515. ~sage poets~. Homer and Virgil are meant; both of these mention the chimera. Milton (_Par. Lost_, iii. 19) afterwards speaks of himself as "taught by the heavenly Muse." Comp. _L'Alleg._ 17; _Il Pens._ 117, "great bards besides In sage and solemn tunes have sung." 516. ~storied~, related: 'To story' is here used actively: the past participle is frequent in the sense of 'bearing a story or picture'; _Il Pens._ 159, "storied windows"; Gray's _Elegy_, 41, "storied urn"; Tennyson's "storied walls." _Story_ is an abbreviation of _history_. 517. ~Chimeras~, monsters. Comp. the sublime passage in _Par. Lost_, ii. 618-628. The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster, with the head of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and the body of a goat. It was slain by Bellerophon. As a common name 'chimera' is used by Milton to denote a terrible monster, and is now current (in an age which rejects such fabulous creatures) in the sense of a wild fancy; hence the adj. _chimerical_ = wild or fanciful. ~enchanted isles~, _e.g._ those of Circe and Calypso, mentioned in the _Odyssey_. 518. ~rifted rocks~: rifted = riven. Orpheus, in search of Eurydice, entered the lower world through the rocky jaws of Taenarus, a cape in the south of Greece (see Virgil _Georg._ iv. 467, _Taenarias fauces_); here also Hercules emerged from Hell with the captive Cerberus. 519. ~such there be~. See note on l. 12 for this indicative use of _be_. 520. ~navel~, centre, inmost recess. Shakespeare (_Cor._ iii. l. 123) speaks of the 'navel of the state'; and in Greek Calypso's island was 'the navel of the sea,' while Apollo's temple at Delphi was 'the navel of the earth.' 521. ~Immured~, enclosed. Here used generally: radically it = shut up within walls (Lat. _murus_, a wall). 523. ~witcheries~, enchantments. 526. ~murmurs~. The incantations or spells of evil powers were sung or murmured over the doomed object; sometimes they were muttered (as here) over the enchanted food or drink prepared for the victim. Comp. l. 817 and _Arc._ 60, "With puissant words and _murmurs_ made to bless." 529. ~unmoulding reason's mintage charactered~, _i.e._ defacing those signs of a rational soul that are stamped on the human face. The figure is taken from the process of melting down coins in order to restamp them. 'Charactered': here used in its primary sense (Gk. χαρακτήρ, an engraven or stamped mark), as in the phrase 'printed characters.' The word is here accented on the second syllable; in modern English on the first. 531. ~crofts that brow~ = crofts that overhang. Croft = a small field, generally adjoining a house. Brow = overhang: comp. _L'Alleg._ 8, "low-browed rocks." 532. ~bottom glade~: the glade below. The word _bottom_, however, is frequent in Shakespeare in the sense of 'valley'; hence 'bottom glade' might be interpreted 'glade in the valley.'