872. ~Carpathian wizard's hook~. See Virgil's _Georg._ iv. 387, "In the
sea-god's Carpathian gulf there lives a seer, Proteus, of the sea's own
hue ... all things are known to him, those which are, those which have
been, and those which drag their length through the advancing future."
_Wizard_ = diviner, without the depreciatory sense of line 571; see note
there. _Hook_: Proteus had a shepherd's hook, because he tended "the
monstrous herds of loathly sea-calves": _Odyssey_, iv. 385-463.
873. ~scaly Triton's ... shell~. In _Lycidas_, 89, he is "the Herald of
the Sea." He bore a 'wreathed horn' or shell which he blew at the
command of Neptune in order to still the restless waves of the sea. He
was 'scaly,' the lower part of his body being like that of a fish.
874. ~soothsaying Glaucus~. He was a Boeotian fisherman who had been
changed into a marine deity, and was regarded by fishermen and sailors
as a soothsayer or oracle: see note, l. 823.
875. ~Leucothea~: lit. "the white goddess" (Gk. +leukê+, +thea+), the
name by which Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was worshipped after she had
thrown herself into the sea to avoid her enraged husband Athamas.
876. ~her son~, _i.e._ Melisertes, drowned and deified along with his
mother: as a sea-deity he was called Palaemon, identified by the Romans
with their god of harbours, Portumnus.
877. ~tinsel-slippered~. The 'permanent epithet' of Thetis, a daughter
of Nereus and mother of Achilles, is "silver-footed" (Gk. +argyropeza+).
Comp. _Neptune's Triumph_ (Jonson):
"And all the silver-footed nymphs were drest
To wait upon him, to the Ocean's feast."
'Tinsel-slippered' is a paraphrase of this, for 'tinsel' is a cloth
worked with silver (or gold): the notion of cheap finery is not radical.
Etymologically, _tinsel_ is that which glitters or _scintillates_. On
the beauty of this epithet, and of Milton's compound epithets generally,
see Trench, _English Past and Present_, p. 296.
878-80. ~Sirens ... Parthenopè's ... Ligea's~. The three Sirens (see
note, l. 253) were Parthenopè, Lig{=e}a, and Lucosia. The tomb of the
first was at Naples (see Milton's _Ad Leonaram_, iii., "Credula quid
liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas, Claraque Parthenopes fana
Achelöiados," etc.). Ligea, described by Virgil (_Georg._ iv. 336) as a
sea-nymph, is here represented as seated, like a mermaid, in the act of
smoothing her hair with a golden comb.
881. ~Wherewith~ = with which. The true adjective clause is "sleeking ...
locks" = with which she sleeks, etc.; and the true participial clause is
"she sits ... rocks" = seated on ... rocks.
882. ~Sleeking~, making sleek or glossy. The original sense of 'sleek' is
greasy: comp. _Lyc._ 99, "On the level brine _Sleek_ Panopè with all her
sisters played."
885. ~heave~, raise. Comp. the similar use of the word in _L'Alleg._ 145,
"Orpheus' self may heave his head."