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God's altar to disparage and displace, 1 Thammus.—A god of the Syrians—the Adonis of that people—said to die every year and to live again. Women professed yearly to lament his fate, and great sensual vice, as the mode of doing him homage, was the result. (See

Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,

And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds.

Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks

Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.

Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat

He also 'gainst the house of God was bold:

A leper once he lost, and gained a king;

Ahaz, his sottish conqueror, whom he drew

PARADISE LOST.

¹ Asphaltic pool.—The Dead Sea.

And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond The flowery dale of Sibma, clad with vines, To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. Of Moloch homicide; lust hard by hate; Till good Josiah drove them hence to Hell. With these came they, who, from the bordering flood Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names These feminine; for spirits, when they please, Can either sex assume, or both,—so soft And uncompounded is their essence pure, Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, Like cumbrous flesh, but, in what shape they choose, Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, Can execute their aery purposes, And works of love or enmity fulfil. For those the race of Israel oft forsook Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left His righteous altar, bowing lowly down To bestial gods; for which their heads as low Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear Of despicable foes. With these in troop

PARADISE LOST. 14 Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon,

And Eleale to the asphaltic pool.1 Peor his other name, when he enticed

Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile,

Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged

Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove

Of Baalim and Ashtaroth; those male,

Came Astoreth, whom the Phœnicians called Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns,

To whose bright image nightly by the moon Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs;