HKB
[Footnote 5: Haste then.--Ver. 47. Clarke translates ‘accingere,’ more literally than elegantly, ‘buckle to.’]
[Footnote 6: Pelasgian cities.--Ver. 49. Pelasgia was properly that part of Greece which was afterwards called Thessaly. The province of Pelasgiotis, in Thessaly, afterwards retained its name, which was derived from the Pelasgi, an early people of Greece. Pliny informs us that Peloponnesus at first had the names of ‘Apia’ and ‘Pelasgia.’ Some suppose that the Pelasgi derived their name from Pelasgus, the son of Jupiter; while other writers assert that they were so called from πελαργοὶ, ‘storks,’ from their wandering habits. The name is frequently used, as in the present instance, to signify the whole of the Greeks.]
[Footnote 7: My sister.--Ver. 51. Her sister was Chalciope, who had married Phryxus, after his arrival in Colchis. Her children being found by Jason, in the isle of Dia, they came with him to Colchis, and presented him to their mother, who afterwards commended him to the care of Medea.]
[Footnote 8: And my brother.--Ver. 51. Her brother was Absyrtus, whose tragical death is afterwards mentioned.]
[Footnote 9: Is barbarous.--Ver. 53. It was certainly ‘barbara’ in the eyes of a Greek; but the argument sounds rather oddly in the mouth of Medea, herself a native of the country.]
[Footnote 10: The youth of Greece.--Ver. 56. These were the Argonauts, who were selected from the most noble youths of Greece.]
[Footnote 11: What mountains.--Ver. 63. These were the Cyanean rocks, or Symplegades, at the mouth of the Euxine sea.]
[Footnote 12: Hecate.--Ver. 74. Ancient writers seem to have been much divided in opinion who Hecate was. Ovid here follows the account which made her to be the daughter of Perses, who, according to Diodorus Siculus, was the son of Phœbus, and the brother of Æetes. Marrying her uncle Æetes, she is said to have been the mother of Circe, Medea, and Absyrtus. By some writers she is confounded with the Moon and with Proserpine; as identical with the Moon, she has the epithets ‘Triceps’ and ‘Triformis,’ often given to her by the poets, because the Moon sometimes is full, sometimes disappears, and often shows but part of her disk.]
[Footnote 13: And by the sire.--Ver. 96. Allusion is made to the Sun, who was said to be the father of Æetes, the destined father-in-law of Jason.]
[Footnote 14: Breathe forth flames.--Ver. 104. The name of the God of fire is here used to signify that element. Apollodorus says, that Medea gave Jason a drug (φάρμακον) to rub over himself and his armor.]
[Footnote 15: Or when flints.--Ver. 107. It is difficult to determine whether ‘silices’ here means ‘flint-stones,’ or ‘lime-stone;’ probably the latter, from the mention of water sprinkled over them. If the meaning is ‘flint-stones,’ the passage may refer to the manufacture of glass, with the art of making which the ancients were perfectly acquainted.]
[Footnote 16: Unused to it.--Ver. 119. Because, being sacred to Mars, it was not permitted to be ploughed.]
[Footnote 17: Dragon’s teeth.--Ver. 122. These were a portion of the teeth of the dragon slain by Cadmus, which Mars and Minerva had sent to Æetes.]
[Footnote 18: Lethæan juice.--Ver. 152. Lethe was a river of the infernal regions, whose waters were said to produce sleep and forgetfulness.]
[Footnote 19: Port of Iolcos.--Ver. 158. Iolcos was a city of Thessaly, of which country Jason was a native.]
EXPLANATION.
To understand this story, one of the most famous in the early history of Greece, we must go back to the origin of it, and examine the fictions which the poets have mingled with the history of the expedition of the Argonauts, one of the most remarkable events of the fabulous ages.