`The Horses of Achilles' - for the episode on which this poem is based see The Iliad, Book XVII, lines 423-447. Back.
`Interruption' - Demeter and Thetis attempted to make Demophon and Achilles (respectively) immortal by burning away their mortality in sacred fires. Both goddesses were prevented from completing their attempts by anxious parents who didn't understand the nature of the ritual - by Demophon's mother, Queen Metaneira of Eleusis, and Achilles' father, King Peleus of Phthia. Back.
`Thermopylaes' - Ephialtis of Trachis was the man who is supposed to have shown Xerxes' Persian army the path by which they were able to outflank the defenders of the pass of Thermopylae. Ephialtis was also the name, in Greek mythology, of a demon of nightmare, and means `nightmare' in modern Greek. Back.
`Faithlessness' - the quotation from Plato is taken from the translation of A.D. Lindsay. Back.
`A Craftsman of Kraters' - a krater was a bowl used for mixing wine and water. At the battle of Magnesia in 190BC the army of Philip V was defeated by the Romans. Back.