This poem appears in Byron’s _Don Juan_. It is supposed to be sung by a wandering Greek minstrel during the marriage feast of the hero and heroine of the story; but it is a direct expression of Byron’s own feelings on the subject of Greek freedom. 2. =Sappho.= A lyric poetess who was born on the island of Lesbos about 625 B.C. =burning.= In reference to the passion in her poems and songs. 4. According to myth, Leda, who had supplanted Juno in the affections of Jupiter, was forced to flee from heaven to escape the wrath of Juno. Neptune took pity on her and raised the Island of Delos out of the sea in order to afford her a shelter. Here Phoebus and Diana, the twin children of Jupiter and Leda, were born. 7. =The Scian and the Teian muse.= The island of Chios (Scio) was said to be the birthplace of Homer, and the town of Teos, in Asia Minor, was the birthplace of the poet Anacreon. 11. =farther west.= In America. 12. In Greek mythology the “Islands of the Blest” were situated somewhere far in the western ocean. 13. Mount Pentelicus and Mount Parnes overlook the plain of Marathon, where in 490 B.C. a great battle was fought between the Persians under Darius, and the Greeks, led by Miltiades. 21. Ten years after the battle of Marathon, Xerxes, the son of Darius, invaded Greece with a vast army. The Persian fleet was defeated at Salamis, by the Greeks under Themistocles. Xerxes watched the progress of the fight from the mainland. 31. =in the dearth of fame.= Though the Greeks are no longer famed for their poets. 32. =a fetter’d race.= Since 1715 Greece had been in the hands of the Turks. The War of Independence which began in 1821, resulted in the establishment of the Greek kingdom in 1832. 37-8. =we.= Italicized to bring out the contrast with _fathers_. 40-2. A reference to the battle of Thermopylae (470, B.C.) in which Leonidas with 300 Spartans and several hundred auxiliaries held the whole Persian army in check. 43. He has called upon the dead heroes of Greece to return (ll. 39-42); and now he listens for a reply. 49. =In vain.= It is in vain that we look for even one living hero to arise to lead the Greeks. 50-2. Samos, Chios, and other islands were famous for their wines. 53-4. =Bacchanal.= A follower of Bacchus, the god of wine. 55-6. The Pyrrhic dance was so named from Pyrrhichus, who invented it. The Pyrrhic phalanx derives its name from Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. A phalanx is a serried formation of troops. 59. The alphabet is said to have been introduced into Greece by Cadmus, a Phœnician, who lived about 1450, B.C. 63-5. Polycrates, who ruled over the Island of Samos, was the patron of Anacreon. _Tyrant_ in the Greek sense meant simply “ruler” or “master,” and as here used the word does not imply harshness or cruelty. 68. =Chersonese.= The word literally means a peninsula. Here it refers to the Tauric Chersonnesus, the modern Crimea. 72. That is, he bound the Greeks together to resist their enemies.