LV. The 'Atridan pair' were Agamemnon, king of Argos, and Menelaus, king of Sparta, the sons of Atreus. LVI. _Nereus_ was one of the chief sea-gods. LXI. Andromache was the wife of Hector. LXIII. Pyrrhus is the same as Neoptolemus in stanza xxxv. LXXVI. Creusa and Iulus were the wife and son of Aeneas. LXXVII. Helen is called 'Tyndarean' because she was the daughter of Tyndarus. Paris, son of Priam, had carried her off from her husband Menelaus, and so caused the Trojan war. LXXXIII. The goddess Pallas (Athena) wore on her shield the head of the snaky-haired monster Medusa, one of the Gorgons. LXXXIV. The walls of Troy were said to have been built by Apollo and Neptune. CV. _Hesperia_, 'the western land,' here means Italy. The Tiber is called Lydian from a tradition that the Lydians had colonised Etruria. NOTES TO BOOK THREE X. The _Nereids_ were sea-nymphs, the daughters of Nereus. The island mentioned is Delos, and the story referred to is that Jupiter hid Latona, the mother of Apollo and Diana, on the floating island of Delos, in order to shelter her from the jealousy of Juno. By means of chains Apollo fixed Delos between the two small neighbouring islands Myconos and Gyarus. XII. 'Thymbrean lord.' Apollo, so called from the town of Thymbra in the Troad, where he was worshipped. XVI. Crete is called 'Gnosian' from 'Gnossos,' the chief town of the island. XVII. _Ortygia_ was the ancient name of Delos. XXIII. The 'Ausonian shores' means Italy. For the Ausonians, see Book VII. stanza vi. XXIX. The Strophades were a small group of islands off the south-west coast of Greece. The story alluded to is that Phineus, king of Thrace, unjustly put out the eyes of his sons. As a punishment the gods blinded him, and sent the Harpies--loathsome monsters with the bodies of birds and the faces of women--to defile and seize all the food that was set before him. Phineus was at last freed from them by Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind, who drove the Harpies from Thrace to the Strophades. For Celaeno's prophecy, see note on Book VII. stanza xvi. XXXVI. Ulysses, the most cunning of the Greek leaders before Troy, was king of Ithaca, and son of Laertes. XXXIX. _Phaeacia_ means _Corcyra_, and _Chaonia_ is a district of Epirus. Its chief harbour was Buthrotum. XLIII. _Hermione_ was the daughter of Menelaus and Helen. Orestes was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. He slew his mother on account of her treacherous murder of Agamemnon when the latter returned home from Troy, and killed Pyrrhus for having deprived him of his promised bride, Hermione. XLVI. _Xanthus_ was a river that flowed near Troy. The 'Scaean Gate' was the western gate of Troy and looked towards the sea. It was the best known of the gates because most of the fighting took place before it. XLVII. Apollo was called 'Clarian' from Claros (near Ephesus), where there was a shrine and oracle of the god.