Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (17 page)

389.
Abominations
: scripturally, causes of pollution, especially idols of false gods; objects that excite disgust and hatred in true believers.

397–99.
Rabba:
Ammonite capital, the “city of waters” (2 Sam. 12.27);
Argob
was Ammonite territory in
Basan
(on the Eastern side of the Jordan).
Arnon
is the name of a river erroneously supposed to flow near Rabba.

400–405.
Moloch dares induce worship among the Ammonites, whose realm bordered on Israel. Even more impudently, he leads Solomon to build him a temple opposite God’s temple.

404.
Hinnom, Tophet thence
: valley sacred to Moloch, south of Jerusalem. The Greek for
Gehenna
(“valley of Hinnom”) is in the
AV
translated as Hell (e.g., Matt. 23.33).
Hinnom
was thought to derive from the Hebrew for “outcry,” referring to the screams of sacrificial babies;
Tophet
from the Hebrew for “timbrel,” the instrument used to drown the screams (Selden 314). Post-exile Jews made the valley a dump where corpses of animals and criminals were burned. It thence symbolized the place of eternal punishment.

406–17.
Chemos:
god of the Moabites (
Moab’s
sons); a Priapus-like idol also called Baal-Peör (412). See Selden 46–65. The scriptural place names in lines 407–11 demarcate Moabite territory on the east shore of the Dead Sea (
Asphaltic Pool
). During the Exodus, wandering Hebrews participated in his
wanton rites
and were punished with a plague (
woe
)
;
see Num. 25, which Milton in
CMS
cites as the basis for a future work. Later, Solomon built a temple to Chemos on the mount (
hill of scandal
) where Moloch’s temple also stood (1 Kings 11.7; see 400–405n). The fertility cult of Chemos practiced ritual sex; Moloch’s worshipers burned babies: hence,
lust hard by hate
.

418.
Josiah
: King of Judah admired by Reformers because he destroyed idols and defiled their sites of worship; see 2 Kings 23.10–14.

419–21.
from … ground:
I.e., the land of Israel or Canaan, distinguished by rivers that mark its northeastern and southwestern boundaries (Gen. 2.14).

422.
Baälim and Ashtaroth
: collective titles for Canaanite fertility gods and goddesses (sing. Baal, Ashtoreth—as at l. 438), often worshiped by ancient Israelites.

425.
uncompounded
: not differentiated into anatomical parts or systems.

433.
Living Strength
: epithet for God (cp. 1 Sam. 15.29).

438–41.
Phoenician version of the Assyrian Istar and the Greek Aphrodite, called
Astarte
. Her image had the body of a woman and the head of a horned bull, representing the crescent moon; cp.
Nat Ode
200 and
Masque
1002. Jeremiah (7.18) titles her the Queen of Heaven.
Sidon
was a chief Phoenician seaport. See Selden 141–71.

444–46.
uxorious … foul:
The king is Solomon, who to please foreign wives (
fair idolatresses
) erects temples on the Mount of Olives (th’
offensive mountain
) to Moloch, Chemos, and Ashtoreth (2 Kings 11.1–8). Cp. lines 403, 416. Solomon’s
large heart
refers to his intellectual capacity (1 Kings 3.9–12). His
uxorious
idolatry appears in
CMS
among subjects for future works.

446–52.
Thammuz … wounded:
Thammuz is beloved of Astarte, who precedes him in the catalog. He is the Phoenician (Syrian) original of Adonis, which is also the name of a river in Lebanon that runs red after the summer solstice, purportedly with blood from Thammuz’s mortal wound. The river’s source lies in a rocky coastal mountain range; hence its
native rock
. Adonis is a sun god whose annual death and revival signifies the changing of the seasons. See Sandys 1637, 20; Selden 239–49. Milton alludes to the familiar myth often, e.g.,
Nat Ode
204,
Manso
11, and
Eikon
, where he scorns hypocritical mourning for the beheaded Charles (Yale 3:365).

455.
Ezekiel
: Like other prophets, he condemned idolatrous observances in Israel, among them “women weeping for Thammuz” (Ezek. 8.14).

