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Milton's Haemony: Etymology and Allegory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

John M. Steadman
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Extract

Recent interpretations of Thyrsis' magic herb have usually employed one or more of several angles of approach: (1) the implications of its name, (2) its similarities with, or differences from, the herb moly, and (3) its function in a larger context—its relation to the theme, dramatic structure, and ethical allegory of Milton's masque. Though all three approaches are necessary for a valid solution of this crux, each has encountered certain inherent difficulties. The third has been especially vulnerable to subjective bias; reading into haemony whatever meaning has best fitted his own conception of the poem's overall structure and sense, the individual critic has been prone to find in the herb the particular concept he had wanted to find. The second has been complicated not only by the variety of meanings commentators have ascribed to moly, but also by critical disagreement as to how far the two plants represent similar or dissimilar ideas. The first approach has hitherto failed to establish a solid basis for the allegory. The only etymology on which scholars are agreed— Keightley's suggestion that haemony was named after “Haemonia or Thessaly, the land of magic”1—tells one very little about its allegorical significance. Possible clues to the allegory have been discovered in several alternative etymologies, but these have not yet won general acceptance.

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Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 77 , Issue 3 , June 1962, pp. 200 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1962

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References

Note 1 in page 200 See Edward S. LeComte, “New Light on the ‘Haemony’ Passage in Comus,” PQ, xxi (1942), 284–285.

Note 2 in page 200 Robert M. Adams, Ikon: John Milton and the Modern Critics (Ithaca, N. Y., 1955), p. 18.

Note 3 in page 200 John Arthos, On a Mask Presented at Ludlow-Castle by John Milton (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1954), pp. 44–45.

Note 4 in page 201 Orlando Innamorato, Composto gia del Sig. Matteo Maria Bojardo . . ., ed ora rifatto . . . da M. Francesco Berni (Fiorenza, 1725), pp. 55, 126–127, 172.

Note 5 in page 201 Orlando Furioso di M. Lodovico Ariosto (Venetia, 1603), pp. 61, 70.

Note 6 in page 201 Ibid., pp. 32, 51.

Note 7 in page 201 Giangiorgio Trissino, L'Italia Liberata da' Goti (Orleans, 1787), I, 91–146; cf. Merritt Y. Hughes, “Spenser's Acrasia and the Circe of the Renaissance,” JHI, iv (1943), 381–399; D. C. Allen, The Harmonious Vision (Baltimore, Md., 1954), p. 33.

Note 8 in page 201 Torquato Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered, tr. Edward Fairfax, ed. Henry Morley (London, 1890), pp. 439–442.

Note 9 in page 201 Eustathii Archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis Commentarii ad Homeri Odysseam, i (Lipsiae, 1825), 381, “.” Cf. LeComte, p. 287.

Note 10 in page 202 A Lexicon Abridged from Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford, 1926), s.v. . The chief merit of this derivation is the parallel with the “prickles” on Milton's herb. The usual definition of this word, however, is (copse, thicket); see A Greek-English Lexicon, ed. H. G. Liddell and R. Scott, rev. Sir H. W. Jones (Oxford, 1953), s.v., . Cf. Hesychii Alexandrini Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte, i (Hauniae, 1953), “”; G. Budaeus, Lexicon Graeco-Latinum (Ex off. Jo. Crispini, 1554), “, . . . nemus, arbustum”; Henricus Stephanus, Thesaurus Graecae Linguae (Paris, 1572), i, “A, Locus arboribus densus aut fructibus, Dumus”; iv, “A, . . . Saltus, locus arborosus.” Another possible derivation is A, which Stephanus defines as Hostia, the animal slain in sacrifice—an allusion which would reinforce LeComte's conception of haemony as a symbol of Christ's blood and Coleridge's sacramental interpretation.

Note 11 in page 202 A. W. Verity (ed.), Comus (Cambridge, 1953), p. 91.

Note 12 in page 202 Sarah Ruth Watson, “An Interpretation of Milton's ‘Haemony’,” N&Q, clxxviii (1940), 260.

Note 13 in page 202 Actually the river Haemon is not in Arcadia, but lies east of Chaeronea in Boeotia. The closest verbal link between Haemony and Arcadia seems to be Haimoniai, an old city allegedly founded by Haimon and situated between Megalopolis and Asea in Arcadia. Spenser may have had the latter in mind, but his reference to “grassie bancks” suggests that his Haemony may be a river—possibly a symbol for the Thames. See Georg Wissowa and Wilhelm Kroll (eds.), Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (Stuttgart, 1912), s.v. Haimon, Haimonia, Haimoniae. Cf. Budaeus, s.v., “haemon fluvius qui & .

Note 14 in page 202 John Milton, The Minor Poems, ed. Merritt Y. Hughes (New York, 1937), p. 251n.

Note 15 in page 202 Wissowa, s.v. Haimonia; cf. Hesychius, “”; Budaeus, “A . . ., Thessalia & Ephesus.”

Note 16 in page 202 Wissowa, s.v. Haimos; cf. Budaeus, “A . . ., Haemus, mons Thraciae.”

Note 17 in page 202 Verity, p. 91.

Note 18 in page 202 “Elegia Secunda,” 1. 7; cf. LeComte, p. 285. For the parallel with Ovid's Metamorphoses, vii. 264, see Hughes's note, Minor Poems, p. 34n.

Note 19 in page 202 The Prose Works of John Milton, iv (London, 1883), 328–331.

Note 20 in page 202 Le Metamorfosi di Ovidio, Ridotte da Gio. Andrea dall' Anguillara in ottava rima (Venetia, 1587), fol. 98.

Note 21 in page 203 Natalis Comitis Mythologiae (Francofurti, 1584), pp. 587–590, 599–600.

Note 22 in page 203 Ibid., p. 589.

Note 23 in page 203 LeComte, p. 285.

Note 24 in page 203 Ibid., p. 288n.; Arthos, pp. 72–73.

Note 25 in page 203 A New English Dictionary (Oxford, 1901), s.v. Haemony; Le Comte, pp. 285–286.

Note 26 in page 203 Nova Iconologia di Cesare Ripa Perugino (Padova, 1618), p. 74; “Pietà” is similarly described (p. 412) as “vestita di rosso . . ., perche e compagna, e sorella della Carità, allaquale conviene questo colore.”

Note 27 in page 204 Liddell and Scott, rev. Jones, s.v.; cf. G. Kaibe (ed.), Athenaei Naucratitae Dipnosophistarum Libri XV, i (Lipsiae, 1887), 177, “T—.” Cf. C. D. Yonge (trans.), The Deipnosophists or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus, i (London, 1854), 127.

Note 28 in page 204 Eustathius, ii (1826), 326. “The ancients frequently explain this as a species of fig, also called haimonia (blood-red) on the island of Paros because of its red color.”

Note 28 in page 204 Stephanus, i, s.v. A. “Haimonia syka (the blood-red fig), a species of fig on the island of Paros, so called because of its red color, as Athenaeus declares in Book iii and as Eustathius states after him. When these declare that the fig is thus named because of its redness, they suggest that its name was derived from haima (blood), just as if they had said dia to haimatoeides chroma, because of its bloody color. In the same passage Athenaeus writes that this species is also called Lydian.”

Note 30 in page 204 Omnia Andrea Alciati . . . Emblemata: Cum commentariis . . . per Claudium Minoem Divionensem (Antverpiae, 1581), p. 424, “Purpureus color pudoris indicium”; Ripa, pp. 554–556, “Vergogna Honesta . . . vestasi di rosso, . . . essendo questo colore proprio della vergogna, bellisimo in donzelle, & garzoni per inditio della modestia loro . . ., e Menandro solea dire Omnis erubescens probus esse mihi videtur. Ogni huomo che s'arrosisce, mi pare buono, siche il colore rosso molto conviensi alla figura della vergogna.”

Note 31 in page 204 LeComte, pp. 285–287; Budaeus, “. . ., cruentus.”

Note 32 in page 204 LeComte, pp. 289–290.

Note 33 in page 204 Ibid., pp. 290–297; see Adams, pp. 11–17, for a criticism of this interpretation.

Note 34 in page 204 Wissowa, s.v. Moly.

Note 35 in page 204 N.E.D., s.v. Haemony; LeComte, pp. 285–286.

