custos ille Cretum: i.e. the bronze giant Talus, devised by Daedalus and made by Hephaestus for King Minos, who strode from headland to headland, making the circuit of the island thrice daily; cf. Apoll. Rh. 4.1638ff.; Apollod. 1.9.26.3ff.
fingar: be molded into; cf. Catul. 66.50 “ferri fingere duritiem.”
[2] Pegaseo volatu: for the story of the winged horse, Pegasus, who sprang from the blood of Medusa as her head was severed by Perseus, see Apollod. 2.4.2.9; Apollod. 2.3.2.1.
[3] Ladas: Pausanias mentions by this name two victors in the Olympic foot-races, one of Sparta, and the other, less famous, an Achaean (Paus. 3.21.1; Paus. 10.23.14); cf. Mart. 10.100.5 “habeas licebit alterum pedem Ladae” ; Juv. 13.96 “pauper locupletem optare podagram nec dubitet Ladas” . There is a manifest anacoluthon; the idea of v. 1 si fingar is the one in mind.
[3] pinnipes Perseus: in order to attack Medusa in safety, Perseus had borrowed of the Nymphs the winged shoes like those of Hermes as well as Pluto's helmet of invisibility and the magic wallet; see Apollod. 2.4.2. Cf. Prop. 3.30.3 “non si Pegaseo vecteris in aere dorso, nec tibi si Persei moverit ala pedes. pinnipes” is ἅπαξ λεγόμενον.
[4] Rhesi: Rhesus was the king of Thrace whose famous horses Ulysses and Diomed stole on the night of his arrival to help the Trojans; cf. Hom. Il. 10.438ff.; Ov. Met. 13.249ff. There is a similar anacoluthon to that in v. 3; si ferar fills out the idea.
[5] plumipedes: ἅπαξ λεγόμενον; the reference is clearly not to flying men like Daedalus and the sons of Boreas (for Perseus in v. 3 is a type of such swiftness), but to birds, thus interposed between horses and winds.
[5] volatiles: carrying further the picture in the preceding adjective; feather-footed (Ben Jonson) and flying fowl.
[7] vinctos: with reference to the story of Aeolus and Ulysses (cf. Hom. Od. 10.17ff.); the idea being only that if he were by their master put in possession of the winds to rule them at his pleasure, their unwearied swiftness would not suffice him.
[7] dicares = dares, as in Verg. A. 1.73 “propriam dicabo.”
[8] defessus omnibus medulus: cf. Pl. Stich. 340 “at ego perii, quoi medullam lassitudo perbibit” . With defessus … quaeritando cf. Pl. Amph. 1014 “sum defessus quaeritando, nusquam invenio Naucratem.”
[9] langoribus peresus: cf. Serenus Samm. 62 “languore peresus” .
[10] essem: with this sequence after v. 1 fingar and v. 2 ferar cf. Catul. 6.2n.