IV. Diomedes, the son of Tydeus from Aetolia, is said to have settled, after the Trojan war, in Apulia, where he founded the city of Arpi. The Latins, it will be remembered, had asked him to help them against the Trojans. See Book VIII. stanza ii. And for the result of the embassy, Book XI. stanza xxxi. and following. VI. For the burning of the vessels at Eryx, see Book V. stanzas lxxxii. and following. For _Aeolia_ Book I. stanzas viii. to xx. For _Alecto_ Book VII. stanzas xliv. and following. VIII. Paphos, Amathus, and Idalium were towns in Cyprus. Cythera is an island off the southern coast of Greece. All four were celebrated in antiquity as centres of the worship of Venus. XIV. The robber was Paris, who carried off Helen. XXI. _Ismarus_ was a prince from Lydia, a district in Asia Minor, called Maeonia in ancient times. The Pactolus was a river in Maeonia, famous on account of the quantity of gold it washed down. The 'Capuan town' is Capua. XXIII. The lions are there because Cybele the Phrygian goddess, worshipped by the Trojans on Mount Ida, was drawn in her chariot by two lions. The figure-head of Aeneas' ship was probably an image of a goddess, personifying the mountain. XXIV. Mount Helicon is in Boeotia, and was sacred to Apollo and the Muses. _Clusium_ and _Cosae_ were Etruscan cities. XXV. _Populonia:_ a town on the coast of Etruria. _Ilva_ (the modern Elba): an island off the coast of Etruria near Populonia. XXVII. Cinyras and Cupavo were sons of Cycnus. The legend tells us that Phaethon rashly attempted to drive the chariot of the sun, and was killed by a thunderbolt from Jupiter, while so doing. Cycnus, who was devotedly attached to him, was changed into a swan while lamenting his death. XXVIII. Mantua was Virgil's birthplace. Hence probably the insertion of this tradition as to its origin. Mincius, mentioned in the next stanza, is a Lombard river, the Mincio, and flows out from Lake Benacus (Lago di Garda). XXXVII. Sirius, the dog-star, whose rising was supposed to coincide with the hot weather, is always spoken of as bringing pestilence and trouble. The connection between Sirius and the hot weather was one of the conventions of poetry which the Augustan writers had borrowed from the Greeks. LXVII. The story referred to is that of the fifty daughters of Danaus, who were married to the fifty sons of Aegyptus, their cousins. Danaus ordered his daughters to murder their husbands on their wedding night, and they all obeyed except Hypermnestra, who loved her husband Lynceus, and so saved his life. LXXIII. Trivia here refers to Diana. Gradivus is an archaic Latin name for Mars.