

[Footnote 13: _And by the sire._--Ver. 96. Allusion is made to the
Sun, who was said to be the father of AEetes, the destined
father-in-law of Jason.]

[Footnote 14: _Breathe forth flames._--Ver. 104. The name of the
God of fire is here used to signify that element. Apollodorus
says, that Medea gave Jason a drug (+pharmakon+) to rub over
himself and his armor.]

[Footnote 15: _Or when flints._--Ver. 107. It is difficult to
determine whether 'silices' here means 'flint-stones,' or
'lime-stone;' probably the latter, from the mention of water
sprinkled over them. If the meaning is 'flint-stones,' the passage
may refer to the manufacture of glass, with the art of making
which the ancients were perfectly acquainted.]

[Footnote 16: _Unused to it._--Ver. 119. Because, being sacred to
Mars, it was not permitted to be ploughed.]

[Footnote 17: _Dragon's teeth._--Ver. 122. These were a portion of
the teeth of the dragon slain by Cadmus, which Mars and Minerva
had sent to AEetes.]

[Footnote 18: _Lethaean juice._--Ver. 152. Lethe was a river of the
infernal regions, whose waters were said to produce sleep and
forgetfulness.]

[Footnote 19: _Port of Iolcos._--Ver. 158. Iolcos was a city of
Thessaly, of which country Jason was a native.]

EXPLANATION.

To understand this story, one of the most famous in the early history
of Greece, we must go back to the origin of it, and examine the
fictions which the poets have mingled with the history of the
expedition of the Argonauts, one of the most remarkable events of the
fabulous ages.

Athamas, the son of AEolus, grandson of Hellen, and great-grandson of
Deucalion, having married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was obliged to
divorce her, on account of the madness with which she was attacked. He
afterwards married Nephele, by whom he had a son and daughter, Phryxus
and Helle; but on his taking his first wife again, she brought him two