=143.  Centaurs.= Monsters, half man, half horse.

=145.  Pelion.= A mountain in eastern Thessaly, famous in Greek mythology.  In the war between the giants and the gods, the former, in their efforts to scale the heavens, piled Ossa upon Olympus and Pelion upon Ossa.

=151-161.= What in these lines enables you to determine the people and country alluded to?

=162-167.  Scythian ... embers.= The ancient Greek term for the nomadic tribes inhabiting the whole north and northeast Europe and Asia.  As a distinct people they built no cities, and formed no general government, but wandered from place to place by tribes, in their rude, covered carts (see l. 164), living upon the coarsest kind of food (ll. 166-167).

=177-180.  Clusters of lonely mounds, etc.= That is, ruins of ancient cities.

=183.  Chorasmian stream.= See note, l. 878, Sohrab and Rustum.

=197. milk-barr’d onyx-stones.= A reference to the white streaks, or bars, common to the onyx.

=206.  Happy Islands.= Mythical islands lying far to the west, the abode of the heroes after death.

=220.  Hera’s anger.= Hera (or Juno), wife to Jupiter, was noted for her violent temper and jealousy.  She is here represented as visiting punishment upon the bard, perhaps out of jealousy of the gods who had endowed him with poetic power, and his life, thus afflicted, seems lengthened to seven ages. [182]

=228-229.  Lapithae.= In Greek legends, a fierce Thessalian race, governed by Pirothous, a half-brother to the Centaurs. =Theseus.= The chief hero of Attica, who, according to tradition, united the several tribes of Attica into one state, with Athens as the capital.  His life was filled with adventure.  The reference here is to the time of the marriage of Pirothous and Hippodamia, on which occasion the Centaurs, who were among the guests, became intoxicated, and offered indignities to the bride.  In the fight that followed, Theseus joined with the Lapithae, and many of the Centaurs were slain.

=231.  Alcmena’s dreadful son.= Hercules.  On his expedition to capture the Arcadian boar, his third labor, Hercules became involved in a broil with the Centaurs, and in self-defence slew several of them with his arrows.

=245.  Oxus stream.= See note, l. 2, Sohrab and Rustum.

=254.  Heroes.= The demigods of mythology.

=257.  Troy.= The capital of Troas, Asia Minor; the seat of the Trojan war.

=254-260.= Shortly after the close of the Trojan war, a party of heroes from all parts of Greece, many of whom had participated in the expeditions against Thebes and Troy, set out under the leadership of Jason to capture the Golden Fleece.  Leaving the shores of Thessaly, the adventurers sailed eastward and finally came to the entrance of the =Euxine Sea= (the =unknown sea=, l. 260), which was guarded by the Clashing Islands.