Edward Berdoe - The Browning Cyclopædia - A Guide to the Study of the Works of Robert Browning

Notes. – [N.B. The references here are to the pages of the poem in the last edition of the complete works in sixteen vols.] – P. 269, Atreidai , a patronymic given by Homer to Agamemnon and Menelaus, as being the sons of Atreus; Troia , the capital of Troas == Troy. p. 270, Ilion , a citadel of Troy; Menelaos , a king of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon. p. 271, Argives , the inhabitants of Argos and surrounding country; Alexandros , the name of Paris in the Iliad: Atreus , son of Pelops, was king of Mycenæ; Danaoi , a name given to the people of Argos and to all the Greeks; Troes == Trojans. p. 272, Tundareus , king of Lacedæmon, who married Leda; Klutaimnestra == Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndarus by Leda. p. 273, Teukris land , the land of the Trojans – from Teucer, their king; “ Achaians’ two-throned empery ”: the brother kings Agamemnon and Menelaos. p. 274, Linos , the personification of a dirge or lamentation; Priamos , the last king of Troy, made prisoner by Hercules when he took the city. p. 275, Icïos Paian , an epithet of Apollo; Kalchas , a soothsayer who accompanied the Greeks to Troy. p. 277, Kalchis , the chief city of Eubœa, founded by an Athenian colony; Aulis , a town of Bœotia, near Kalchis; Strumon , a river which separates Thrace from Macedonia. p. 282, Hephaistos , the god of fire, according to Homer the son of Zeus and Hera. The Romans called the Greek Hephaistos Vulcan, though Vulcan was an Italian deity. The news of the fall of Troy was brought to Mycenæ by means of beacon fires, so fire was the messenger. Ide == Mount Ida; of Lemnos , an island in the Ægean Sea. p. 283, Athoan , of Mount Athos; Makistos == Macistos, a city of Tryphylia; Euripos , a narrow strait separating Eubœa from Bœotia; Messapios , a name of Bœotia; Asopos , a river of Thessaly; Mount Kitharion , sacred to the Muses and Jupiter. Hercules killed the great lion there; Mount Aigiplanktos was in Megaris; Strait Saronic : Saronicus Sinus was a bay of the Ægean Sea; Mount Arachnaios , in Argolis. p. 286, Ate , the goddess of revenge; Ares , the Greek name of the war-god Mars. p. 288, Aphrodite , a name of Venus. p. 290, Erinues == the Furies. p. 292, Puthian == Delphic; Skamandros , a river of Troas. p. 293, Priamidai , the patronymic of the descendants of Priam. p. 300, Threkian breezes == Thracian breezes; Aigaian Sea , the Ægean Sea; Achaian , pertaining to Achaia, in Greece. p. 301, Meneleos , son of Atreus, brother to Agamemnon and husband of Helen; water-Haides , the engulfing sea. p. 302, Zephuros , the west wind; Simois , a river in Troas which rises in Mount Ida and falls into the Xanthus. p. 304, Erinus , an avenging deity. p. 307, the Argeian monster == the company of Argives concealed in the wooden horse; Pleiads , a name given to seven of the daughters of Atlas by Pleione, one of the Oceanides. They became a constellation in the heavens after death. p. 309, “ triple-bodied Geruon the Second ,” Geryon, king of the Balearic Isles, fabled to have three bodies and three heads: Hercules slew him; Strophios the Phokian , at whose house Orestes was brought up with Pylades son of Strophios. p. 316, Kassandra , daughter of Priam, slain by Clytemnestra. p. 317, “ Alkmene’s child ” – Hercules was the son of Alkmene. p. 319, Ototoi – alas!; Loxias , a surname of Apollo. p. 322, papai, papai == O strange! wonderful! p. 324, Itus , or Itys , son of Tereus, killed by his mother. p. 325, “ Orthian style ,” in a shrill tone. p. 332, Lukeion Apollon – Lyceus was a surname of Apollo. p. 335, Surian == Syrian. p. 343, Chruseids , the patronymic of the descendants of Astynome, the daughter of Chryses. p. 348, Iphigeneia , daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; her father offered to sacrifice her to appease the wrath of Diana. p. 350, The Daimon of the Pleisthenidai , the genius of Agamemnon’s family. p. 351, Thuestes , son of Pelops, brother of Atreus; Pelopidai , descendants of Pelops, son of Tantalus.

Agricola, Johannes, ( Johannes Agricola in Meditation ,) was one of the foremost of the German Reformers. He was born at Eisleben, April 20th, 1492. He met Luther whilst a student at Wittenberg, and became attached to him, accompanying him to the Leipsic Assembly of Divines, where he acted as recording secretary. He established the reformed religion at Frankfort. In 1536 he was called to fill a professorial chair at Wittenberg. Here he first taught the views which Luther termed Antinomian . He held that Christians were entirely free from the Divine law, being under the Gospel alone. He denied that Christians were under any obligations to keep the ten commandments. Mr. Browning has quite accurately, though unsparingly, exposed his impious teaching in his poem Johannes Agricola in Meditation ( q. v. ).

Agrippa, Henry Cornelius, the mediæval doctor and magician, was born at Cologne in 1486, and was educated at the university of that city. He was denounced in 1509 by the monks, who called him an “impious cabalist”; in 1531 he published his treatise De Occulta Philosophia , written by the advice and with the assistance of the Abbot Trithemius of Wurzburg, the preceptor of Paracelsus. In 1510 he came to London on a diplomatic mission, and was the guest of Dean Colet at Stepney. He afterwards fought at the battle of Ravenna. In 1511 he attended the schismatic council of Pisa as a theologian. In 1515 he lectured at the university of Pavia. We afterwards find him at Metz, Geneva, and Freiburg, where he practised as a physician. In 1529 he was appointed historiographer to Charles V. He died at Grenoble in 1535. A man of such vast and varied learning could hardly in those days have avoided being accused of diabolical practices and heretical opinions; the only wonder is that he was not burned alive for his scientific attainments, which were looked upon as dangerous in the highest degree. ( Pauline in the Latin prefatory note.)

“A King lived long ago.”Song in Pippa Passes , which is sung by the girl as she passes the house of Luigi. Mr. Browning first published the song in the Monthly Repository , in 1835 (vol ix., N.S., pp. 707-8), it was reprinted with added lines, and was revised throughout, in Pippa Passes 1841.

Alberic( Sordello ). Son of Eccelino the monk, described in the poem as “many-muscled, big-boned Alberic.”

Alcestis( Balaustion’s Adventure ), the daughter of Pelias, was the wife of Admetus, son of Pheres, who was king of Pheræ in Thessaly. Apollo, when – for an offence against Jupiter – he was banished from heaven, had been kindly received by Pheres, and had obtained from the Fates a promise that his benefactor should never die if he could find another person willing to lay down his life for him. The story how this promise was obtained is set forth with great dramatic force in Mr. Browning’s Apollo and the Fates ( q. v. ). Alcestis volunteered to die in the place of her husband when he lay sick unto death. Her sacrifice was accepted, and she died. But Hercules, who had been hospitably entertained by Pheres, hearing of the tragic circumstance, brought Alcestis from Hades out of gratitude to his host, and presented her to her grief-stricken husband. Euripides has used these circumstances as the basis of his tragedy of Alcestis .