exemplified by Theocritus. The conception of the Muses as it appears in Lyc. 15, 66, 133 is in accord with that of Theocritus (1. 64-145; 16), though in Lyc. 66 Muse' may mean poetry itself as in Verg. Ecl. 1. 2. The association of Pegasus with the Muses, as suggested in P. L. 7. 4, 17, is based upon the story told by Strabo (8. p. 379). Near Corinth is the spring Peirene, sacred to the Muses, which Pegasus, the winged horse, had caused to gush forth by the stroke of his hoof. The conception of the poet as borne aloft on the back of Pegasus is referred in Pauly's Real-Encyc. 5. 1275 to Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato. Cf. Bellerophon. For Calliope as the mother of Orpheus (P. L. 7. 37; Lyc. 58) see Orpheus. NAIADS.-P. R. 2. 355; C. 254, 833. The Naiads are generally distinguished by the ancients as the nymphs of springs and rivers. In the description of the landingplace of Odysseus in Ithaca (Od. 13. 103 ff.), Homer says, 'Hard by is a pleasant cave and shadowy, sacred to the nymphs that are called Naiads. And there are great looms of stone whereon the nymphs weave a raiment of purple stain, a marvel to behold, and therein are waters welling evermore.' Milton's use of flowers as an accessory of the Naiads is characteristic, as is seen elsewhere (Elysium, Hours). In P. R. 2. 355 the Naiads appear With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn. In C. 254 they are 'flowery-kirtled.' This epithet is in harmony with Ecce ferunt Nymphæ calathis; tibi candida Nais, Cf. Theoc. 13. 39 ff. Ovid, in speaking of the Hours, who in many respects resemble the Naiads, says (Fast. 5. 217, 218) that in the spring Conveniunt pictis incinctæ vestibus Horæ Inque leves calathos munera nostra legunt. 'Pictis' doubtless has reference to flowers, as the context and the classical conception of the Hours show, but 'pictis incinctæ vestibus' and 'flowery-kirtled' are in themselves equally indefinite, nor does the one explain the other. Three interpretations of Ovid are possible, which would likewise apply to Milton. The first and least proba ble explanation is that the kirtles or ' vestes' were embroidered with a flower-pattern. Examples of pictus in this sense are Verg. Æn. 1. 708, 711; 9. 582; Ov. Her. 12. 30; Mart. 10. 72. 7. A John Gower of Cambridge (1640) renders the passage, 'in broydred gowns.' A second and more probable explanation is that the robes were dyed in the bright colors of flowers. In Ars Am. 3. 173 ff. Ovid, in prescribing colors for the dress of women in love, names the color of the sky, or that of the golden fleece, or the color of the waves. 'I could imagine that the nymphs are clad in vestments of this color. Another resembles the Paphian myrtles; another the purple amethysts or the white roses. As many as the flowers which the new earth produces, when in warm spring the vine puts forth its buds and sluggish winter retreats, so many, or still more, shades of dye does the wool imbibe.' The majority of translators in different languages seem to prefer this meaning, and imply that the garments of the Hours were of bright and variegated colors. The most notable supporter of this interpretation is Bentley, who appeals to a fragment of the Cypria given by Athenæus (15. 682): 'Then were donned garments, which the Graces and the Hours had made and dyed (ẞapav) in spring flowers, such as the Hours wear (or bring); in the crocus, and the hyacinth, and in the blooming violet, and in the fair flower of the rose, sweet and nectareous, in the ambrosial calixes, . . . the flowers of the narcissus and the lily, such garments as Aphrodite wears, fragrant with all kinds of odors' (ὀδμαῖς παντοίαις τεθυωμένα). This last expression suggests the third and apparently most probable interpretation of Ovid, namely, that the robes of the Hours are actually woven of different kinds of flowers. This is the belief of Heinsius, who cites Orph. Hy. 42. 6, where these divinities appear, 'wearing dewy robes of many flowers that grow.' He mentions also the reading 'pictis floribus,' which occurs in three cases for 'pictis vestibus.' In addition to this should be considered a fragment of Hermippus (Kock, Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta 3. 226): 'The Hours' fresh close-woven robe of flowers. (The breeze) blowing the fine garments full of flowers.' Cf. Plat. Rep. 8. 557 C. Whatever light this evidence may throw upon Ovid and the tradition which he had in mind, it can hardly be determined whether Milton's 'flowery-kirtled' suggested a definite thing to the poet, or whether he realized an artistic possibility in leaving it indefinite, as Ovid had done. That'kirtle' was put for a long, flowing garment, implied in ' vestibus,' seems not unlikely, for the kirtle, already becoming an antiquity at Milton's time, had often been a long garment, as worn by women. See Planché, Cycl. of Costume 1. 320. For his association of the Naiads with Circe (C. 253), Milton has Homer as his authority (Od. 10. 350). Circe's handmaids were born of the wells, and of the woods, and of the holy rivers.' In the story of the British Sabrina, told in C. 24 ff., we find traces of the classics, as in 833, where the water-nymphs draw the 'guiltless damsel' into the river. Whether Milton is thinking of Naiads or Nereids (C. 835), the passage is reminiscent of a somewhat similar experience of Hylas, whom the Naiads stole away into the spring whence he was drawing water, as related by Theocritus in the thirteenth idyll. Verity cites Jonson's Sad Shepherd 1. 2: and those nymphs, Those treacherous nymphs pulled in Earine. See Amalthea in connection with P. R. 2. 356. NARCISSUS.-P. L. 4. 453; C. 237. Eve's story of her discovery of her own beauty, told in P. L. 4. 453-469, is based upon Ovid's account of Narcissus (Met. 3. 407 ff.): There was a clear spring, like silver with its unsullied waters.' Grass grew roundabout, nourished by the water, and trees shut out the rays of the sun. Narcissus lay here resting from the hunt, when he caught sight of his own figure in the water, and fell in love with it. In vain he tried to embrace it. What thou seest,' says the poet, 'the same is but the shadow of a reflected form; it has nothing of its It comes and stays with thee; with thee it will depart.' As Narcissus started forward, so did the image, ever imitating his movements. In the course of time he pined away, and in that place grew the flower which bears his name. See Echo. own. NATURE.-P. L. 2. 895, 911, 1037; 3. 455; 9. 1001; C. N. 32; V. E. 46. In their treatment of Nature the ancients get little beyond a mere personification, and in Milton's representation of the goddess we find much that is borrowed from the classical conception of Earth (Tellus or Ge; see Earth). Among the Orphic hymns is one addressed to Nature (9), in which the poet employs such epithets as 'mother of all,' 'ancient,' (cf. V. E. 46). She is also the ruler,' the guardian in air, under earth, and in the sea' (14), 'the vanquisher, the unsubdued' (3; cf. P. L. 2. 1037). In P. L. 2 895 Chaos and Night are ancestors of Nature.' As shown elsewhere, Milton has here reconciled the cosmogonies of Hesiod and of Orpheus (see Chaos). Earth was the eldest child of Chaos, and the mother of gods and men, according to Hesiod, but in this passage Nature seems to include not only Earth but all that sprang from her. The sources of such passages as P. L. 2. 911; 9. 1001; V. E. 46 must be found in ancient philosophy, from which the poet has derived mythology by increasing the vividness of personification. Before the world was created all was Chaos: 'congestaque eodem Non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum' (Ov. Met. 1. 8). Diodorus (1. 7) describes the secret things that came to pass When beldam Nature in her cradle was. The world (kóσμos) gathered the elements within itself, where they they became impregnated, increasing by the night mists, until they burst forth in the forms of all created things. According to Ovid Met. 1. 416 ff.), this order of creation followed the flood: 'fecundaque semina rerum, Vivaci nutrita solo, ceu matris in alvo Creverunt.' Cf. P. L. 2. 911; 9. 1001. For the allusion in C. N. 32 see Apollo. In connection with P. L. 2. 911 editors cite Lucretius 5. 260: Earth, the universal mother, is found at the same time to be the general tomb of things.' At the fall of man (P. L. 9. 1001) Earth trembled, and Nature gave a second groan.' This seems to be a reference to the theory of creation just given. It is related by Hesiod, however, that Earth groaned deeply when Heaven banished her children from her sight (Theog. 159). NEERA.