“‘O mother Ida, hearken ere I die,’

“is the analogue of (Theocr.  II).

  “‘See thou; whence came my love, O lady Moon,’ etc.

“Throughout the poem the Syracusan manner and feeling are strictly and nobly maintained.”  Note, however, the modernisation already referred to.

MOTHER IDA.  The Greeks constantly personified Nature, and attributed a separate individual life to rivers, mountains, etc.  Wordsworth’s Excursion, Book IV., might be read in illustration, especially from the line beginning—­

  “Once more to distant ages of the world.”

MANY-FOUNTAIN’D IDA.  Many streams took their source in Ida.  Homer applies the same epithet to this mountain.

24-32.  These lines are in imitation of certain passages from Theocritus.  See Stedman, Victorian Poets, pp. 213 f.  They illustrate Tennyson’s skill in mosaic work.

30.  MY EYES—­LOVE.  Cf.  Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI. ii. 3. 17: 

  “Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief.”

36.  COLD CROWN’D SNAKE.  “Cold crown’d” is not a compound epithet, meaning “with a cold head.”  Each adjective marks a particular quality. Crown’d has reference to the semblance of a coronet that the hoods of certain snakes, such as cobras, possess.

37.  THE DAUGHTER OF A RIVER-GOD.  Oenone was the daughter of the river Cebrenus in Phrygia.

39-40.  AS YONDER WALLS—­BREATHED. The walls of Troy were built by Poseidon (Neptune) and Apollo, whom Jupiter had condemned to serve King Laomedon of Troas for a year.  The stones were charmed into their places by the breathing of Apollo’s flute, as the walls of Thebes are said to have risen to the strain of Amphion’s lyre.  Compare Tithonus, 62-63: 

  “Like that strange song I heard Apollo sing,
  When Ilion, like a mist, rose into towers.”

And cf. also The Princess, iii. 326.

42-43.  THAT—­WOE.  Compare In Memoriam, V.

50.  WHITE HOOVED. Cf. “hooves” for hoofs, in the Lady of Shalott, l. 101.

51.  SIMOIS.  One of the many streams flowing from Mount Ida.

65.  HESPERIAN GOLD.  The fruit was in colour like the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides.  The Hesperides were three (or four) nymphs, the daughters of Hesperus.  They dwelt in the remotest west, near Mount Atlas in Africa, and were appointed to guard the golden apples which Here gave to Zeus on the day of their marriage.  One of Hercules’ twelve labours was to procure some of these apples.  See the articles Hesperides and Hercules in Lempriere.

66.  SMELT AMBROSIALLY.  Ambrosia was the food of the gods.  Their drink was nectar.  The food was sweeter than honey, and of most fragrant odour.

72.  WHATEVER OREAD.  A classical construction.  The Oreads were mountain nymphs.

78.  FULL-FACED—­GODS.  This means either that not a face was missing, or refers to the impressive countenances of the gods.  Another possible interpretation is that all their faces were turned full towards the board on which the apple was cast.  Compare for this epithet Lotos Eaters, 7; and Princess, ii. 166.