Notes on Mi/ton's Naiivity Ode. 351 



Eusebius, Prap. Evaiig. 3. 17; 5. 1 ; 5. 17; Plutarch, De Def. Orac, 

 chap. 12. 



shrine. Cf. the adyiits of Virgil, JEn. 2. 115; Horace, Od. 1. 16. 

 5 ; and the adyto of Lucan 5. 85. 



178. steep of Delphos. Cf. P.L. 1. 517: 'the Delphian cliff.' 

 The ' steep of Delphos ' is not strictly ' Mount Parnassus ' (L.), the 

 cliffs of which tower 800 feet perpendicular!}' above Delphi, but 

 the terrace, or rather succession of five or six terraces, of slaty rock 

 upon which Delphi was situated, in the form of an immense 

 amphitheatre. These terraces are perhaps 1700 or 1800 feet above 

 the bed of the Pleistos, and it requires twenty minutes to make 

 the steep descent. - In the Hoin. Hymn to Apollo, the god is de- 

 scribed as coming to Crisa, ' beneath snowy Parnassus, to a knoll 

 that faced westward, but above it hangs a cliff, and a hollow dell 

 runs under.' The ' high platform of rock ' is described by Jebb (on 

 Sophocles, O.T. 463) as sloping out 'from the south face of the 

 cliff.' Cf. Euripides, lou 1266-8: 



Seize her ! — Parnassus' jagged terraces 



Shall card the dainty tresses of her hair 



When quoitwise down the rocks she shall be hurled. 



Gray, Progress of Poesy 66, has : 



Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep. 



Delphos. The form is found again in P.R. 1. 458, and four 

 times in Shakespeare's Winter s Tale, and frequently elsewhere ; it 

 of course represents the Latin ace. plur. of Delphi. 



179. Nightly. Nocturnal. 

 breathed spell. Cf. Lucan 5. 82—5 : 



Ut vidit Paean vastos telluris hiatus 

 Divinam spirare tidem, ventosque loquaces. 

 Exhalare solum, sacris se condidit antris, 

 Incubuitque adyto, vates ibi factus, Apollo. 



180. pale-eyed. If one were a Bentley, one might be tempted 

 to read pallid; cf. the 'pallid priest' of Prudentius, Apoth. AQ'd-^l^ 

 (quoted in note on 173) and the ' liventesque genas ' and ' terribilis 

 sed pallor inest ' of Lucan 5. 215—6. But Pope accepts the usual 

 reading, since he has [Elo'isa 21, quoted by Todd) : ' Shrines ! where 

 their vigils pale-ey'd virgins keep ' ; and Jebb translates, ' pallentis 

 obtutum ministri.' Shakespeare has ' dull-eyed,' M. V. 3. 3. 14 ; Per. 

 1. 2. 2; and Hales quotes Hen. V 4. 2. 48, where there is mention 



