1. IDA. A mountain range in Mysia, near Troy. The scenery is, in part, idealised, and partly inspired by the valley of Cauteretz. See _Introduction_, p. xvi.
2. IONIAN. Ionia was the district adjacent to Mysia. 'Ionian,' therefore, is equivalent to 'neighbouring.'
10. TOPMOST GARGARUS. A Latinism, cf. _summus mons_.
12. TROAS. The Troad (Troas) was the district surrounding Troy.
22-23. O MOTHER IDA--DIE. Mr. Stedman, in his _Victorian Poets_, devotes a valuable chapter to the discussion of Tennyson's relation to Theocritus, both in sentiment and form. "It is in the _Oenone_ that we discover Tennyson's earliest adaptation of that refrain, which was a striking beauty of the pastoral elegiac verse;
"'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: