Milton describes Satan’s spear as “equal which the tallest Pine / Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the Mast / of some great Ammiral.”
In his translation of the Iliad , Pope describes the death of Sarpedon: “as some mountain Oak, or Poplar tall / or pine (fit mast for some great Admiral) / Nods to the Ax . . . Thus fell the King.”
So, we get Homer borrowing a line from Milton, who had originally borrowed it from Virgil’s description of Polyphemus ( Aeneid 3) and perhaps also from Abraham Cowley’s description of Goliath in his Davideis (“His Spear the Trunk was of a lofty Tree / Which Nature meant some tall Ship’s Mast to be”).
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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