[37] _With chains of gold._] Ορμους, rendered by the interpreter _monilia_, are not merely necklaces, but chains for any part of the person: as the arms and ankles. Ornaments of gold, and particularly chains, belong to the costume of very high antiquity. “Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul: who clothed you in scarlet with other delights: who put on _ornaments of gold_ upon your apparel. Samuel b. ii. ch. 1. v. 24. “And she took sandals upon her feet, and put about her her bracelets, _and her chains_, and her rings, and her ear-rings, and all her ornaments, and decked herself bravely, to allure the eyes of all men that should see her.” Judith ch. x. v. 4. [38] _The beauteous-tressed Hours._] The Hours, according to Homer, made the toilette of Venus: The smooth strong gust of Zephyr wafted her Through billows of the many-waving sea In the soft foam: the Hours, whose locks are bound With gold, received her blithely, and enrobed With heavenly vestments: her immortal head They wreathed with golden fillet, beautiful, And aptly framed: her perforated ears They hung with jewels of the mountain-brass And precious gold: her tender neck, and breast Of dazzling white, they deck’d with chains of gold, Such as the Hours wear braided with their locks. HYMN TO VENUS. [39] _His herald from above._] The first edition had “winged herald;” but the wings of Mercury are the additions of later mythologists. Homer, in the Odyssey, speaks only of The sandals fair, Golden, and undecay’d, that waft him o’er The sea, and o’er th’ immeasurable earth With the swift-breathing wind: there is no mention of the sandals being winged. They seem to have possessed a supernatural power of velocity, like the seven-leagued boots, or the shoes of swiftness, in the Tales of the Giants. [40] _Th’ unbroken vase._] αρρηκτοισι δομοισι. Seleucus, an ancient critic, quoted by Proclus, proposed πιυοισι: as if the casket in which Hope dwelt, might not literally be called her house. Heinsius supposes an allusion to the chamber of a virgin. After this, who would expect that δομοισι means nothing more than a chest? Ελουσα κεδρινῳν δομῶν Εσθῆτα, κοσμον τ’. EURIPIDES. ALCESTIS. 158. taking from her cedar coffers Vestures and jewels. [41] _On casual wing they glide._] Perhaps Milton had Hesiod in his eye, in the speech of Satan to Sin: Par. Lost, b. ii. line 840. Thou and Death Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen Wing silently the buxom air.