-Lye. 69. Neæra is a name common among Latin erotic poets and their imitators. Since Warton, Lyc. 69 has generally been referred to Buchanan (Elegies and Epigrams). See also Trent's edition of Lycidas. In Hor. C. 3. 14. 21 we find the lines Dic et argutæ properet Neæræ Cf. Tibull. 3. 2. 11; Verg. Ecl. 3. 3. NECESSITY.-S. A. 1666; Are. 69. Milton's 'dire Necessity' in S. A. 1666 is adapted from the 'dira Necessitas' of Hor. C. 3. 24. 6, as Todd suggests. Such personification of Necessity (Ananke) was especially common among the Greek dramatists. According to a fragment of Sophocles (236, Nauck, Trag. Græc. Frag.) not even Ares can withstand Necessity, and Eschylus speaks of 'the resistless might of Necessity' (Prom, 105). On Arc. 69 see Fates. NECTAR.-See Ambrosia. NEPTUNE.-P. L. 9. 18; P. R. 2. 190; V. E. 43; C. 18, 869; Lyc. 90. C. 18 ff. refers to the division of the world among the gods. Poseidon (Neptune) himself tells the story in 17. 15. 187 ff.: For three brethren are we, and sons of Cronus, whom Rhea bare, Zeus, and myself, and Hades is the third. . . And in three lots are all things divided, and each drew a domain of his own, and to me fell the hoary sea, to be my habitation forever, when we shook the lots: and Hades drew the murky darkness, and Zeus the wide heaven, in clear air and clouds.' Milton speaks of Neptune's rule as extended over each ebbing stream and all the sea-girt isles.' Servius, in a note on Verg. Georg. 1. 12, says that Neptune presides over the rivers, the springs, and all waters. Plato in the Critias, 113 C, relates that in the distribution of territory among the gods, Poseidon obtained the rich island of Atlantis, where he reared his children. Plato enumerates these and the realms which Neptune appointed them, and says (114 C): All these and their descendants (for many generations) were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in the open sea.' The Homeric Poseidon is mighty and warlike, driving his chariot up from his palace in the sea, and rushing fiercely into battle (Il. 13. 13, 10-65). He is frequently called the Earth-shaker by Homer (¿vooí x0wv, ¿vvooíyaws, 13. 10, 59; cf. C. 869). In Il. 12. 27 he appears wielding his 'mace,' the trident, against the Greek wall. With his trident he also stirred up storms against Odysseus, as the hero was returning home from Calypso's isle (Od. 5. 291 ff.). In one case (Il. 13. 59) Poseidon carried a sceptre or staff, whose stroke inspired strong courage. Among the great epic occurs Neptune's ire subjects referred to in P. L. 9. 14 ff. that so long Perplexed the Greek.' Milton means the Odyssey. Homer begins his narrative with the year ordained by the gods for the return of Odysseus to Ithaca; ‘not even there was he quit of his labors, not even among his own; but all the gods had pity on him save Poseidon, who raged continually against godlike Odysseus, till he came to his own country' (Od. 1. 16-21). Poseidon was angry because Odysseus had blinded the one eye of his son Polyphemus. From that day forth Poseidon the Earth-shaker doth not indeed slay Odysseus, but driveth him wandering from his own country' (74). V. E. 42 ff. may be a remote reference to strife between Zeus and Poseidon. It was Poseidon who conspired against Zeus in Il. 1. 399. They are enemies again in Il. 15. 162 ff., and finally we see them engaging in battle on opposite sides (20. 54 ff.): 'And terribly thundered the father of gods and men from heaven above; and from beneath Poseidon made the vast earth shake and the steep mountain tops.' The epithet 'green-eyed' (V. E. 43) may be referred to Pausanias or Cicero. The former (1. 14. 5) says that Poseidon's eyes were yλavkoí, that is, the color of the sea (blue or gray). Cicero (N. D. 1. 30) calls them cærulei' (dark-green or dark blue). The word is often used of the sea. For Neptune and Triton (Lyc. 90) see Sea-gods. For Neptune and Amymone (P. R. 2. 190) see Amymone. NEREUS.-C. 835-871. See Sea-gods. NIGHT.-P. L. 1. 543; 2. 150, 489, 894, 962, 970, 986, 1002, 1036; 3. 18, 71, 421, 424: 4. 776; 5. 685; 6. 14, 406; 7.105; 9. 65; 10. 477; P. R. 4. 398; Pass. 29; Pens. 58, 121; C. 195; L'AI. 2. Milton's treatment of Night presents some difficulty in distinguishing between personification and mythology, nor is the line clearly drawn by the ancients, especially the later writers. |