umenides_ of Aeschylus,
but it is more probable that in the latter case he is merely thinking
of Orestes as he is represented in tragedy.

LXVI. _Hecate_, the goddess of the lower world, sometimes identified
with Proserpina, and sometimes with Diana. She was worshipped at
cross-roads by night.

For _Avernus_, see note on Book VI. stanza xviii.

The ancients believed that foals were born with a lump on their
foreheads. The name given to this was _hippomanes_, and it was
supposed to act as a powerful love-philtre.

LXXXII. By the 'unknown Avenger' Virgil clearly points to Hannibal.

NOTES TO BOOK FIVE

IV. Eryx was the son of Venus and Butes, Aeneas son of Venus and
Anchises, hence they are called brothers here. Eryx is the legendary
founder of the town of that name on the west coast of Sicily, near
Mount Eryx.

VI. The story was that Acestes was the son of the Sicilian river-god
Crimisus and Egesta, a Trojan maiden.

XI. The myrtle was sacred to Venus. Helymus was the supposed founder
of the Elymi, a Sicilian tribe. He was a Trojan who had migrated to
Sicily from Troy.

XVI.-XVII. The _gens Memmia_ and the _gens Sergia_ were two
distinguished Roman families who traced their descent from Trojans.
The only member of the family of Cluentius we know much about is the
disreputable person on whose behalf Cicero made a well-known speech.

XXVI. Cape Malea is the most southerly point of Laconia in the
Peloponnesus, renowned for its storms.

XXXII. _Panopea_ was one of the Nereids or sea-nymphs. Portunus was
an ancient Roman sea-god. Originally he was, as his name implies,
a god of harbourage.

XXXIII. Meliboea was a town at the foot of Mount Ossa in Thessaly.

LVI. _Alcides_, a common name for Hercules, who was descended from
Alcaeus. Hercules slew Eryx in the boxing-match referred to.

LXVIII. This refers to an incident mentioned in the _Iliad_. A truce
had been concluded by the Greek and Trojans but it was broken by
Pandarus, who shot an arrow at Menelaus.

LXXII. The meaning of this passage is very obscure. For we are not
told what the portent signified either in this or the succeeding
books. The old interpretation was that it referred to the burning
of the ships (lxxxii. and following), but it is more probable that
Virgil was thinking of the wars between Rome and Sicily.

LXXVII. The mother of Augustus was a member of the Atian family, and
this passage was evidently inserted by Virgil with the sp