2 The Muses.
3 Cornelius Gallus, Roman eleist. See Virgil (Eclogue vi,
64-66, and x).
Maecenas. Roman patron of letters. See Horace (Odes, i,1),
4 Author of the Adone, a poem on the story of Venus and Adonis.
5 Herodotus, to whom The Life of Homer is attributed.
6 Chaucer, called Tityrus in Spencer's Pastorals.
7 The maidens who brought offerings to Delos. Loxo, descended from the ancient
British hero, Corineus; Upis, a prophetess; and
Hecaerge.
8 Admetus was King of Thessaly. Apollo was for a year his
shepherd.
9 See Homer (Il. xi, 830-831) and Ovid (Met. ii, 630).
10 Mt. Oeta, between Thessaly and Aetolia.
11 See Ovid (Met. x, 87-I06), where the trees crowd the hear
Orpheus sing.
12 Hermes.
13 The wreaths of victors, made from the laurel, which grew on Mt.
Parnassus, sacred to the Muses, and the myrtle, sacred to Venus,
a shrine to whom was at Paphos in Cyprus.
The Death of Damon.
The Argument.
Thyrsis and Damon, shepherds and neighbours, had always pursued
the same studies, and had, from their earliest days, been united
in the closest friendship. Thyrsis, while traveling for improve-
ment, received intelligence of the death of Damon, and, after a
time, returning and finding it true, deplores himself and his
solitary condition, in this poem.
Pages:
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82