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1 Helicon.
2 The Great Bear, called also Charles's Wain (wagon). "Bootes" is
the constellation called "The Waggoner," who is said to be "less
fatigued" because he drives the wain higher in the sky.
3 Diana (the Moon).
4 Tithonus, mortal husband to Aurora (the dawn), granted
immortality without eternal youth. See Homer's Hymn to Aphrodite
(lines 218-238). Cephalus was her lover, unwillingly taken by her
from his beloved wife Procris. See Ovid (Met. vii, 700-708).
5 Hades (Pluto).
6 A water goddess--mother of the river gods and wife of Oceanus.
7 The mother of Dionysus. Juno persuaded her to ask to see Jove in
all his divine glory, the vision of which struck her dead. See
Ovid (Met. iii, 308-309.)
8 The wheels of Apollo's chariot. See Ovid (Met. ii, I9-328.)
9 The goddess of chastity.
10 Hymn to Hymen, the goddess of marriage. 11 The wood god.
12 The goddess of agriculture. Cybele (Rhea) was called the mother
of the gods and of men. See Virgil (Aen. x, 252-253.)
13 The god of shepherds. 14 A wood nymph.
ELEGY VI
To Charles Diodati,
When He Was Visiting in the Country
Who sent the Author a poetical epistle, in which he requested that
his verses, if not so good as usual, might be excused on account
of the many feasts to which his friends invited him, and which
would not allow him leisure to finish them as he wished.
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