Noics oil Miltoiis Nativity Ode. 357 



203. Libyc Hammon. ' The God Ammon represented in the 

 form of a ram, or in the form of a human body with a ram's head ' 

 (L.). Identified with Jupiter in P.L. 4. 277 ; 9. 508. Milton prob- 

 ably has Prudentius in mind, as quoted on 173. Strabo says (17. 

 43, p. 813): 'Tlie oracle of Ammon, which was formerly held in 

 great esteem, is now nearly deserted.' Cf., for the god, Ovid, 

 Met. 5. 17, 328; 15. 309; Art. 3. 789; Juvenal 6. 555; Claudian, 

 Cons. IP^ Hon. 143-4; Silius Italicus 23. 767-8. 



shrinks his horn. Perhaps in allusion to snails ; Pliny thus 

 uses conlrahere: N.H. 9. 32. 51. 101. 



204. Tyrian. hi the general sense of ' Phoenician.' P.L. 1. 448 

 has ' Syrian damsels.' 



Thammuz. Ezek. 8. 14 : ' Behold, there sat women weeping 

 for Tammuz.' These, however, were not Tyrian maids. Tammuz, 

 the Greek Adonis, was a Babylonian god, the lover of Ishtar (Ash- 

 toreth), who mourns him when he is 'cut off in the beauty of youth, 

 or slain by the boar's tusk of winter.' The lament for him — or 

 rather its refrain — is preserved in the latter part of Jer. 22. 18. 

 His funeral festival at the temple of Ashtoreth on the Lebanon 

 is described by Lucian, De Dea Syria § 6. Cf. P.L. 1. 446-457; 

 Com. 999. See Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris. 



Jebb renders Thammuz by ' Thaumanta,' as he renders Baalim 

 by ' Belus ' ; but of course there is no connection between either 

 classical Thaumas (Hesiod, TIteog. 235, etc. ; Ovid, Met. 12. 303) and 

 Thammuz. 



205. Moloch. Cf. P.L. 1. 392-6: 



First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 

 Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears ; 

 Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 

 Their children's cries unheard that passed through fire 

 To his grim idol. 



The reference in both cases is to the tradition reported by Kimchi, 

 a medieeval Jewish commentator, on 2 Kings 23. 10. According to 

 him, the idol was of brass, with a face like that of a calf. ' And 

 they kindled it with fire, and the priests took the babe, and put 

 it into the hands of Molech, and the babe gave up the ghost. . . . 

 They used to make a noise with drums, that the father might not 

 hear the cry of his child, and have pity upon him.' The Bible says 

 nothing about this, but forbids the passing of children through the 

 fire to Moloch: Lev. 18. 21. The spelling Moloch is from Amos 

 5. 26 ; Acts 7. 43 ; elsewhere Molech (meaning ' king.'). 



