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Line 488: Allusion to Exodus 12 in the Bible. This is the story where God kills the firstborn baby in all houses in Egypt not marked with a lamb’s blood. God asks Moses to tell his followers to eat a lamb roasted.

Line 510: Milton is referring to Heaven and Earth which were, according to many ancient poets, the parents of the Titans. Milton casts doubt on this idea by saying “supposed parents.” Chaos was the first being, and then Earth came along. Earth gave birth to Heaven, with whom she later copulated to produce the Titans: Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. She also gave birth to Chronus (Saturn), the cyclopes and various other monsters.

Line 576: This is an allusion to Homer’s Iliad in which Homer compares the cries of the Trojans to the sound made by cranes in their annual rush to the sea, when they slaughter pygmies in their path.