[Footnote 1: Upon occasion of the death of Hercules, his mother Alcmena
recounts her misfortunes to Iole, who answers with a relation of those
of her own family, in particular the transformation of her sister
Dryope, which is the subject of the ensuing fable.--POPE.]
[Footnote 2: Alcmena. Galanthis was one of her female servants.]
[Footnote 3: Iole was not the consort of Alcmena's son, Hercules, but of
her grandson, Hyllus.]
[Footnote 4: Out of jealousy that Alcmena should bear a child to
Jupiter, Juno employed Lucina to hinder the birth of Hercules. The
malevolence of the goddess was defeated through the ingenuity of
Galanthis, who was straightway turned into a weasel by the baffled and
irritated Lucina.]
[Footnote 5: Sandys' translation:
Of all the Oechalides
For form few might with Dryope compare.]
[Footnote 6: This flowing couplet he has transferred into more places
than one of his version of Homer.--WAKEFIELD.]
[Footnote 7: Dryden, AEn. iii. 54: