Her temple on the offensive mountain, built
By that uxorious king whose heart, though large,
Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell

To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind,
Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured
The Syrian damsels to lament his fate
In amorous ditties all a summer's day,
While smooth Adonis from his native rock
Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale
Infected Sion's daughters with like heat,
Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch
Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led,

445

450

His eye surveyed the dark idolatries
Of alienated Judah. Next came one

455

Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark
Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopt off,
In his own temple, on the grunsel edge,
Where he fell flat and shamed his worshipers:
Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man
And downward fish; yet had his temple high
Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast
Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,

460

465

And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds.

went after Ashtoreth." 1 Kings xi. 5.-443. Offensive mountain. See 11.403, 416.444. Large. "God gave Solomon largeness of heart." 1 Kings iv. 29. Meaning of 'largeness' here?-446. Idols.

"His wives turned his

heart after other gods." 1 Kings xi. 4. Thammuz. 'Women weeping for
Tammuz. Ezek. viii. 14. Identified by St. Jerome with Adonis, slain by a
boar in Lebanon. Lucian tells of the red soil yearly tingeing the river water.
See Ov., Met. X. 726, etc. 455. Ezekiel saw. Ezek. viii. 14. — 458. In
earnest. By contrast to what pretended sorrow? Ark. "Dagon was fallen
upon his face before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both the
palms of his hands were cut off." 1 Sam. v. 4. Other particulars of this?
460. Grunsel (ground; sill, Lat. solum; Fr. seuil), groundsill, threshold.
462. Dagon, god of the Philistines. The fish-like form, emblem of fruitful-
little
ness, was appropriately adopted by a maritime people. (Dagon:
fish?) 464-6. Azotus, Ashdod, Esdud. Ascalon, Ashkelon. Accaron,

=

Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat
Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks
Cun&scusọf Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.
He also against the house of God was bold:
A leper once he lost, and gained a king,
Ahaz, his sottish conqueror, whom he drew
God's altar to disparage and displace

For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn

Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms
Rather than human. Nor did Israel scape

The infection, when their borrowed gold composed
The calf in Oreb; and the rebel king

485

Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan,

Likening his Maker to the grazèd ox

Jehovah, who in one night, when he passed

From Egypt marching, equalled with one stroke

Ekron, Akir. See the map for these five chief cities. 1 Sam. vi. 17. — 467. Rimmon, a sun-god worshipped by the Syrians of Damascus. Only once mentioned in the Bible? 2 Kings v. 18. (From Hebrew rimmon, pomegranate, sacred to Venus, and emblem of fruitfulness? or fr. rum, high, the high one'?) 468. Damascus. Situation? beauty? importance? - 469. Abana and Pharphar. In 2 Kings v. 12, we see the pride these riveis inspired. Lucid. "The word here gives all the sparkling effect of the most perfect landscape." Hazlitt. 471. Leper, Naaman. King, Ahaz. See 2 Kings v., xvi.; 2 Chron. xxviii. 23.-477. Crew. Disparagement intended? 478. Osiris, a 'Manifestor of Goodness and Truth,' often identified with Apis, who was the living emblem of Osiris, was worshipped under the form of a bull; Isis, his sister and wife, the female form of Osiris, portrayed as a woman with a cow's horns; Orus, or Horus, god of silence, son of the two former, has a human form with a hawk's head. -479. Sorceries. Allusion to Pharaoh's magicians? - 481. Wandering The Greek tradition told how the gods in the war with the giants fled to Egypt and hid under the form of beasts.-483. Borrowed, as stated in Exod. xii. 35. 484-5. Calf. "They made a calf in Horeb," etc.

Both her first-born and all her bleating gods.
Belial came last; than whom a spirit more lewd
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.
Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night
In Gibeah, when the hospitable door

Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape.

These were the prime in order and in might :
The rest were long to tell; though far renowned
The Ionian Gods- of Javan's issue held

490

495

500

505

Ps. cvi. 19, 20; Exod. xii. 35; xxxii. 4. Rebel, Jeroboam. Bethel, Dan. See map. 488. Marching. Stated in Exod. xii. 31, 42; Ps. lxviii. 7. 489. Bleating, like Ammon, a ram, or Mendes, a goat. The word includes lowing, as in II. 494. Exod. xii. 29; Num. xxxiii. 4.490. Belial (worthlessness, recklessness, lawlessness. Milton makes it a proper noun, as in 2 Cor. vi. 15). Than, a preposition here as in Shakespeare, Swift, the Common Version of the Bible, Prov. xxvii. 3, etc. 495. Eli's sons. 1 Sam. ii. 12. 501-2. Sons of Belial, a Scriptural expression, as in Judges xix. 22; 1 Sam. ii. 12. Flown, flowed, overflowed, flooded, flushed. Shakes. used 'flown' for flowed, and S enser overflown' for overflowed. Note that of these 'prime' gods of the Semitic nations, Moloch comes first, Belial last. Any special fitness in this? Observe their speeches in Book II. — 503-4. Sodom. Gen. xix. 8, 9; Judges xix. 25. Macaulay suspects that Milton was thinking of the fast young men of London when he wrote of the sons of Belial.' Hist. of Eng. I. p. 360. —507. Long to tell. The Greek writers, as also Lucretius, Ovid, Cicero, Dante, Boccaccio, Spenser, Drayton, Byron, etc., use this expression or its exact equivalent. -508-9. Ionian (the Jōnes were one of the chief original races of Greece), Grecian. Of (i. e. by) Javan's issue held (i. e. held to be) gods. Javan, grandson of Noah and fourth son of Japhet. Later. Because our 'heaven and earth' were created after the

6

Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth,
Their boasted parents; - Titan, Heaven's first-born, 510
With his enormous brood, and birthright seized
By younger Saturn; he from mightier Jove,
His own and Rhea's son, like measure found;

So Jove usurping reigned. These, first in Crete
And Ida known, thence on the snowy top
Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air,

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
Fled over Adria to the Hesperian fields,

520

expulsion of the Semitic gods. Deut. xxxii. 17.510. Titan. This was Oceanus, eldest of the twelve Titans, and by his birth entitled to succeed his father, Urănus, on the throne? He is called 'Titan' par excellence by Lactantius and by Milton, just as 'the mightiest Julius' is especially styled 'Cæsar.' Homer calls him 'parent of gods'; Virgil, 'father of Nature' (rerum). Besides all the river-gods and water-nymphs, other progeny, an 'enormous brood,' are his children. It was natural that with Heaven and Earth the all-producing Ocean should be mentioned. -512. Saturn, Cronos, Time. (Lat. satur, satisfied; Saturnus, the self-sufficient? Better, perhaps, fr. serĕre, satum, to sow ?) Youngest of the Titans, Saturn was dethroned by his son Jupiter (or Jove). Lat. Jupiter = Jovis, i. e. Diovis, and pater, father; Gr. Zeus, Zeus, Tarhρ, pater, father; Zeus-father, or Father-Zeus. - 513. Rhea, one of the Titans. See Class. Dict. — 514. Crete, Candia. Ida, a mountain near the centre of Crete. Here Jupiter was born and brought up in a cave. - 515. Snowy top. Homer calls Olympus 'snowy,' and 'very snowy.' -516. Olympus (the fabled residence of the gods), a many-peaked colossal mountain, 9,700 feet high, on the left bank of the river Peneios in Thessaly. Middle air. Above this middle air are clouds, and above the clouds the æther. Other clouds below this 'middle air' shut out the summit from the view of mortals. See 'middle flight,' 1. 14.517. Delphian. Delphi, the seat of the famous oracle of Apollo, was on a steep declivity of Parnassus. See Class. Dict. - 518. Dodona, the oldest oracle in Greece and sacred to Jupiter. 519. Doric land. Greece, land of the Dorians, one of the great Hellenic races. -520. Fled. "The Roman poets, who alone speak of this event, represent the flight of Saturn as solitary." Keightley. But is it so? The language of Virgil in regard to Saturn is very similar to that which he uses in regard to Æneas, and we know that the latter did not come to Italy alone. See the passages cited, Æneid, VIII. 319, etc.; Ov. Fast. I. 235, etc. Adria, the Adriatic. Hesperian (eσrepos, hesperus, vesper, evening, west

And o'er the Celtic roamed the utmost isles.

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
Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised
Their fainting courage and dispelled their fears;
Then straight commands that, at the warlike sound
Of trumpets loud and clarions, be upreared
His mighty standard. That proud honor claimed
Azazel as his right, a cherub tall;

Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled
The imperial ensign; which, full high advanced,
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind,
With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed,
Seraphic arms and trophies; all the while
Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds:

525

530

535

540

ern), Italian, so called because west of Greece. -521. Celtic fields or region, France (and perhaps Spain). Isles, British. Utmost, as in 1. 74, farthest. 522. More. Scandinavian deities? Turanian? Indian? - 526. Loss itself, the extremity of loss, the loss of heaven? Which. Looks of mingled joy and despondency? -528. Recollecting, re-collecting, collecting anew, recalling? - 529. Gently. Always found in Milton and Shakespeare in its usual sense. So is courage in the next line. - 532. Clarion. Differs how from trumpet? –534. Azazǝl, brave in retreat,' or 'powerful against God' Others define it 'a scape-goat,' as the word is rendered in Lev. xvi. 8, 10, 26. Which is most appropriate? Himes identifies Azazel as a sort of olus.' Cherub, because cherubs were strong. Keightley. -536. Advanced. Carried or planted in the van (Fr. avancer; Lat. ab, ante). See shreds and traces of this passage in the peroration of Webster's great speech in reply to Hayne, which well illustrates how much the finest oratory may owe to the finest poetry. -537. Meteor. Gray in his Bard uses this magnificent simile. 538-9 Emblazed, blazoned, in flaming colors. (A. S. blaese, a torch.) A term of heraldry. As acts of zeal and love are emblazed' on the standards of good angels (Par. Lost, V. 592-4), so the brave though wicked deeds of the rebel angels (VI. 377, etc.) were inscribed on their banners, and these inscriptions are perhaps the 'trophies.' Arms are armorial bearings, colored devices indicating distinc