Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/375

 is interesting to note that the position given the Sibyl, as guide of Æneas, Dante in turn gives to Virgil as his own guide in the lower world.

122:24. Sons of Cecrops. The Athenians yearly surrendered seven youths and seven maidens to be sent to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur, because the Athenians, through envy of his success in the public games, had murdered Androgeus, son of Minos, king of Crete, and Minos had made this the condition of peace.

122:31. The edifice is the Labyrinth, in which the Minotaur was confined.

123:5. Icarus. Son of Dædalus, who sought to escape with his father from Crete, but flew so near the sun that the wax by which his wings were fastened on was melted, and he fell and perished in the sea called from his name Icarian.

123:35. Dardan. Trojan. The Trojans are called by Virgil sometimes descendants of Dardanus, sometimes of Laomedon, sometimes of Anchises, again of Æneas, now Teucrians, and now Phrygians.

123:36. Æacides. A patronymic, applied by Virgil, now to Achilles, as here, now to Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, meaning descendant of Æacus.

124:35. Dorian. Greek.

125:36. Alcides. Hercules.

126:10. Cocytus. A river of the underworld.

127:29. Fissile. Easy to split.

129:19. Aornos. Greek word, meaning without birds.