by John Milton
254–56. The chiasmus concluding line 255 epitomizes Satan’s claim for the mind’s constitutive power. Cp. Hamlet: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” (2.2.249–50). That Satan’s condition is a function of his own unchanging psyche is later borne out, ironically and to his dismay; see 4.75, 9.118–23.
257. all but less than: This puzzling phrase is usually glossed as a combination of “only less than” and “all but equal to.” Satan is not conceding inequality, however, but asserting parity. He is anything but less than God, who triumphed because of superior armament—”his only dreaded bolt” (6.491).
263. Cp. Plutarch’s account of Caesar riding past a sorry barbarian village, “I would rather be first here than second at Rome” (Lives 469) or the sentiments of Euripides’ Eteocles, “When I can rule, shall I be this man’s slave?” (Phoe. 520). Satan’s specific preference has plentiful precedent, typically to the contrary: “I should choose … to serve as the hireling … of some portionless man … rather than to be lord over all the dead” (Od. 11.489–91); “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Ps. 84.10). See Abdiel’s similar declaration, 6.183–84.
265. copartners: equal participants (coheirs) in an inheritance.
266. astonished: shocked, thunderstruck; oblivious: producing oblivion; cp. 2.74.
268. mansion: abode; cp. John 14.2: “In my father’s house are many mansions.”
276. edge: critical moment; battle line (as at 6.108). Shakespeare’s Henry IV calls it “the edge of war” (1H4 1.1.17).
281. erewhile: some time ago; amazed: stunned; a stronger term in Milton’s era than in ours.
284. Was moving: began to move; a classical use of the imperfect tense.
288–91. Tuscan … globe: Galileo is the Tuscan artist, the only contemporary to whom Milton in PL overtly alludes or names (5.262). Artist here signifies one skilled in a science. In Areopagitica, Milton claims that he visited Galileo while touring Tuscany (MLM 950). Galileo was by 1638 already blind or nearly so, making it unlikely that Milton witnessed him using his telescope (optic glass) to view the moon. Yet the poet was obviously fascinated by the new technology and the vistas it opened to imagination (Nicolson). Fesole overlooks the Arno river valley (Valdarno) and the city of Florence—a landscape and a society that Milton idolized. Galileo describes the moon’s surface as mountainous in Sidereal Messenger.
292–94. Homer’s Polyphemos, the Cyclops, wields “a staff … as large as is the mast of a black ship of twenty oars” (Od. 9.322). After he is blinded, “a lopped pine guides and steadies his steps” (Vergil, Aen. 3.659). Milton extends Homer’s comparison into a ratio that renders a great ship’s mast inadequate to indicate the size of Satan’s spear.
294. ammiral: obsolete spelling of admiral; a vessel carrying an admiral, flagship.
296. marl: rich, crumbly soil.
298. vaulted: The heavens are commonly described as an arched structure, or vault, like the ceiling of a cathedral. In Hell, even the sky is on fire.
299. Nathless: nonetheless.
302. autumnal leaves: Comparison of the dead to fallen leaves is commonplace; cp. Homer, Il. 6.146; Vergil, Aen. 6.309–10; Dante, Inf. 3.112–15. Milton’s description is distinctly echoed in Dryden’s 1697 translation of Vergil: “thick as the leaves in autumn strow the woods” (Aen. 6.428).
303. Milton likely visited the heavily wooded valley of Vallombrosa in the fall of 1638. The Italian place name literally means “shady valley.” Note its somber aural combination with autumnal, strow, brooks, and embow’r. Etruria: classical name for the Tuscan region. Shades is a metonymy for trees as well as a name for spirits of the dead.
304. sedge: botanical transition from the autumnal leaves of Vallombrosa to the Red Sea of Exodus. The Hebrew name for the Red Sea means “Sea of Sedge.”
305. Orion armed: constellation of a hunter with sword and club. Orion rising was associated with stormy weather.
307. Busiris: mythical Egyptian king often identified as an oppressor of the Hebrews but here as the scriptural Pharaoh whose army is engulfed after it pursues the Hebrews into the parted Red Sea (Exod. 14). Memphian chivalry: Memphis was the ancient capital of Egypt; chivalry refers to armed forces (cp. PR 3.344).
309. sojourners of Goshen: Hebrews fleeing Egypt, the land of Goshen (Gen. 47.27).
320. virtue: strength, valor.
324. Seraph: singular of seraphim (on the model of cherub/cherubim).
325. anon: straightaway, instantly (not “in a little while”).
327. tread us down: trample us in triumph; cp. 2.79.
337. The construction obey to is unusual but not unprecedented; see Shakespeare’s Phoenix: “to whose sound chaste wings obey” (4); cp. Rom. 6.16.
339. Amram’s son: Moses, who with his rod calls a black (pitchy) cloud of locusts to afflict Egypt (Exod. 10.12–15; cp. 12.185–86).
341. warping: floating and swarming.
345. cope: covering, vault, like that of the sky; cp. l. 298, 4.992.
348. sultan: ruler, despot, or tyrant.
351–55. Alludes to barbarian hoards (Goths, Huns, Vandals) who from the third to fifth centuries poured into the southern Roman Empire. The Vandals crossed from Spain (Beneath Gibraltar) into Northern Africa (Libyan sands).
353. Rhene … Danaw: Rhine, Danube.
363. Books: On God’s condemnation as erasure (razed) from the roll of eternal life, see Exod. 32.32–33 and Rev. 22.5. The fallen angels’ previous identities no longer exist; cp. 84n.
372. gay: gaudy, wanton; cp. 4.942.
373. That pagan gods were fallen angels was a Christian commonplace rooted in classical and scriptural thought, as Verity details (672–74). Cp. Nat Ode 173–228, PR 2.121–26.
376. The catalog is conventional, as is the request of the Muse to supply it; cp. Homer, Il. 5.703; Vergil, Aen. 9.664. Invocation of the Muse, a pagan deity, may seem jarring here, though in the invocations to Books 1 and 7 Milton identifies his Muse with inspiration from God.
380. promiscuous: random, diverse.
386–87. Sion … Cherubim: Zion is the site of Solomon’s Temple, which houses the Ark of the Covenant. The throne of God’s invisible presence stands on top of the Ark between images of cherubim; see 10n.
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 admire
d 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.
583–84. Aspramont … Trebisond: Fighting against the Saracens, Roland wins honor at the castle of Aspramont, an episode often mentioned in Italian epic (see Ariosto, OF 17.14). Montalban is the site of the castle of Rinaldo, the hero to whom Tasso assigns victory in the battle for Jerusalem (GL). Damasco, Marocco, and Trebisond are also sites associated with great warriors and battles between Christian and Saracen.
585. Biserta: Tunisian seaport from which Saracens embarked to invade Spain.
586–87. Charlemagne … Fontarabia: According to the Spanish Jesuit historian and noted advocate of tyrannicide Juan de Mariana (1536–1624), Charlemagne fell—that is, suffered ruinous defeat—at Fontarabia (1699). The historical incident is the basis for the epic tale of the death of Roland and his twelve paladins at nearby Roncesvalles.