POEMS OLD AND NEW
1. 16. Anodynes : remedies to soothe or kill pain.
P. 129, 1. 2. Averse : turning away.
As Dido did: Dido, Queen of Carthage, who killed
herself for love of her " false friend," Aeneas.
Ilia solo fixos bculos aversa tenebat. . . .
Tandem corripuit sese, atque inimica refugit.
Virgil, " Aeneid," vi. 469, 472.
1. 26. Tynan : of Tyre, on the coast of Palestine.
1. 30. JEgaan Isles : a number of small islands between
Greece and Asia Minor.
1. 32. Chian : of Chios, one of the Aegean Islands.
1. 33. Tunnies : a large Mediterranean sea-fish.
P. 130, 1. 5. Syrtes: two bays on the north coast of
Africa, now known as the Gulf of Sydra and the Gulf
of Gabes. Also : the sandbanks north of these bays.
L 9. Iberians: the early inhabitants of Spain, the
Iberian peninsula.
Itylus.
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) was born in
London, and educated at Eton and Balliol College,
Oxford. With " Atalanta in Calydon " (1865) he
achieved poetic fame. His poetry shows a matchless
command of rhythm and sound, and much of it was
inspired by sympathy with the cause of political liberty
abroad.
P. 130, 1. ii. Swallow, my sister : According to the Greek
legend, Pandius, king of Athens, had two daughters,
Philomela and Procne. He called in against his
enemies the assistance of Tereus, king of the Thracians
in Daulis, and afterwards gave him his daughter
Procne in marriage. Later, wishing to marry her sister
Philomela, Tereus concealed Procne in the country
and gave out that she was dead. At the same time he
deprived Philomela of her tongue. Philomela, how-
ever, discovered the truth and made it known to her
sister by a few words woven into a web. Procne there-
upon killed her son Itys, and served up the flesh to
Tereus. The sisters then fled, pursued by Tereus.
When overtaken, they prayed to the gods to change
them into birds. Procne became a swallow, Philomela
a nightingale.
Swinburne has confused Itys with Itylus.
P. 132, 1. 2. Itylus: Aedon, wife of Zethus, king of Thebes,
had one child, Itylus. Being envious of the twelve
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