"This fable is one of the noblest in all the ancient mythology, and seems to have made a particular impression on the imagination of Milton."
— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley
Date
1772
Metaphor
"This fable is one of the noblest in all the ancient mythology, and seems to have made a particular impression on the imagination of Milton."
Metaphor in Context
2. The mother of the first Bacchus, whose birth and education was written, as Diodorus Siculus informs us, in the old Pelasgic character, by Thymoetes, grandson to Laomedon, and contemporary with Orpheus. Thymoetes had travelled over Libya to the country which borders on the western ocean; there he saw the island of Nysa, and learned from the inhabitants, that "Ammon, king of Libya, was married in former ages to Rhea, sister of Saturn and the Titans: that he afterwards fell in love with a beautiful virgin whose name was Amalthea; had by her a son, and gave her possession of a neighbouring tract of land, wonderfully fertile; which in shape nearly resembling the horn of an ox, was thence called the Hesperian horn, and afterwards the horn of Amalthea: that fearing the jealousy of Rhea, he concealed the young Bacchus, with his mother, in the island of Nysa;" the beauty of which, Diodorus describes with great dignity and pomp of style. This fable is one of the noblest in all the ancient mythology, and seems to have made a particular impression on the imagination of Milton; the only modern poet (unless perhaps it be necessary to except Spenser) who, in these mysterious traditions of the poetic story, had a heart to feel, and words to express, the simple and solitary genius of antiquity. To raise the idea of his Paradise, he prefers it even to ------ "that Nysean isle
Girt by the river Triton, where old Cham,
(Whom Gentiles Ammon call, and Libyan Jove)
Hid Amalthea, and her florid son,
Young Bacchus, from his stepdame Rhea's eye."
(pp. 383-4)
Girt by the river Triton, where old Cham,
(Whom Gentiles Ammon call, and Libyan Jove)
Hid Amalthea, and her florid son,
Young Bacchus, from his stepdame Rhea's eye."
(pp. 383-4)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" and "impression" in HDIS (Poetry); found again in ECCO
Citation
At least 8 instances in ECCO and ESTC (1772, 1773, 1776, 1781, 1788, 1789, 1795, 1800).
Text from The Poems Of Mark Akenside (London: Printed by W. Bowyer and J. Nichols, 1772). <Link to ESTC>
Poem, without notes, found in A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. by Several Hands. vol 6 of 6 (London: Printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1758), pp. 3-15. <Link to ECCO>
Text from The Poems Of Mark Akenside (London: Printed by W. Bowyer and J. Nichols, 1772). <Link to ESTC>
Poem, without notes, found in A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. by Several Hands. vol 6 of 6 (London: Printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1758), pp. 3-15. <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
05/15/2005
Date of Review
06/13/2011
