THE SOURCES

ACHERON.-P. L. 2. 578; C. 604. See Rivers of Hell.

ACHILLES.-P. L. 9. 15.

The subject of the Iliad is 'the wrath of Achilles, Peleus' son, the ruinous wrath that brought on the Achæans woes innumerable' (Il. 1. 1 f.). Il. 22 tells of Achilles' fight with Hector. Cf. 22. 165 f.:

ὣς τὼ τρὶς Πριάμοιο πόλιν περιδινηθήτην
καρπαλίμοισι πόδεσσι.

'Stern' is not a Homeric epithet of the hero. Vergil calls him 'immitis' (En. 1. 34; 3. 87).

ADES.-P. L. 2. 964.

Hades or Ades, after the Homeric spelling Aides, was a son of Cronus (I. 15. 188), 'who drew as his domain the murky darkness,' and was 'ruler of the folk in the under-world.' In I. 9. 158 f. he is not to be softened, neither overcome, and therefore is he hatefullest of all gods to mortals.' Cf. Orcus and Pluto.

ADONIS.-P. L. 1. 446; 9. 440; C. 999; (C. N. 204).

The story of Adonis or Adon is of Oriental origin. He is identified with the Syrian Thammuz (cf. Ezek. 8. 14), and one center of his worship was the region of Lebanon (Strabo 16. 755, and Lucian, De Dea Syria 6 ff.). Ovid (Met. 10. 503 ff.) tells the love of Venus and Adonis in Cyprus. In disregard of her warning he entered the chase, and was killed by a wild boar. Venus laments him saying (727):

repetitaque mortis imago

Annua plangoris peraget simulamina nostri.

Lucian (De Dea Syria 6 ff.) says that the people of Byblus, near Lebanon, relate the story of Adonis' death as occurring in Mount Lebanon. The river Adonis, which flows from that mountain, became tinted annually with his blood at the festival of mourning for the youth, and thence derived its name. Lucian also speaks of the festival of Adonis' revival (cf. Theoc. 15. 102, 136, 144). The scholium on 102 speaks of his returning from Hades for intervals of six months, and the Orphic hymn to Adonis (55. 12) says that he brings with him the fruits. His return is thought to signify the annual revival of Nature.

The epithet Assyrian queen' (C. 1003) is not only appropriate to the legend, but consistent with the statement of Pausanias (1. 14. 6), that the Assyrians were 'the first of men to pay reverence to Celestial Aphrodite.'

In P. L. 9. 439 Eden is described as fairer than the gardens of Adonis or Alcinous, and according to Pliny (N. H. 19. 4.19), 'antiquitas nihil prius mirata est, quam Hesperidum hortos, ac regum Adonis et Alcinoi.' Ancient writers have little else to say about the gardens of Adonis. Hesychius defines the 'Adúvidos кññоι as the plants used at the festival Adonia, as in Theocritus 15. 112 ff. In connection with P. L. 9. 439 should be read C. 976-1011, which Todd refers to Spenser's elaborate description of the gardens of Adonis, F. Q. 3. 6. 29-51, and Hymn of Love 41, 42. As Milton refers to actual gardens of 'revived Adonis,' he may be thinking of Spenser, who describes his revival and his union with Venus.

Milton refers to the legend of Adonis in Nat. non pati Sen. 63; Eleg. 1. 62; Eikonoklastes, P. W. 1. 330. Baudissin discusses the identification of Thammuz with Adonis in Stud. z. Semit. Religionsgesch. 1.295.

AFER.-P. L. 10. 702. See Winds.

ALCESTIS.-Son. 28. 2.

Milton's version of Alcestis' surrender to Death in place of her husband, Admetus, is the one given by Euripides in his drama of Alcestis. Other accounts make Hades the scene of the capture, instead of the tomb. Heracles speaks of himself (1119) as 'Jove's son. Browne suggests тi páσμa vepтÉρwv (1127), as an original of 'pale and faint.'

ALCINOUS.-P. L. 5. 841; 9. 441; V. E. 49.

Alcinous was king of the Phæacians in the island of Scheria. He received and entertained Odysseus (Od. 6–13. 92), who was cast upon this island after his long wanderings. About the palace were the gardens, described in Od. 7. 112 ff. There are many kinds of trees whose fruit 'never perisheth, neither faileth, winter or summer, enduring through all the year. There too, skirting the farthest line, are all manner of garden beds, planted trimly, that are perpetually fresh, and therein are two fountains of water, whereof one scatters his streams all about the garden, and the other runs over against it beneath the threshold of the courtyard, and issues by the lofty house, and thence did the townsfolk draw water.' These gardens are mentioned by Eustathius Macrembolites (12th cent.) in his Hysmin. and Hysm. 1. 4, as though they were a familiar example of luxuriance, and Pliny (N. H. 19. 4. 19) says that these gardens and those of Adonis were greatly admired by antiquity. V. E. 49 refers to the two feasts given by Alcinous (Od. 8. 40 ff., 470

ff.). At the first banquet Demodocus sang of the quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles (73 ff.), and at the second of the capture of Troy (499 ff.). His theme after the games which intervened was the love of Ares and Aphrodite (266 ff.). All the Phæacians were delighted, but when Odysseus heard his own deeds sung, he wept bitterly (83-93, 368, 521-531). Demodocus was 'the beloved minstrel whom the muse loved dearly, and she gave him both good and evil; of his sight she reft him, but granted him sweet song' (62-64). He was both ' divine' and 'famous' (43,83).

ALPHEUS.-Arc. 30; Lyc. 132.

Alpheus, the river-god of Elis, was much honored as early as Homer (cf. Il. 11. 725 ff.), and often sung' by later poets (cf. Pind. Ol. 13. 48; Moschus, Id. 7; Statius, Theb. 1. 271; 4. 239). Seneca (Nat. Quæst. 6. 8) calls Alpheus 'celebratum poetis.' In Ovid, Met. 5. 572-641, Arethusa tells the story of Alpheus' love for her as she bathed in his upper waters in Arcadia, and of the pursuit into Sicily, where she became the spring which bears her name in Ortygia near Syracuse. Vergil, Æn. 3. 694, refers to the legend:

Alpheum fama est huc Elidis amnem
Occultas egisse vias subter mare: qui nunc
Ore, Arethusa, tuo Siculis confunditur undis.

Statius (Silv. 1. 2. 205) says Alpheus passed under the sea' demerso canali.' Arethusa and Alpheus are used by Milton as suggestive of Sicily and Arcadia, the lands of pastorals (Lyc. 85, 132); cf. Verg. Ecl. 10. I:

Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem.

In the Epitaph of Bion (Mosch. 3), Bion is said to have drunk of Arethusa (77; cf. 10).

AMALTHEA.-P. L. 4. 278 ; P. R. 2. 356.

According to Apollodorus (2. 7. 5), the river-god Achelous contended in the form of a bull with Heracles for the hand of Deianeira. Heracles tore off one of his horns, which Achelous ransomed with the horn of Amalthea. Amalthea, he says, was a daughter of Haimonios, who had in her possession a bull's horn which yields either food or drink whichever anyone desires. In 1. 1. 6 he mentions the belief that she was the goat which nourished the boy Zeus in Crete. Strabo (10. p. 458) says that the two horns were identified by many, as appears in Ovid (Met. 9. 87 ff.), where Achelous himself tells the story of his lost horn, which, 'heaped with fruit and odoriferous flowers, the Naiads have consecrated, and the bounteous goddess, Plenty, is enriched by my horn.' Milton's mention of the Hesperides may have been suggested by the account of Hyginus (Fab. 31), where Hercules gave the horn to the Hesperides or the nymphs.

For Amalthea, as mother of Bacchus, see Rhea.

AMARYLLIS.-Lye. 68.

With Milton's line:

To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,

compare Verg. Ecl. 1. 4:

Tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra

Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida sylvas.

These ex

In Theoc. 3 a goatherd serenades his Amaryllis. amples explain the general association of the name with pastoral poetry.

AMAZONS.-P. L. 9. 1111.

The Amazons are mentioned by Homer (I. 3. 189; 6. 186), who calls them ȧvriávɛipai, 'women peers of men.' Vergil (Æn. 1. 490 ff.) describes Penthesilea leading them to the aid of the Trojans. They are armed ‘lunatis peltis' (cf. Æn. 11. 660 ff.). Pollux in the Greek Onomasticon 1. 134 speaks of the Thrn 'Aμašoviкh as resembling, according to Xenophon, an ivy leaf. The TéλTη was a small rhomboid shield (Paus. 1. 41. 7; Plut. Thes. 27).

AMBROSIA AND NECTAR.-P. L. 2. 245; 4. 240; 5. 57, 683, 642; 6. 332; 9. 838; 11. 279; P. R. 4. 590; D. F. I. 49; V. E. 39; C 16, 838, 840; Lyc. 175.

