[160] 61:11. =Hermione.= Granddaughter of Leda, daughter of Menelaus and Helen; had been betrothed in Menelaus’ absence to Orestes. Menelaus, not knowing this, gave her to Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, Achilles’ son. [161] 61:36. =Scæan gate.= Famous gate of Troy. [162] 63:4. =Circe.= The famous sorceress, who by her magic cake turned men into animals. She was called Ææan, from Æa, a city in Colchis, in Asia Minor, famous for its magic. Circe came from Colchis. Her island is fabled to have become a promontory of Latium. [163] 64:5. =Scylla and Charybdis.= Whirlpools, bordering the straits of Messina, dangerous to the ancient navigator. This is the description of Scylla used by Milton in describing one of the guardians of the gate of Hell. [164] 64:15. =Trinacrian.= Sicilian. The word is of Greek origin, and signifies triangular, referring to the contour of Sicily. Pachynus itself was the southeastern point of Sicily, the modern Capo di Passaro. [165] 66:8. =Astyanax.= Son of Hector and Andromache, who perished in the sack of Troy. [166] 67:8. =Aurora.= Goddess of the dawn. Wife of Tithonus. [167] 68:32. =Enceladus.= One of the giants who was defeated by Jupiter and imprisoned in a burning cave beneath Mount Ætna. See Longfellow’s _Enceladus_. “Under Mount Etna he lies, It is slumber, it is not death; For he struggles at times to arise, And above him the lurid skies Are hot with his fiery breath.” All this region, as has been newly shown by the late terrible earthquake, is peculiarly subject to seismic disturbances. [168] 72:17. =Arethusa.= According to fable, pursued by Alpheus, river-god of Elis in Greece, was turned into a subterranean river, still pursued by the river-god under the Ægean until she emerged harmoniously blent with her pursuer in the famous fountain of Ortygia. Shelley uses the legend as follows in his _Arethusa_:— “And now from their fountains In Enna’s mountains, Down one vale where the morning basks, Like friends once parted Grown single-hearted, They ply their watery tasks. At sunrise they leap From their cradles steep In the cave of the shelving hill; At noontide they flow Through the woods below And the meadows of asphodel; And at night they sleep In the rocking deep Beneath the Ortygian shore:— Like spirits that lie In the azure sky Where they love but live no more.” BOOK IV This portion of the _Æneid_ was written when the memory of Antony and Cleopatra was still fresh, and many traits of royal, imperious Dido seem suggestive of the Egyptian queen. Cf. Shakespeare’s _Cleopatra_, and Chaucer’s _Legend of Good Women_. [169] 74:8. =Dawn-goddess.= Aurora, with Phœbus’ torch. Apollo is constantly identified with the sun-god. [170] 75:3. =Erebus.= God of darkness, son of Chaos and brother of Night. Synonymous with darkness, especially that of the underworld.