And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds. After these appeared A crew, who, under names of old renown, 470 475 With monstrous shapes, and sorceries, abused 480 Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms The infection, when their borrowed gold composed 1 Rimmon.-Only known from Scripture. The leper lost was Naaman; see 2 Kings v. The king gained was Ahaz, who, on the conquest of Damascus, through the aid of the king of Assyria, adopted the pattern of an altar he had seen at Damascus; see 2 Kings xvi. The poet shows his power in condensing into a few words the substance of what travellers say in praise of Damascus. 2 Osiris, Isis, Orus.-Deities of the Egyptians. Under the name Osiris, they worshipped the Sun, as under that of Isis, his wife, the Moon, which bodies they understood to have much influence on the atmosphere, winds, and rains, and to be the cause of fertility, by occasioning the annual inundation of the Nile, and in other ways. Orus, the son of the former two, corresponding in his attributes with the Apollo of the Greeks. 3 Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms.-This worship of divinities in the shape of bulls, cats, dogs, monkeys, crocodiles, and other animals, sprang from the fabulous tradition, that, when the giants invaded heaven, the gods fled into Egypt, where they concealed themselves in the shapes of various animals; the Egyptians showing their sense of the honour conferred on their country by adoring the creatures whose shapes had been assumed. 4 Nor did Israel 'scape the infection, as if the gold conveyed a taint from The calf in Oreb; and the rebel king Jehovah! who in one night, when he passed From Egypt marching, equalled with one stroke 485 495 BELIAL came last,1 than whom a spirit more lewd 490 Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love Vice for itself: to him no temple stood, Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he In temples and at altars, when the priest Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled With lust and violence the house of God? In courts and palaces he also reigns, And in luxurious cities, where the noise Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers, And injury, and outrage: and when night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine:2 Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night In Gibeah, when the hospitable door Exposed a matron to avoid worse rape. 500 505 These were the prime in order and in might: The rest were long to tell, though far renowned, the idolatrous hands of its former owners.-See the well-known stories of the golden calves; Aaron's, Exod. xxxii., and Jeroboam's, 1 Kings xii. 25–33. Bleating gods.-The term, describing the cry of the most stupid and inactive of their animal divinities, being used to pour contempt on the whole. 1 Belial came last.-The name signifies, in Hebrew, "without profit," or "without restraint." Though no false god appears to have been publicly worshipped under that name, Milton properly includes him among the number of devils honoured as divinities, as his spirit reigns in the hearts, and influences the conduct of not a few. If he boasts of no temple, he is not less honoured, or less influential, enshrined as a household god in the recesses of the heart. The most profligate and abandoned persons are styled "sons of Belial." 2 Flown with insolence and wine:-i. e., overflown, or flushed. The Ionian gods, of Javan's issue ;1-held 510 515 Their highest heaven; or on the Delphian cliff, Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds Of Doric land; or who with Saturn old 520 525 All these and more came flocking, but with looks Downcast and damp; yet such wherein appeared Obscure some glimpse of joy, to have found their chief Not in despair-to have found themselves not lost In loss itself; which on his countenance cast Like doubtful hue; but he, his wonted pride Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore Their 1 Ionian gods, of Javan's issue.-Javan, the fourth son of Japhet, and grandson of Noah, was the ancestor of the Ionians and Greeks. chief gods were Heaven and Earth. Titan, the eldest of their children (the Titānes, see note, 1. 198), gave his birthright to his younger brother Saturn, provided he reared no male children. Saturn having concealed the birth of his son Jupiter, was conquered by Titan, and imprisoned till Jupiter was placed on the throne. Mythologic fables connect their early history with mount Ida in the island of Crete, now Candia. Jupiter was afterwards considered to hold his court on Olympus, a mountain of Thessaly, said to touch the heavens with its top; while he was also worshipped and consulted as an oracle at Dodona in Epirus, as Apollo was on the crag of Delphi. Saturn, driven by his son's cabals against him, fled across the Adriatic Sea to Italy, anciently Hesperia, and crossing the Celtic (fields)— ie., France-roamed the adjacent isles; so wide was the spread of this branch of pagan superstition. Doric land.-Greece, so called from the Dorians, who were one of the most ancient and enterprising of the Grecian tribes. Milton ridicules the limited sway of these fabulous deities, by styling the middle air, on the level with the top of Olympus, their highest heaven. Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled 3 A shout that tore Hell's concave; and, beyond, 530 535 540 545 550 1 Clarion, a small, shrill-sounding trumpet. 2 Azazel.-The Hebrew term, rendered "scapegoat," in Lev., ch. x.—it seems to have been used by some authors as the name of a demon, as Milton uses it here. 3 Reign, dominion, kingdom of Chaos and Night. 4 Orient, of glowing radiance, like the rich light of morning ushering in the rising sun. 5 Phalanx, a large body of infantry formed into a square, protected overhead and on all sides by their shields closely locked together (serried), so as to be impregnable by such weapons as were used in ancient warfare. Dorian mood, a grave and majestic style of music, introduced by Milton as proper to regulate and control the courage of Satan's army, which had been suddenly revived by the raising of the standard. The other chief styles of ancient Greek music were the Phrygian, or most sprightly, and the Lydian, or soft and effeminate. Recorder, a pipe said by Bacon C To height of noblest temper heroes old And now his heart Distends with pride, and, hardening in his strength, 555 560 565 570 Glories; for never, since created man, Met such imbodied force, as named with these Could merit more than that small infantry 575 Warred on by cranes; though all the giant brood Of Phlegra with the heroic race were joined (Naturall Historie) to have a less bore and a greater, above and below. The moral effect of the music is finely touched in the following lines 1 Since created man.-The Latin construction, post hominem creatum, adopted (as frequently) for conciseness and force. 2 That small infantry, warred on by cranes: alluding to the fabled encounter of the Pygmies and Cranes. See Homer, I., iii. 6. Phleyra, a town and peninsula in Macedonia, where a race of giants are fabled to have fought with the gods. Auxiliar gods, fabled to have taken part with the combatants on both sides, in the wars between the sons of Œdipus at Thebes, and between the Greeks and Trojans at Ilium or Troy. Uther's son, King Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon. Beyirt with British and Armoric knights— being |