Note 36 in page 205 Euslathii Episcopi Thessalonicensis Commentarii ad Homeri Modern, i (Lipsiae, 1827), e, v. 49 ff. “He says that Scamandrios fell by the hand of Menelaos and was theres haimona (skilled in hunting), that is to say epistemona (wise), a good hunter, excelling in archery, whom Artemis herself had taught. . . . Haimon signifies daimon or indeed daēmon (knowing).”

Note 37 in page 205 Hesychius, s.v. ; cf. Apollonii Sophistae Lexicon Homericum, ed. I. Bekker (Berolini, 1833), p. 14. “”

Note 38 in page 205 Thomas Gaisford (ed.), Etymologicon Magnum (Oxonii, 1848), s.v. A. “daio (to know) is gignosco (to know) or manthano (to learn). From this word are derived the terms daskalos and didaskalos (teacher) and daialos; and, by repetition of the d, the word daidalos, i.e., epistemon (wise); and daimon, or autodidaktos (self-taught); and, by aphaeresis of the d, haimon (skilled).”

Note 39 in page 205 Budaeus, s.v. . “Haimon is the same as epistemon (wise), empeiros (knowing), i.e., peritus (skilled). This word is derived from daimon by dropping a letter.”

Note 40 in page 205 Stephanus, iv. s.v. A. “Haimon is believed to have been derived by aphaeresis of the letter d from daimon, signifying daēmon (knowing), gnarus (experienced), peritus (skilled). Hesychius also explains haimona as epistemona (wise), empeiron (knowing), with reference to the phrase haimona theres (skilled in hunting) in Homer's Iliad, Book v, verse 49.” For Milton's knowledge of Renaissance dictionaries, see D. T. Starnes and E. W. Talbert, Classical Myth and Learning in Renaissance Dictionaries (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1955).

Note 41 in page 205 LeComte, pp. 285–286.

Note 42 in page 206 J. H. Hanford, “Haemony (Comus 616–648),” TLS, 3 Nov. 1932, p. 815; idem, A Milton Handbook, Fourth Edition (New York, 1947), p. 160; idem, John Milton, Englishman (London, 1950), p. 83; Sears Jayne, “The Subject of Milton's Ludlow Mask,” PMLA, lxxiv (1959), 540.

Note 43 in page 206 Cf. Adams, pp. 14–15; LeComte, p. 287; Frances A. Yates, The French Academies of the Sixteenth Century (London 1947), pp. 244–245; my note, “‘Haemony’ and Christian Moly,” Hist, of Ideas Newsletter, iv (1958), 59–60; Alciati, p. 628, “Id figmentum non rarò intelligitur de virtute omnique eruditione, ad quam primus aditus arduus est ac sudoris plenus, sed suavissimus omnium fructus”; Apollonius, p. 114, s.v. .“

Note 44 in page 206 LeComte (p. 285n.) observes that “grammarians associate the word [] with ‘’,” but does not cite any definitions except those of Liddell and Scott, who define the former term as “perhaps eager” and the latter as skillful.

Note 45 in page 206 Plato, vi (Loeb Classical Library, London, 1926), 55.

Note 46 in page 206 Dardi Bembo (tr.), Commento di Ierocle Filosofo sopra i Versi di Pitagora detti d'Oro (Venetia, 1604), pp. 22, 25.

Note 47 in page 206 Budaeus, s.v. Δ.

Note 48 in page 206 Stephanus, i, s.v. Δ, Δ.

Note 49 in page 206 Eustathius, Comment. ad Iliadem, v. 49 ff.; cf. Alexander Politus (tr.), Eustathius in Homerum, Graece, et Latine iii, (Florentiae, 1735), 1120.

Note 50 in page 206 Cf. Luke xi.49; I Cor. i.21-24; Eph. iii.10; James iii.17.

Note 51 in page 206 Hanford, John Milton, Englishman, p. 76.

Note 52 in page 207 John Smith, Select Discourses (London, 1660), pp. 164–165; cf. I Cor. xiii.9-12.

Note 53 in page 207 Cf. Minor Poems, pp. 341 (“Lady, that in the prime,” etc.), 466 (“Hard are the ways of truth”); Hamlet, I. iii.

Note 54 in page 207 Cf. Minor Poems, p. 341; Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Canto ii, 1. 105.