Notes oil Milton s Nativity Ode. 333 



Miscrie 33-34: 



The same holds down his head for shame, 

 Dead with echpses, when we speak of thee. 



81. As. As if. So P.L. 6. 715; P.R. 4. 453. 

 83. greater Sun. This rests viltimatety on Mai. 4. 2. Thus Pseudo- 

 C3'prian, in a treatise composed A.D. 242 or 243, says (ed. Hartel, 



3. 26G) : ' O quam praeclara providentia ut illo die quo factus est 

 sol, in ipso die nasceretur Christus, V Kal. Apr. feria IIII, et ideo 

 de ipso ad plebem dicebat Malachias propheta : ' Orietur vobis sol 

 JHStitice, ct ciiratio est in pennis ejusJ On the various Fathers who 

 have used this figure, see Cumont, op. cit. (note on 29) 1. 355—6. 

 Besides Mai. 4. 2, cf. Ps. 84. 11; Isa. 9. 2; Matt. 4. 14, 15; John 1. 



4, 5, 9: 3. 19; 8. 12 ; 9. 5 ; 12. 36, 46; 1 Tim, 6. 16 ; 1 John 1. 5. 

 The Christians were not only accused ot identifying Christ with the 

 sun, but in some cases seem actually to have done so ; see Eusebius 

 of Alexandria, Orat. 6 (Migne, Patr. Gr. 86. 453); Leo the Great, 

 as quoted by Cumont (2. 67); and Usener, Gotternameu, p. 185. 

 For a similar identification among the heathen, cf. Ennius, Medea, 

 fr. 14: 'Juppiter, tuque adeo, summe sol, qui omnis res inspicis.' 



As to a luminary actually surpassing in brightness the sun in the 

 heavens, see Acts 26. 13. Some of the early Christian writers 

 represent the star of the wise men as surpassing the brightness of 

 the sun. Thus Prudentius, Cath. 12. 5—8 : 



Haec Stella, qute solis rotam 

 Vincit decore ac lumine, 

 Venisse terris nuntiat 

 Cum carne terrestri Deum ; 



the star being afterwards identified with Christ {ib. 17—20; cf. Apoth. 

 615; Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, chap. 17). To the same effect 

 Ignatius, Ep. to Epiies. 19. Cf. Prudentius, Apoth. 625-630: 



Quique alii horrifices pendent in nubibus ignes 

 Luciferum timuere novum : rota lurida solis 

 Horret, et excidium sentit jam jamque futurum, 

 Seque die medio velandam tegmine glauco 

 Splendoremque poli periturum nocte diurna, 

 Orbe repentinis caput obnubente tenebris. 



The relation between this figure of the sun and the time of year 

 at which Christmas has been fixed — that of the first increase of 

 light in our northern hemisphere — must not be forgotten. This has 



