There is, however, nothing in Milton which equals in sublimity the sudden expansion of power in the soul of the deity: ειθαρ μεν μενεος πληντο φρενες. The plan of the battle of angels is evidently built on that of the battle of giants: the Messiah, like Hesiod’s Jove, coming forth to decide the contest; and sending before him thunderbolts and plagues. Milton’s magnificent imagery of the chariot is borrowed from the vision of the prophet Ezekiel. [209] _Through the void_ _Of Erebus._] Χαος is here only a gulf or void. Le Clerc quotes Aristophanes to show that it is the vacuity of air: but the conflagration of air has already been described. Grævius is undoubtedly right in interpreting it the subterraneous abyss, or Erebus: in which sense it is afterwards used by Hesiod; when the Titans are said to dwell “beyond the obscure chaos,” or chasm. Virgil uses chaos in this acceptation, Æneid. vi. 205: Ye silent shades! Oh Chaos hoar! and Phlegethon profound! PITT. So also Ovid, Metamorph. x. Orpheus to Pluto and Proserpine: I call you by those sights so full of fear: This chaos vast; these silent kingdoms drear! [210] _The heaven and earth_ _Met hurtling in mid-air._] Milton, Paradise Lost, book ii: Nor was his ear less pealed With noises loud and ruinous ... than if this frame Of heaven were falling, and these elements In mutiny had from their axle torn The steadfast earth. [211] _The war-unsated Gyges._] Hesiod has confounded the history by supposing the Giants and Titans to have been different persons. He accordingly makes them oppose each other: and even Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges, whom all other writers mention as Titans, are by him introduced in opposition, and described as of another family. His description is however much to the purpose, and the first contest and dispersion are plainly alluded to. BRYANT. [212] _The Titan host o’er-shadowing._] Milton, Par. Lost, b. vi.: Themselves invaded next and on their heads Main promontories flung, which in the air Came shadowing, and oppress’d whole legions arm’d. [213] _So far beneath_ _This earth._] Virgil, Æn. vi. 577: The gaping gulf low to the centre lies, And twice as deep as earth is distant from the skies: The rivals of the gods, the Titan race, Here, singed with lightning, roll within th’ unfathom’d space. DRYDEN. [214] _The verge_ _Of Tartarus._]