457–66.
Next … bounds:
During the era of Judges, the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant (see 386–87n) and set it in the temple of their god,
Dagon
. His idol then fell before the Ark onto the temple threshold (
grunsel
) and broke (1 Sam. 5). Lines 464–66 name the chief cities of the Philistines.
Dag
is Hebrew for “fish.” See Selden 173–89. 467–69.
Rimmon:
Syrian deity worshiped in Damascus, which lies between the rivers
Abbana
and
Pharphar
.

471.
A leper once he lost
: Elisha told the Syrian leper Naaman to cleanse himself in the Jordan. Naaman proclaimed the superiority of the rivers of Damascus but ultimately humbled himself, washed in the Jordan, and was cured (2 Kings 5.8–19).

471–76.
gained … vanquished:
King Ahaz of Judah defeated the Syrians but, returning to Jerusalem, erected an altar to Rimmon and worshiped him (2 Kings 16.10–16).

472.
sottish
: stupid.

478–82.
Osiris … human:
Ovid reports that when Typhon attacked Olympus (cp. 198–200n), some gods fled and wandered Egypt disguised as beasts (
Met
. 5.319–31).
Isis
and
Osiris
are Egyptian gods represented as having the heads of a cow and a bull. Plutarch wrote influentially about them, and their myth had a hold on Milton’s imagination; see
Areop
, p. 955. Falcon-headed
Orus
was their son.

484–89.
While Moses received the law on Mount Horeb (see 8n), the Hebrews pressured Aaron to forge a calf to worship (Exod. 12.35–36). It was made of Egyptian gold,
borrowed
by the Hebrews just before the Exodus (Deut. 9.8–21; Exod. 31.18, 32).

484–86.
rebel … ox:
Jeroboam, who rebelled against Solomon’s son Rehoboam,
doubled
the sin at Horeb (see previous note) by repeating the former idolatry and by making two golden calves instead of one (2 Kings 12.12–23). “Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass” (Ps. 106.20). 487–89. Refers to the Hebrews’ departure from Egypt, when Jehovah smites “all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast” and executes judgment “against all the gods of Egypt” (Exod. 12.12).

488.
equaled
: Jehovah with
one stroke
ends (and so proves equal to) many lives.

490.
Belial
: The Hebrew for
Belial
is not a proper noun, much less the name of a god, but refers to anyone opposing established authority, civil or religious. In English translations it became “worthless fellow” or “vile scoundrel.” A Rabbinical etymology derives it from a verb meaning “throws off the yoke”; the Septuagint accordingly translates
Belial
with terms that signify lawlessness (
anomia
or
paranomos
). Milton with characteristic bite links Belial to organized religion and the court (cp.
PR
2.182–83).

495.
Eli’s sons
: For the lechery and sacrilege of Eli’s sons, see 1 Sam. 2.12–24.

502.
flown
: filled to excess (obsolete past participle of
flow
).

503–4.
Sodom … Gibeah:
biblical cities in which gangs of men clamor at hosts’ doors to rape male guests and are offered women instead—Lot’s daughters in
Sodom
and the visiting Levite’s concubine in
Gibeah
(Gen. 19, Judg. 19). 1667 reads “when hospitable doors / Yielded their matrons to prevent worse rape.” 1674 concentrates on Gibeah, where the concubine, unlike Lot’s daughters, actually is assaulted and in the morning deposited lifeless at the door where she had been
exposed
.

505.
matron
: Her Hebrew title is translated by “concubine,” but Milton’s diction is not prudish. In polygamous Hebrew culture, concubines were secondary wives, owed the same respect from other men as the primary wife. 508.
Javan’s issue:
Noah’s grandson Javan was deemed (
held
) the ancestor of the Ionian Greeks; his name in the Septuagint is a version of Ionia (Gen. 10.2). Cp.
SA
715–16.

