e lower world. Orpheus, the mythical poet, so charmed the gods
of the nether world by his harp-playing, that he was allowed to take
back to the upper world his dead wife Eurydice. Castor was mortal,
but his brother Pollux was immortal; so when the former was slain
in fight Pollux obtained from Jupiter permission that each should
spend half their time in heaven, half in Hades. Theseus descended
into Hades in order to carry off Proserpine. He was kept a prisoner
there until he was rescued by Hercules (Alcides), who came down to
carry off Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guarded the entrance
(see stanza lvi.).

XXXII. Virgil alludes to the promontory of Misenum on the north side
of the bay of Naples. The legend is a purely local one. There is no
mention of Misenus in Homer.

XXXIII. 'Aornos' is a Greek word--'where no bird can come.'

XXXV. 'The Furies' mother and her sister' were Night and Earth.

XXXVII. 'Phlegethon' was the 'burning' river of the lower world.

XXXIX. The beast of Lerna is the Lernean Hydra, slain by Hercules;
the others are terrible monsters slain by various heroes.

XLI. Charon was the ferryman of the dead.

LIV. Apollo was called Amphrysian because he tended the herds of
Admetus near the river Amphrysus in Thessaly. Here the epithet is
strangely transferred to Apollo's servant.

LVII. Minos, king of Crete, became one of the judges of the dead,
in the under-world. His brother Rhadamanthus was the other. See
stanza lxxv.

LIX. For Phaedra, see note on Book VII. stanza ciii. Procris was
accidentally slain by her husband, Eriphyle was killed by her son
Alcmaeon, Evadne threw herself on her husband's funeral pyre, and
Laodamia also died with her husband. For Pasiphae, see note on stanza
iv.

LXIII. Tydeus, Parthenopaeus, and Adrastus were three of the seven
heroes who fought against Thebes. The other names are taken from the
_Iliad_.

LXXVII. The two sons of Aloeus were Otus and Ephialtes, who
threatened to assail the Immortals by piling Pelion on Ossa and Ossa
on Olympus. Salmoneus of Elis was punished for having presumptuously
claimed divine honours.

LXXX. Ixion was king of the Lapithae, and being taken to heaven by
Jupiter, made love to Juno, for which he was eternally punished.
Pirithous was his son, and was guilty of having, with Theseus,
attempted to carry off Proserpine.

XCIII. _Lethe_ was the river of forgetfulness, and those who drank
of it forgot their former life and were r