Tityus, for an assault on Artemis, was
pinioned to the ground with two vultures plucking at his vitals.
pinioned to the ground with two vultures plucking at his vitals.
Spenser - Faerie Queene - 1
273. OF DEEP AVERNUS HOLE. Avernus in the poets is a cavern (in an ancient
crater), supposed to be the entrance to the infernal regions. Cf. Vergil's
_AEneid_, vi, 237. In Strabo's Geography it is a lake in Campania.
298. CERBERUS, the dog which guarded the lower regions. This stanza is an
imitation of Vergil's _AEneid_, vi, 417 _seq_. In Dante's _Inferno_ Vergil
appeases him by casting handfuls of earth into his maw.
xxxv. In this stanza we see the influence of Homer and Vergil. Ixion, the
king of Lapithae, was chained by order of Zeus to a fiery-winged wheel for
aspiring to the love of the goddess Hera (Juno). Sisyphus had to roll a
huge stone forever up a hill for betraying the designs of the gods.
Tantalus, for divulging the secrets of Zeus, was condemned to stand
tormented by thirst in a lake.
Tityus, for an assault on Artemis, was
pinioned to the ground with two vultures plucking at his vitals. Typhoeus,
a hundred-headed giant, was slain by Zeus' thunderbolt, and buried under
AEtna. The gin on which he was tortured was probably the rack of the Middle
Ages. Cf. the bed of Procrustes. Theseus, for attempting to carry off
Persephone, was fixed to a rock in Tartarus. The "fifty sisters" are the
fifty Danaides, who, for slaying their husbands, were condemned to pour
water forever into a vessel full of holes.
322. SAD AESCULAPIUS, the god of medicine, slain by Zeus for arresting
death and diseases.
354. AND FATES EXPIRED, and the threads of life which the fates (Parcae) had
severed.
387. GREAT PAINES, AND GREATER PRAISE, etc. His praise, like his pain, is
to be eternal.
xlvii. This list of the thralls of Pride is in imitation of a similar one
in Chaucer's _Monk's Tale_, which was based on Boccaccio's _De Casibus
Illustrium Virorum_.
