^a The base date for this section is around 30 CE. 117 Olympiads = 117*4 = 468 years before that, giving 438 BCE.

^b The reference is to the Athena Parthenos (Ancient Greek: Ἀθηνᾶ Παρθένος; literally, ‘Athena the Virgin’), a lost massive chryselephantine (gold and ivory) sculpture of the Greek goddess Athena, made by Pheidias and his assistants and housed in the Parthenon in Athens (‘her Maiden’s chamber’). Its epithet was an essential character of the goddess herself. A number of replicas and works inspired by it, both ancient and modern, have been made. It was the most renowned cult image of Athens and considered one of the greatest achievements of the most acclaimed sculptor of ancient Greece. Pheidias began his work around 447 BCE.

^c The Athena Promachos (Ancient Greek: Ἀθηνᾶ Πρόμαχος ‘Athena who fights in the front line’) was one of Pheidias’ earliest recorded works: it was placed in about 456 BCE. It was made with the Persian spoils of the Battle of Marathon, won some years earlier. Parts of the marble base remain; according to the preserved inscription, it measured about 30 feet (9 m) high. It showed Athena standing with her shield resting upright against her leg, and a spear in her right hand. It stood on the Acropolis and was so big it was possible to see the tip of the spear and her helmet crest at sea off Cape Sounion (Sunium), the southernmost promontory of Attica.

^e I think Polias is meant as the genitive of polis, ‘of the city’. The Greek would be πολεως.

^f In the Iliad (4.514), the Homeric Hymns, and in Hesiod’s Theogony, Athena is given the curious epithet Tritogeneia. The meaning of this term is unclear; it could mean various things, including ‘Triton-born’, perhaps indicating that the sea-deity was her parent according to some early myths. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses Athena is occasionally referred to as ‘Tritonia’. Another possible meaning may be triple-born or third-born, which may refer her status as the third daughter of Zeus. Here, the poet may well be thinking of the sea-born derivation. Athene is also ‘Ouranos’ (of the heavens) and ‘Polis’ (of the City —particularly Athens, though other cities also claim her as their patroness) and a ‘Virgo Potens’ (Lady of Power). Her armour is alerted because she is ever-watchful over Athens and, as mentioned above, her spear is a landmark for those at sea.

The syntax seems to require a full stop after ‘sea-course’. The short lines give the paragraph a certain amount of height, like the statue itself.