Antona

Hist. Brit. (2) 5. 51. A name, of doubtful meaning, occurring in Tacitus, Annals 12.31, to which Milton refers. Aonian Mount (Helicon). Pro cancel. 32; Marchione 56; Eleg. 4. 29; Ad Patrem 75; P. L. 1. 15; 6. 17; 6 Prolus. 7. 444. (See also Aracynthus, Cirrha, Dirce.) Aonia is the name of a plain in Boeotia (Strabo 9. 2. 31), from which the whole country came to be called Aonia by the poets. For example, Ovid speaks of “Aonian Thebes.” (Met. 7. 763.) Hence, Mount Helicon, in Boeotia, was called the “Aonian peak.” Helicon is a range, with several summits (Virgil, Georg. 3. 11.) (note the plural in Eleg. 6. 17), not far from Parna us. Strabo It (9. 2. 25.) describes it as covered with snow, and rocky. was a haunt of the Muses, who were sometimes called Aonides. Orgiastic worship was celebrated on the (Ovid, Met. 5. 333.) mountain. Milton thinks of the universities of England as haunts of the Muses. Cambridge he calls Helicon (6 Prolus. 7. 444), and at Oxford he puts the fountain of the Aonides {Ad Rous. 21), a spring on Mount Helicon. 40