~Eris, lit. 'strife', the goddess of discord who crashed the wedding of Thetis and Peleus by presenting a golden apple inscribed 'to the fairest', over which Hera, Athena and Aphrodite disputed until deciding to allow Paris to choose between them. Aphrodite offered Helen of Troy to him, which catalyzed the Trojan War.
~'the one who places' is one literal meaning of 'Thetis', the shape-shifting Nereid or water goddess who was subdued by King Peleus, the two of whom begot Achilles.
~'Lilith': lit, 'Night', is the Jewish version of Eve.
~Dido is the Queen of Carthage who burns herself alive after being abandoned by Aeneas, the Trojan prince and son of Aphrodite, who founds Rome rather than staying with his African lover.
~Vulcan, or Hephaestus, the lame god of smithing and fire, forged a chain-link net to catch his wife, Aphrodite, with his brother Ares in adulterous coitus. He also provided Prometheus (lit., 'forethinker') with fire, who gave it to mortals and in punishment was eternally chained to a cliffside to have his liver eaten by an eagle each day.
~'laid in that white rush' is a line borrowed from Yeats' 'Leda and the Swan', which recounts the forced conception of Helen, Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux. Zeus had taken the form of a swan to perform the deed.
~Oedipus is the tragic hero that answered the Sphinx's riddle, thereby saving Thebes from her daily diet of citizens. Traditionally he is considered an example of hubris, for attempting to avoid the fate of killing his father and sleeping with his mother. He removed his own eyes when he learned that he'd fulfilled this destiny.