Ambrosia and nectar are primarily the meat and drink of the gods (Hom. Od. 5. 92 ff.; Il. 1. 598), but the corresponding adjectives are used in the sense of 'immortal' (cf. àμßpóσios). In Il. 5. 331 ff. Diomed has wounded Aphrodite; 'straight through the ambrosial raiment (cf. C. 16) that the Graces themselves had woven her, pierced the dart into the flesh. Then flowed the goddess's immortal blood, such ichor as floweth in the blessed gods; for they eat no bread neither drink they gleaming wine, wherefore they are bloodless and are named immortals.' Cf. P. L. 6. 331. Milton is faithful to the classical usage of these words. Homer speaks of 'ambrosial night' (Il. 2. 57); cf. P. L. 5. 642. Zeus has ambrosial locks (I. 1. 529); cf. P. L. 5. 57. Euripides (Hippol. 748) mentions the ambrosial fountains in the gardens of the Hesperides; cf. P. L. 11. 279. With the 'ambrosial oils' of C. 840 compare the anointing of Sarpedon's wounds with ambrosia, Il. 16. 680. In Il. 14. 169 ff., where Hera prepared to meet Zeus, she anointed herself with ambrosia, and 'plaited her shining tresses, fair and ambrosial'; cf. P. L. 5. 57. The fragrance of ambrosia is referred to by Milton in P. L. 2. 245. It is suggested in such passages as Il. 23. 187; Od. 4. 445. Cf. ὀδμῆς ἀμβροσίης of Theognis 9.

Nectar also is an ointment in D. F. I. 49 and Lyc. 175. The suggestion of fragrance may be added to that of immortality. Cf. Il. 3. 385; Ov. Met. 4. 250. As Homer speaks of vέктap έрv@póv (Il. 19. 38; Od. 5. 93), Milton speaks of 'rubied nectar' (P. L. 5. 633).

AMMON.-P. L. 4. 277; 9. 508; C. N. 203.

Ammon or Hammon was one of the chief divinities of the Africans, whom the Greek colonists called Zeus Ammon, and the Romans Jupiter Ammon.

In P. L. 4. 277 Ammon is identified with Cham or Ham, the son of Noah, as in 4. 717 Iapetus is called Japhet. Samuel Bochart, who in 1646 published his Geographia Sacra, discusses this correspondence, and says (1. 1) that the learned had for some time maintained that Noah and Saturn were the same. Among other reasons for believing that Cham was Ammon, he says that Ham is the same word as Hammon, and that Ham and Zeus both mean 'hot,' and he adds that each was his father's youngest son. He mentions also the fact that Egypt, 'the land of Ham,' was the home of Ham's descendants. The identification rests upon the 'poetarum judicium' (2. 1). Ralegh says that Cham was no other than Saturnus Egyptius, and gives his reasons in his History of the World 2. 2. 4. A passage which throws some light upon C. N. 203 may be found in Macrobius, Sat. 1. 21: 'Ideo et Ammonem, quem deum solem occidentem Libyes existimant, arietibus cornibus fingunt, quibus maxime id animal valet, sicut sol radiis.'

The love of 'Ammonian Jove' and Olympias, mother of Alexander (P. L. 9.508; P. R. 3.84), may be referred to Plutarch's Alexander 2. Among other accounts of Alexander's birth, Plutarch says, ‘A serpent was also seen lying by Olympias as she slept;' and in 3, 'Apollo commanded him (Philip) to sacrifice to Jupiter Ammon and to pay his homage principally to that god.' The story is told afterwards by Justin II. 11; 12.16. Milton refers to it again in Eleg. 4.26. See Rhea.

AMPHITRITE.-C. 921.

Amphitrite was a daughter of Nereus (cf. C. 835), who with her sisters 'calmed the blasts of the divine winds' (Hesiod, Theog. 243. 254.) She became the wife of Poseidon (Pindar, Ol. 6. 104 f.). The name Amphitrite is sometimes used of the sea, as in Ovid, Met. 1. 14; Hom. Od. 12. 60.

AMYMONE.-P. R. 2. 188.

Apollodorus (2. 1. 4, 5) tells the story of Amymone, one of the fifty daughters of Danaus, who, having fled from Egypt, were seeking water in Argos. Amymone threw her weapon at a deer, but struck a sleeping satyr, who offered her violence. Poseidon, who came to the rescue, won her love. Lucian (Dial. Mar. 6) speaks of her beauty, and relates that Poseidon stole her away into the sea. Cf. Hyginus, Fab. 169.

ANCHISES.-C. 928.

Locrine was the son of Brutus, first king of Britain, who was the