s of Plistus,
a river near Delphi. There was another Corycian cave in Cilicia,
in Asia Minor.]

[Footnote 57: _The prophetic Themis._--Ver. 321. Themis is said to
have preceded Apollo in giving oracular responses at Delphi. She
was the daughter of Coelus and Terra, and was the first to instruct
men to ask of the Gods that which was lawful and right, whence she
took the name of Themis, which signifies in Greek, 'that which is
just and right.']

[Footnote 58: _The native purple shells._--Ver. 332. 'Murex' was
the name of the shell-fish from which the Tyrian purple, so much
valued by the ancients, was procured. Some suppose that the
meaning here is, that Triton had his shoulders tinted with the
purple color of the murex. It is, however, more probable that the
Poet means to say that he had his neck and shoulders studded with
the shells of the murex, perhaps as a substitute for scales.]

[Footnote 59: _He bids him blow._--Ver. 333. There were several
Tritons, or minor sea gods. The one mentioned here, the chief
Triton, was fabled to be the son of Neptune and Amphitrite, who
always preceded Neptune in his course, and whose arrival he was
wont to proclaim by the sound of his shell. He was usually
represented as swimming, with the upper part of his body
resembling that of a human being, while his lower parts terminated
with the tail of a fish.]

[Footnote 60: _The hollow-wreathed trumpet._--Ver. 335. The
'Buccina,' or, as we call it, 'the conch shell,' was a kind of
horn, or trumpet, made out of a shell, called 'buccinum.' It was
sometimes artificially curved, and sometimes straight, retaining
the original form of the shell. The twisted form of the shell was
one of the characteristic features of the trumpet, which, in later
times, was made of horn, wood, or metal, so as to imitate the
shell. It was chiefly used among the Romans, to proclaim the
watches of the day and of the night, which watches were thence
called 'buccina prima,' 'secunda,' etc. It was also blown at
funerals, and at festive entertainments, both before sitting down
to table and after. Macrobius tells us, that Tritons holding
'buccinae' were fixed on the roof of the temple of Saturn.]

[Footnote 61: _The bidden retreat._--Ver. 340. 'Canere receptus'
was 'to sound the retreat,' as the signal for the soldiers