Then, on a sudden, the fierce flame supprest,
A frost continual settled on my breast, 110
Whence Cupid fears his flames extinct to see,
And Venus dreads a Diomede15 in me.
1 i.e. "In my nineteenth year."
2 Venus (Aphrodite), so called from Amethus in Cyprus, where she
had a temple.
3 Cupid, called after his mother's title.
4 Ganymede, whom Jove, in the form of an eagle, spirited away to
serve as his cup-bearer. See Ovid (Met. x, 155-161)
5 The friend of Hercules, stolen by nymphs who had fallen in love
with him.
6 She fled from Apollo, and was transformed into a laurel.
7 The Roman Crassus was defeated in 53 B.C. by the Parthian
cavalry when they fired backwards with devastating effect. The Cydonians were
also famed for their skill in archery.
8 Cephalus, who shot his wife Procris by mistake.
9 Hercules. 10 Telemon.
11 Esculapius, who came to Rome in the form of a snake.
12 Vulcan (Hephaestus) was cast down from Olympus to the isle of
Lemnos.
13 One of the Argonauts. He was swallowed up by the sea.
14 A later retraction by Milton. The line appears in the original to separate it
from what came before it.
15 Diomedes wounded Venus (Aphrodite) at Troy.
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