Page:Milton - Milton's Paradise Lost, tra il 1882 e il 1891.djvu/30

16 Belial came last, than whom a spirit more lewd Fell not from heaven, or more gross to love Vice for itself: to him no temple stood, Or altar smoked: yet who more oft than he In temples and at altars, when the priest Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled With lust and violence the house of God? In courts and palaces he also reigns, And in luxurious cities, where the noise Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers, And injury, and outrage: and when night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night In Gibeah, when the hospitable door Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape. These were the prime in order and in might; The rest were long to tell, though far renowned, The Ionian gods, of Javan's issue held Gods, yet confessed later than heaven and earth, Their boasted parents: Titan, heaven's first-born, With his enormous brood, and birthright seized By younger Saturn; he from mightier Jove, His own and Rhea's son, like measure found. So Jove usurping reigned. These first in Crete And Ida known, thence on the snowy top Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air, Their highest heaven; or on the Delphian cliff, Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds Of Doric land; or who with Saturn old Fled over Adria to the Hesperian fields, And o'er the Celtic roamed the utmost isles. All these and more came flocking; but with looks Downcast and damp; yet such wherein appeared