509–14.
Gods … reigned:
Uranus and Gaea (
Heav’n
and
Earth
) beget the Greek gods. According to the Roman republican poet Ennius Quintus (239–170
B.C.E
.), Titan’s younger brother, Saturn, took Titan’s
birthright
(cited by Lactantius,
Divine Institutes
1.14).
Jove
, Saturn’s son by
Rhea
, usurped his father’s throne.

515.
Ida
: mountain in
Crete
where Jove was born (cp.
Il Pens
29).

516.
Olympus:
snowcapped peak where the Greeks supposed the gods resided;
middle air:
cooler region of the atmosphere, extending to the mountaintops. Milton makes it the postlapsarian possession of Satan and his followers (
PR
1.44–46).

517.
Delphian cliff
: on the southern slope of Mount Parnassus, the seat of the oracle of Apollo.

518.
Dodona:
town in Epirus, where Zeus had an oracle.

519.
Doric land:
Greece.

520–21.
Saturn and his followers flee west from Greece, over the Adriatic Sea to Italy (
Hesperian fields
), to France (the
Celtic
), and finally to northwestern islands, including Britain (
the utmost isles
)
;
cp.
Masque
59–61.

523.
damp
: dejected; cp. 11.293.

528.
recollecting
: remembering, reassembling; cp. 9.471.

532.
clarions
: “small shrill treble trumpet” (Hume).

534.
Azazel
: variously construed, but the Hebrew name suggests rugged strength. Cabbalistic lore made him one of Satan’s standard-bearers, as Milton could have known from various sources (West 155ff).

537.
meteor
: comet.

538–39.
emblazed … trophies:
lit up or decorated with heraldic devices (
arms
) and memorials (
trophies
). Cp. 5.592–93.

540.
Sonorous metal
: synecdoche referring to the trumpets and clarions of line 532.

542.
tore Hell’s concave
: carried through Hell’s vaulted roof; see 8.242–44.

543.
reign
: realm; for
Chaos
and
Night
see 2.894–909, 959–1009. Their reaction is prophetic; Satan’s activity will encroach on their realm; cp. 10.415–18.

546.
orient
: lustrous like a pearl; rising like the sun in the east.

548.
serried
: in close order.

550.
Dorian
: Plato would allow “manly” Dorian music in his ideal state because it inspires, in Aristotle’s words, “a moderate and settled temper” (
Rep
. 3.398–99;
Pol
. 8.5). Cp.
Areop
in
MLM
943;
Of Ed
in
MLM
979. Thucydides’ account (5.70) of the Spartans in unbroken
phalanx
, calmly marching into battle to the sound of flutes, lies behind lines 549–62.

556.
swage
: assuage.

563.
horrid
: bristling (with spears).

565.
warriors old
: from the reader’s perspective only; humanity has not yet been created.

567–68.
files … traverse:
He looks down and across the lines of warriors.

571.
Their number last he sums
: David orders a census to count the warriors he might deploy, as Satan does here; God punishes Israel for David’s presumption and implicit lack of faith (2 Sam. 24).

573.
since created man
: since man was created.

575.
small infantry
: pygmies, mentioned by Homer (
Il
. 3.3–6). Addison was “afraid” that Milton intended the pun on
infant
(
Spectator
297, Feb. 9, 1712).

577.
Phlegra
: In Greek myth, the Olympian gods defeated the giants on their breeding ground at Phlegra (Pallene), the westernmost prong of the Chalcidicean peninsula in the Aegean. The place name derives from the Greek for fire (cp.
Phlegethon
2.581–82), so called because of the volcanic soil. Some later writers claimed that the battle culminated in Italy, where Jupiter blasts the giants on similar turf—the Phlegraean plains near Vesuvius—and then imprisons them beneath regional volcanoes (
Diodorus
4.21.5).

578.
Thebes and Troy (
Ilium
) are main sites of Greek epic and tragedy.

579.
auxiliar
: In classical epic, the gods aid their mortal kin and other favorites.

580–81.
King Arthur (
Uther’s son
) and his knights, some from Brittany (
Armoric
). For Milton’s fascination with Arthur, see
Damon
166–68.