I 



Notes on Milton's Nativity Ode. 325 



Horace, Od. 1. 10. 18). As Hermes is regarded as ' pacifer ' (Ovid, 

 Met. 14. 291), so his staff has a hke quahty ascribed to it (Preller, 

 Gr. Myth. 1. 320). Thus Ben Jonson, Love's Triumph through Calli- 

 polis, Grand Chorus : 



The snaky rod and serpents of C3llenius 

 Bring not more peace than these. 



Spanheim, Dc Freest, et Usu Nui/iisin. Ant. (Amsterdam, 1717) 2. 

 642, tells of a Greek coin of Titus, representing Peace in the dress 

 of a woman, with ears ot grain in her right hand, and the legend 

 EIRHNH (a picture of the coin is given). 



The myrtle was sacred to Aphrodite (Pausanias 6. 24. 7 ; Virgil, 

 EcL 7. 62; ^n. 6. 442; Pliny, Hist. Nat. 15. 29. 36), and was the 

 symbol of union and happiness (Hehn, Kulturpflanzen. 6. Aufl., p. 

 221). A myrtle wand is mentioned by Virgil, ^n. 7. 817 ; Ovid, 

 Am. 3. 1. 34. Prudentius, Psych. 878—887, has a description of a 

 flowering wand in the hands of the personified Wisdom ; this is 

 compared to Aaron's rod that blossomed (Num. 17. 8). 



52. strikes. Keightley says : ' There can be no reference whatever 

 to the ferire fcedus of the Latins, for that was done by the parties 

 themselves.' Dvmster compares Beaumont and Fletcher, Maid's 

 Tragedy (printed 1619), 'where Neptune is invoked by /Eolus 'to 

 strike a calm'' (Act 1, Scene 2). 



through sea and land. Milton must have been aware that 

 this was a classic formula in relation to the establishment of peace 

 by the Romans, especially under Augustus. Lucretius thus invokes 

 Venus (1. 29, 30): 



Effice ut interea fera moenera militiai 



Per maria ac terras omnis sopita quiescant. 



Appian B.C. 5. 130 (chap. 13): 'When he arrived at Rome [A.U.C. 

 718], he proclaimed peace and good-will, and said that the civil 

 wars were ended. He accepted a golden image to be erected in 

 the Forum, bearing the inscription : 



" Peace, long disturbed, he re-established on land and sea (xaxu 



IE yfjf xccl x9u/[((TTC(f).^^ ' 



Suetonius, Augustus, chap. 22 : ' The temple of Janus Quirinus, 

 which had been shut twice only from the era of the building of the 

 city to his own time, he closed thrice in a much shorter period, having 

 established universal peace both by sea and land {terra marique).'' 



Livy (1, 19) says that the temple of Janus was closed 'by the 

 emperor Augustus Ceesar after the battle of Actium. peace being 



