Notes oil Milton's Nativity Ode. 349 



G. 1011: 



ferri natura et frigidus horror. 



Also Ps. 91. 5: 'Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night' 

 173. Hales sa3's : ' That the oracles ceased at and from the birth 



of Christ was a very general belief; but it was baseless.' 



Milton seems to have been indel3ted to Prudentius, Apoth. 435—443 : 



Ex quo mortalem praestrinxit spiritus alvum, 

 Spiritus ille Dei, Deus et se corpore matris 

 Induit, et hominem de virginitate creavit, 

 Delphica dampnatis tacuerunt sortibus antra, 

 Non tripodas cortina tegit, non spumat anhelus 

 Fata Sibyllinis fanaticus edita libris. 

 Perdidit insanos mendax Dodona vapores, 

 Mortua jam mutae lugent oracula Cumae, 

 Nee responsa refert Libycis in Syrtibus Ammon. 



In the following lines from the same poem, we seem to have 

 .suggestions for Milton's ' pale-eyed priest ' {sacerdos pallidus), 

 '■ hideous hum ' (arcanum murmur), ' flamens ' (flamen), etc. : 



Apoth. 469-471, 474, 477-8, 483-4, 489: 



Cum subito exclamat media inter sacra sacerdos 

 Pallidus : ' En quid ago ? mains rex optime, maius 

 Numen nescio quod nostris intervenit aris.' 



' Accitas video longe dispergier umbras. 



' Nil agit arcanum murmur, nil Thessala prosunt 

 Carmina, turbatus revocat nulla hostia manes. 



' Flamen et ipse suas miratur vertice laurus 

 Cedere, et incertum frustratur victima ferrum.' 



Dixit, et exanguis conlabitur. 



Add Symmachus, Lib. 4, ep. 33 ; Jerome on Isa. 41. 21 ff. iPatr. 

 Lat. 24. 418). Milton of course knew the passage from Plutarch 

 quoted by Spenser ; see note on 89. Porphyry, quoted by Eusebius, 

 Prcep. Evang. 5. 16, has : 



Naught can restore the Pythian voice divine; 

 Enfeebled by long ages, it hath laid 

 The keys of silence on the oracle. 



