[Footnote 106: "Fry" was the reading of all the editions till that of
1736, when "fly" was substituted by an evident error of the press, and
has been retained ever since.]
[Footnote 107: "Tutress" in the first edition. Acestis had been the
nurse, and was now the duenna of the two daughters of Adrastus.]
[Footnote 108: The gorgon, Medusa, changed every one who saw her to
stone. Perseus avoided the penalty by only looking at her reflection in
a mirror as he cut off her head while she slept. Being the grandson of a
king of Argos he was an Argive hero, whence his triumph was engraved
upon the royal goblet. The artist had selected the moment when Perseus
is darting into the air with the head of the gorgon, which, newly
separated from the body, still retained the traces of expiring life.]
[Footnote 109: On account of the beauty of Ganymede, Jove sent an eagle
to convey him from the earth to the habitations of the gods. There he
was appointed cup-bearer, which rendered the incident appropriate to a
drinking-vessel.]
[Footnote 110: He has omitted some forcible expressions of the original:
Septem--atris--terentem--nigro--centum per jugera,--all of them
picturesque epithets.--WARTON.
Statius says, that the huge serpent while alive encircled Delphi seven
times with its dark coils, and that when dead and barely unrolled, its
body spread over a hundred acres.]
[Footnote 111: The water was not itself poisonous, but it turned to
venom in the serpent.]
[Footnote 112: Stephens is more literal, and at the same time more
poetical:
earth prepares thy room
Garnished with flow'ry beds, and thatched above
With oaken leaves close woven; whilst the grove
Lends bark to make thy garments.]
[Footnote 113: Much superior to the original.--WARTON.]
[Footnote 114: Sandy's translation of Ovid's Met. bk. vi.