bestial like a beast in qualities or behavior; brutish or savage; brutal, coarse, vile, and so on.
Minos Greek Mythology. a king of Crete, son of Zeus by Europa; after he dies he becomes one of the three judges of the dead in the lower world. In mythology, Minos is a compassionate judge. He refused to judge his wife Paesaphe when she had an affair with a bull, producing the Minotaur, because he had never been exposed to such violent passions. Dante ignores this and makes Minos into a stern and horribly bestial judge.
wherries in this canto, the term suggests fast movement.
Semiramis Babalonian Legend. a queen of Assyria noted for her beauty, wisdom, and sexual exploits; reputed founder of Babylon; based on a historical queen of the ninth century b.c.
Ninus husband of Semiramis.
Dido Roman Mythology. founder and queen of Carthage: in Aeneid she falls in love with Aeneas and kills herself when he leaves her.
Sichaeus husband of Dido.
Cleopatra c. 69–30 b.c.; queen of Egypt (51–49; 48–30); mistress of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
Helen Greek Legend. the beautiful wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta; the Trojan War is started because of her abduction by Paris to Troy.
Achilles Greek Mythology. Greek warrior and leader in the Trojan War who kills Hector and is killed by Paris with an arrow that strikes his only vulnerable spot, his heel; he is the hero of Homer’s Iliad.
Paris Greek Legend. a son of Priam, king of Troy; his kidnapping of Helen, wife of Menelaus, causes the Trojan War.
Tristan Arthurian Legend. a knight sent to Ireland by King Mark of Cornwall to bring back the princess Isolde to be the king’s bride. Isolde and Tristan fall in love and tragically die together.
Po river in northern Italy, flowing from the Cottian Alps east into the Adriatic.
Caina the first ring of the last circle in Hell, according to Dante.
Lancelot Arthurian Legend. the most celebrated of the Knights of the Round Table and the lover of Guinevere.
