[Footnote 488: The dogs bark.--Ver. 40. The women of loose character, among the Romans, were much in the habit of keeping dogs, for the protection of their houses.] FOOTNOTES BOOK THREE: [Footnote 501: Than the other.--Ver. 8. 'He alludes to the unequal lines of the Elegiac measure, which consists of Hexameters and Pentameters. In personifying Elegy, he might have omitted this remark, as it does not add to the attractions of a lady, to have one foot longer than the other; he says, however, that it added to her gracefulness.] [Footnote 502: The Lydian buskin.--Ver. 14. As Lydia was said to have sent colonists to Etruria, some Commentators think that the word 'Lydius' here means 'Etrurian and that the first actors at Rome were Etrurians. But, as the Romans derived their notions of tragedy from the Greeks, we may conclude that Lydia in Asia Minor is here referred to; for we learn from Herodotus and other historians, that the Greeks borrowed largely from the Lydians.] [Footnote 503: Drunken revels.--Ver. 17. He probably alludes to the Fourth Elegy of the First, and the Fifth Elegy of the Second Book of the 'Amores.'] [Footnote 505: Mighty inspiration.--Ver. 23. The 'thyrsus' was said to have been first used by the troops of Bacchus, in his Indian expedition, when, to deceive the Indians, they concealed the points of their spears amid leaves of the vine and ivy. Similar weapons were used by his devotees when worshipping him, which they brandished to and fro. To be touched with the thyrsus of Bacchus, meant 'to be inspired with poetic frenzy.' See the Notes to the Metamorphoses, Book iii. 1. 542.] [Footnote 506: In unequal numbers.--Ver. 37. Some have supposed, that allusion is made to the Tragedy of Medea, which Ovid had composed, and that it had been written in Elegiac measure. This, however, does not seem to be the meaning of the passage. Elegy justly asks Tragedy, why, if she has such a dislike to Elegiac verses, she has been talking in them? which she has done, from the 15th line to the 30th.] [Footnote 507: Myself the patroness.--Ver. 44. She certainly does not give herself a very high character in giving herself the title of 'lena.'] [Footnote 508: The fastened door.--Ver. 50. He alludes, probably, to one of the Elegies which he rejected, when he cut down the five books to three.] [Footnote 509: In a hose tunic.--Ver. 51. He may possibly allude to the Fifth Elegy of the First Book, as the words 'tunicâ velata recinctâ,' as applied to Corinna, are there found. But there he mentions midday as the time when Corinna came to him, whereas he seems here to allude to the middle of the night.] [Footnote 510: Cut in the wood.--Ver. 53. He alludes to the custom of lovers carving inscriptions on the doors of their obdurate mistresses: this we learn from Plautus to have been done in Elegiac strains, and sometimes with charcoal. 'Implentur meæ fores clegiarum carbonibus.' 'My doors are filled with the coal-black marks of elegies.']