The names of
local deities in the Hellenic mythology express generally some feature
in the natural landscape, which the Greeks studied and analysed with
their usual unequalled insight and feeling.
local deities in the Hellenic mythology express generally some feature
in the natural landscape, which the Greeks studied and analysed with
their usual unequalled insight and feeling.
Golden Treasury
The person lamented is Milton's college friend Edward King,
drowned in 1637 whilst crossing from Chester to Ireland.
Strict Pastoral Poetry was first written or perfected by the Dorian
Greeks settled in Sicily: but the conventional use of it, exhibited more
magnificently in _Lycidas_ than in any other pastoral, is apparently of
Roman origin. Milton, employing the noble freedom of a great artist, has
here united ancient mythology, with what may be called the modern
mythology of Camus and Saint Peter,--to direct Christian images. --The
metrical structure of this glorious poem is partly derived from Italian
models.
_Sisters of the sacred well_: the Muses, said to frequent the fountain
Helicon on Mount Parnassus.
_Mona_: Anglesea, called by the Welsh Inis Dowil or the Dark Island,
from its dense forests.
_Deva_: the Dee: a river which probably derived its magical character
from Celtic traditions: it was long the boundary of Briton and
Saxon. --These places are introduced, as being near the scene of the
shipwreck.
_Orpheus_ was torn to pieces by Thracian women; _Amaryllis_ and _Neaera_
names used here for the love idols of poets: as _Damoetas_ previously
for a shepherd.
_the blind Fury_: Atropos, fabled to cut the thread of life.
_Arethuse_ and _Mincius_: Sicilian and Italian waters here alluded to as
synonymous with the pastoral poetry of Theocritus and Virgil.
_oat_: pipe, used here like Collins' _oaten stop_, No. 146, for _Song_.
_Hippotades_: Aeolus, god of the Winds. _Panope_ a Nereid.
The names of
local deities in the Hellenic mythology express generally some feature
in the natural landscape, which the Greeks studied and analysed with
their usual unequalled insight and feeling. Panope represents the
boundlessness of the ocean-horizon when seen from a height, as compared
with a limited horizon of the land in hilly countries such as Greece or
Asia Minor.
_Camus_: the Cam; put for King's University.
_The sanguine flower_: the Hyacinth of the ancients; probably our Iris.
_The pilot_: Saint Peter, figuratively introduced as the head of the
Church on earth, to foretell "the ruin of our corrupted clergy, then in
their heighth" under Laud's primacy.
_the wolf_: Popery.
_Alpheus_: a stream in Southern Greece, supposed to flow underseas to
meet the Arethuse.
_Swart star_: the Dogstar, called swarthy because its heliacal rising in
ancient times occurred soon after mid-summer.
_moist vows_: either tearful prayers, or prayers for one at sea.
_Bellerus_: a giant, apparently created here by Milton to personify
Bellerium, the ancient title of the Land's End.
_The great Vision_:--The story was that the Archangel Michael had
appeared on the rock by Marazion in Mount's Bay which bears his name.
Milton calls on him to turn his eyes from the south homeward, and to
pity Lycidas, if his body has drifted into the troubled waters of the
Land's End. Finisterre being the land due south of Marazion, two places
in that district (then by our trade with Corunna probably less
unfamiliar to English ears), are named,--_Namancos_ now Mujio in
Galicia, _Bayona_ north of the Minho, or, perhaps a fortified rock (one
of the _Cies_ Islands) not unlike St. Michael's Mount, at the entrance
of Vigo Bay.
_ore_: rays of golden light. _Doric lay_: Sicilian, pastoral.
drowned in 1637 whilst crossing from Chester to Ireland.
Strict Pastoral Poetry was first written or perfected by the Dorian
Greeks settled in Sicily: but the conventional use of it, exhibited more
magnificently in _Lycidas_ than in any other pastoral, is apparently of
Roman origin. Milton, employing the noble freedom of a great artist, has
here united ancient mythology, with what may be called the modern
mythology of Camus and Saint Peter,--to direct Christian images. --The
metrical structure of this glorious poem is partly derived from Italian
models.
_Sisters of the sacred well_: the Muses, said to frequent the fountain
Helicon on Mount Parnassus.
_Mona_: Anglesea, called by the Welsh Inis Dowil or the Dark Island,
from its dense forests.
_Deva_: the Dee: a river which probably derived its magical character
from Celtic traditions: it was long the boundary of Briton and
Saxon. --These places are introduced, as being near the scene of the
shipwreck.
_Orpheus_ was torn to pieces by Thracian women; _Amaryllis_ and _Neaera_
names used here for the love idols of poets: as _Damoetas_ previously
for a shepherd.
_the blind Fury_: Atropos, fabled to cut the thread of life.
_Arethuse_ and _Mincius_: Sicilian and Italian waters here alluded to as
synonymous with the pastoral poetry of Theocritus and Virgil.
_oat_: pipe, used here like Collins' _oaten stop_, No. 146, for _Song_.
_Hippotades_: Aeolus, god of the Winds. _Panope_ a Nereid.
The names of
local deities in the Hellenic mythology express generally some feature
in the natural landscape, which the Greeks studied and analysed with
their usual unequalled insight and feeling. Panope represents the
boundlessness of the ocean-horizon when seen from a height, as compared
with a limited horizon of the land in hilly countries such as Greece or
Asia Minor.
_Camus_: the Cam; put for King's University.
_The sanguine flower_: the Hyacinth of the ancients; probably our Iris.
_The pilot_: Saint Peter, figuratively introduced as the head of the
Church on earth, to foretell "the ruin of our corrupted clergy, then in
their heighth" under Laud's primacy.
_the wolf_: Popery.
_Alpheus_: a stream in Southern Greece, supposed to flow underseas to
meet the Arethuse.
_Swart star_: the Dogstar, called swarthy because its heliacal rising in
ancient times occurred soon after mid-summer.
_moist vows_: either tearful prayers, or prayers for one at sea.
_Bellerus_: a giant, apparently created here by Milton to personify
Bellerium, the ancient title of the Land's End.
_The great Vision_:--The story was that the Archangel Michael had
appeared on the rock by Marazion in Mount's Bay which bears his name.
Milton calls on him to turn his eyes from the south homeward, and to
pity Lycidas, if his body has drifted into the troubled waters of the
Land's End. Finisterre being the land due south of Marazion, two places
in that district (then by our trade with Corunna probably less
unfamiliar to English ears), are named,--_Namancos_ now Mujio in
Galicia, _Bayona_ north of the Minho, or, perhaps a fortified rock (one
of the _Cies_ Islands) not unlike St. Michael's Mount, at the entrance
of Vigo Bay.
_ore_: rays of golden light. _Doric lay_: Sicilian, pastoral.
