As when a gryphon through the wilderness
With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale,
Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth
Had from his wakeful custody purloin'd
The guarded gold: so eagerly the fiend

945

O'er bog, or steep, through straight, rough, dense, or

rare,

With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies; 950
At length, a universal hubbub wild

Of stunning sounds, and voices all confused,
Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear
With loudest vehemence: thither he plies,
Undaunted, to meet there whatever power

955

detestabilis, omni contentione, velis, ut ita dicam, remisque fugienda.'

943. Satan half on foot, half flying, in quest of the new world, is here compared to a gryphon with winged course both flying and running in pursuit of the Arimaspian who had stolen his gold. Gryphons are fabulous creatures, in the upper part like an eagle, in the lower resembling a lion, and are said to guard gold mines. The Arimaspians were a one-eyed people of Scythia, who adorned their hair with gold. Lucan iii. 280.

Hinc et Sithoniæ gentes, auroque ligatas
Substringens Arimaspe comas.'

Herodotus (iii. 116. iv. 27.) and other authors relate, that there were continual wars between the gryphons and Arimaspians about gold, the gryphons guarding it and the Arimaspians taking it whenever they had opportunity. See Plin. N. H. vii. 2.' N. Eschylus has an allusion to these fabulous monsters, Prom. v. 820.

954. plies:

ὀξυστόμους γὰρ Ζηνὸς ἀκραγεῖς κύνας

Γρύπας φύλαξαι, τόν τε μουνῶπα στρατὸν
̓Αριμασπὸν ἱπποβάμον, οἳ χρυσόῤῥυτον
οἰκοῦσιν ἀμφὶ νᾶμα, Πλούτωνος πόρον.

bends, directs his course: from Fr. plier, to bend : a sea term: 642.' RICHARDSON.

Or spirit of the nethermost abyss

Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask
Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies
Bordering on light; when straight behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread

960

Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthroned
Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things,

The consort of his reign; and by them stood
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name

Of Demogorgon! Rumour next and Chance,
And Tumult and Confusion all embroil'd,
And Discord with a thousand various mouths.

965

961. wasteful: desolate: vii. 212. ' the vast immeasurable abyss, outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild:' vastu atque aperto mari,' Cæs. B. G. iii. 12.

962. sable-rested Night: Eur. Ion. 1150. μeλáμwenλos vúč. Æsch. Prom v. 24. uses the epithet Tokiλelμwv.

965. Demogorgon: from δῆμος and Γυργών, the terror of the people or from daíμwv and yopyav, for Spenser writes it Damo gorgon: F. Q. Book i. Canto ii. St. 47.

Down in the bottom of the dark abyss,

Where Dæmagorgon in dull darkness pent,
Far from the view of Gods and heaven's bliss,
The hideous Chaos keeps.'

Jortin, in his remarks on Spenser p: 9. observes: They give the name of Dæmogorgon to that terrible nameless deity, of whom Lucan and Statius speak, when they introduce magicians threatening the infernal Gods. Stat. Theb. iv. 514. Lucan vi. 744.' 'The name of Demogorgon is as much as to say Demogorgon himself, as in Virg. Æn. vi. 763. Albanum nomen is a man of Alba: xii. 515. nomen Echionium,' i. e. Thebanum, is a Theban: and we have a memorable instance of this way of speaking in Rev. xi. 13. ἀπεκτάνθησαν ἐν τῷ σεισμῷ ὀνόματα ἀνθρώπων χιλιάδες ἑπτὰ, i. e. 7000 men.' N.

967. Virgil also places Discord among the imaginary beings at the entrance of Orcus: En. vi. 273.

Discordia demens

Vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis.'

To whom Satan turning boldly, thus: Ye powers
And Spirits of this nethermost abyss,
Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy,
With purpose to explore or to disturb

970

975

The secrets of your realm; but, by constraint
Wandering this darksome desert, as my way
Lies through your spacious empire up to light,
Alone, and without guide, half-lost, I seek
What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds
Confine with heaven; or if some other place,
From your dominion won, the ethereal King
Possesses lately, thither to arrive

I travel this profound; direct my course :
Directed, no mean recompense it brings
To your behoof, if I that region lost,
All usurpation thence expell'd, reduce
To her original darkness, and your sway
(Which is my present journey), and once more
Erect the standard there of ancient Night:
Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge.'
Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old,

980

985

972. secrets: 'He means probably secret places, as in 1. 891. Secrets is used here as secreta in Virg. G. iv. 403. In secreta senis ducam: Æn. vi. 10. horrendæque procul secreta Sibyllæ Antrum immane petit.'' N.

977. confine: border on fr. Lat. confinis.

981. 'My course directed may bring no little recompense and advantage to you, if I reduce that lost region, all usurpation being thence expelled, to her original darkness and your sway (which is the purport of my present journey) and once more erect the standard there of ancient Night.' N.

988. Anarch: a title invented by Milton, to signify the ruler or author of confusion.

With faltering speech and visage incomposed,

Answer'd: I know thee, stranger, who thou art; 990 That mighty leading angel, who of late

Made head against heaven's King, though overthrown.

I saw and heard; for such a numerous host
Fled not in silence through the frighted deep,
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,

Confusion worse confounded; and heaven-gates
Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands
Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here
Keep residence; if all I can will serve
That little which is left so to defend,

995

1000

Encroach'd on still through your intestine broils
Weakening the scepter of old Night: first hell,
Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath;
Now lately heaven and earth, another world,
Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain, 1005

989. incomposed: discomposed, disordered.

990. I know thee, who thou art: a Grecism: oldά σe, rís el, Luke iv. 34.

1000. so to defend: i. e. by keeping residence on my frontiers and doing all I can.' PEARCE.

1001. your intestine broils which weaken: earlier editions have our; the emendation is due to Bp. Pearce. It was the broils of Satan that weakened the sceptre of Night, because the consequences of them lessened her kingdom; not the broils within the realms of Chaos, by which, as Bentley observes, her sceptre is strengthened and subsists, not weakened.

1005. golden chain. This was probably suggested to Milton by the mention in Homer, in the beginning of the 8th book of the Iliad, of Jupiter's golden chain, by which he can draw up the Gods and earth and sea, but they cannot draw him down. It is most probably and ingeniously conjectured that by this golden chain may be understood the superior attractive force of the sun, whereby he continues unmoved, and draws all the rest of the planets toward him.' N. See Eur. Orest. 975. and below vs.

To that side heaven from whence your legions fell:
If that way be your walk, you have not far;
So much the nearer danger; go, and speed;
Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain.'

He ceased; and Satan staid not to reply,
But, glad that now his sea should find a shore,
With fresh alacrity, and force renew'd,
Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire,
Into the wild expanse, and, through the shock
Of fighting elements, on all sides round
Environ'd, wins his way; harder beset
And more endanger'd than when Argo pass'd
Through Bosporus, betwixt the justling rocks:
Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunn'd

1010

1015

1008. go and speed: 10 kal xaîpe: succeed, prosper: as in x. 39. I told ye then he should prevail and speed On his bad er

rand.'

1009. As in Lucan Ph. vi. 696. Et Chaos innumeros avidum confundere mundos.'' N.

1013. pyramid: fr. up, fire: because fire ascends in the figure of a cone. 'Ea figura apud Geometras ideo sic appellatur, quod ad ignis speciem, TOû Tupòs, attenuatur in conum.' STEPH. Thes. 1017. Argo, the first long ship ever seen in Greece, in which Jason and his companions sailed to Colchis to fetch the golden fleece. Bosporus, the Thracian Bosporus, or the Straits of Constantinople, or the channel of the Black Sea. The justling rocks, two rocks at the entrance into the Euxine or Black Sea, called in Greek Zvμλnyades, and by Juvenal Sat. xv. 19. concurrentia saxa,' because they were so near that at a distance they seemed to open and shut again, and justle one another, as the ship varied its course. See Apoll. Rhod. ii. 317.' N. On the Bosporus, Symplegades, and Cyaneæ, consult Anthon's ed. of Lempriere, re-edited by E. H. Barker, Esq.

1019. Dr. Bentley has two very formidable objections against the sense of these verses. First, he says, that larbord, or lefthand, is a mistake for star-bord, or right-hand, Charybdis being to the starbord of Ulysses, when he sailed through these straits. This