Notes on Milton's Nativity Ode. 363 



within the house of bUss, and after that he had . . . made his mar- 

 riage-feast [cf. Rev. 19. 9; 21. 9], should remain beside Zeus, ... 

 well pleased with the dwelling-place divine.' 



It must not be forgotten that Hercules, like Christ, had an actual 

 and a putative father, an immortal and a mortal (cf. Mantuan 1. 

 213 b). 



229. So, when the Sun. Cf. Hand. 1. 5. 89: 



The glow-worm shows the matin to be near, 

 And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire. 



Cf. Hanil. 1. 1. 147-157; 1. 2. 218-220; M.N.D. 3. 2. 378-387. 

 This belief seems to have been derived from the ancients. Thus, 

 Propertius 5. 7. 89-91 Miiller: 



Nocte vagae ferimur, nox clausas liberat umbras 



Errat et abjecta Cerberus ipse sera. 

 Luce jubent leges Letheea ad stagna reverti. 



The phantom of Anchises thus addresses yEneas {ALn. 5. 738—740) : 



Jamque vale : torcjuet medios Nox umida cursus, 

 Et me saevus equis Oriens adflavit anhelis. 

 Dixerat, et tenuis fugit, ceu fumus, in auras. 



Donatus comments : ' Non sinitur mortuis loqui cum sol fuerit ex- 

 ortus.' Cf. .En. 6. 255. 

 Statius, Theb. 4. 120-121 : 



Dixit, et abscedens (etenim jam pallida turbant 

 Sidera lucis equi). . . . 



Claudian, De Bed. Gildon. 348: 



Dixit, et aft'latus vicino sole refugit. 



Philostratus, in his Life of ApoUoniiis of Tyana (4. 16), after relat- 

 ing the apparition of the ghost of Achilles, accompanied by a move- 

 ment of a mound near by, ends thus : ' Having said this, ... he 

 vanished in a slight flash of lightning, for now the cocks began to 

 crow.'' 



Lucian, Philopseudes 14 (tr. Fowler) : ' She [Chrysis] came in ; . . . 

 and she stayed on till at last we heard cocks crowing. Awa}' flew 

 the Moon into Heaven, Hecate disappeared under ground, all the 

 apparitions vanished.' 



