NATIVITY ODE 4

Repost from December 2009

Wikipedia Commons

Illustration to Milton's Nativity Ode 

Object 4, Thomas Set

The Overthrow of Apollo and the Pagan Gods

It was in 1629 when John Milton was 21 years old that he wrote the first of his poems in English. His earlier poems were written in Latin or Greek. The first and last sections of On the Morning of Christ's Nativity  deal with the birth of the Christ Child and the longer middle section gives accounts of the expulsion of pagan gods. This represents a movement in Milton's interest, and in the subject matter of his study and reading. His academic career had emphasized classical literature although he was well acquainted with the Bible. Reaching the age of maturity, he turned away from pagan religious figures which had been objects of devotionion in earlier civilizations, and toward describing the life of Christ, 

Blake made two sets of six illustration for On the Morning of Christ's Nativity In 1809 he was comissioned to make a set for Rev. Joseph Thomas; between 1811 and 1820 he completed a set for his most loyal patron, Thomas Butts.

Blake in his characteristic way, saw the birth of Christ as part of the larger picture, as did Milton. The Bible, John Milton, the history of religion, cosmology, and his own myth; each play a role in Blake's response to Jesus' birthday.

"On the Morning of Christ's Nativity"

The Blake Archive provides this in its introduction to "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity:"
"Blake's interest in the 'Nativity Ode' began some years before his execution of these water colors. His illuminated book, Europe a Prophecy (1794), clearly shows the influence of Milton's ode. By 1809, Blake may have taken a renewed interest in the poem because of his increasingly Christocentric theological views. His harsh criticism of classical civilization resonates with two of the 'Nativity' designs, 'The Old Dragon' and 'The Overthrow of Apollo and the Pagan Gods' (objects 3 and 4). Modern critics have been hard pressed to find Blake dissenting from Milton's own iconography and perspectives in the ode."

Milton, Nativity Ode

XIX.

The Oracles are dumm,
No voice or hideous humm
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,
With hollow shreik the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance, or breathed spell,
Inspires the pale-ey'd Priest from the prophetic cell.

...

The brutish gods of Nile as fast, 

Isis and Orus, and the Dog Anubis hast.

XXIV 

Nor is Osiris seen 

In Memphian Grove, or Green, 

Trampling the unshowr'd 

Grasse with lowings loud: 

Nor can he be at rest 

Within his sacred chest, 

Naught but profoundest 

Hell can be his shroud: 

In vain with Timbrel'd Anthems dark 

The sable-stoled Sorcerers bear his worshipt Ark. 

---

Europe a Prohecy,  Plate 2, (E61)

"Ah! I am drown'd in shady woe, and visionary joy.

And who shall bind the infinite with an eternal band?
To compass it with swaddling bands? and who shall cherish it
With milk and honey?                                       
I see it smile & I roll inward & my voice is past.

She ceast & rolld her shady clouds
Into the secret place.
Plate 3
              A PROPHECY
The deep of winter came;                              
What time the secret child,
Descended thro' the orient gates of the eternal day:
War ceas'd, & all the troops like shadows fled to their abodes."

Jerusalem, Plate 55, (E 205)

"Then far the greatest number were about to make a Separation     
And they Elected Seven, calld the Seven Eyes of God;
Lucifer, Molech, Elohim, Shaddai, Pahad, Jehovah, Jesus.
They namd the Eighth. he came not, he hid in Albions Forests"
Jerusalem, Plate 37 [41], (E 137)
"And these their Names & their Places within the Mundane Shell
In Tyre & Sidon I saw Baal & Ashtaroth. In Moab Chemosh          
In Ammon, Molech: loud his Furnaces rage among the Wheels
Of Og, & pealing loud the cries of the Victims of Fire!
And pale his Priestesses infolded in Veils of Pestilence, border'd
With War; Woven in Looms of Tyre & Sidon by beautiful Ashtaroth.
In Palestine Dagon, Sea Monster! worshipd o'er the Sea.      
Thammuz in Lebanon & Rimmon in Damascus curtaind
Osiris: Isis: Orus: in Egypt: dark their Tabernacles on Nile
Floating with solemn songs, & on the  Lakes of Egypt nightly
With pomp, even till morning break & Osiris appear in the sky
But Belial of Sodom & Gomorrha, obscure Demon of Bribes
And secret Assasinations, not worshipd nor adord; but 
With the finger on the lips & the back turnd to the light
And Saturn Jove & Rhea of the Isles of the Sea remote
These Twelve Gods. are the Twelve Spectre Sons of the Druid Albion "