From heaven; for e’en in heaven his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of heaven’s pavement, trodden gold,
Than aught, divine or holy, else enjoyed.
Paradise Lost, i. 679, etc. (1665).
Mammon tells Sir Guyon, if he will serve him, he shall be the richest man in the world; but the knight replies that money has no charm in his sight. The god then takes him into his smithy, and tells him to give any order he likes; but Sir Gruyon declines the invitation. Mammon next offers to give the knight Philotine to wife; but Sir Gruyon still declines. Lastly, the knight is led to Proserpine’s bower, and told to pluck some of the golden fruit, and to rest him awhile on the silver stool; but Sir Gruyon resists the temptation. After three day’s sojourn in the infernal regions, the knight is led back to earth, and swoons.—Spenser, Faëry Queen, ii. 7 (1590).
Mammon (Sir Epicure), the rich dupe who supplies Subtle, “the alchemist,” with money to carry on his artifices, under pretence of transmuting base metals into gold. Sir Epicure believes in the possibility, and glories in the mighty things he will do when the secret is discovered.—Ben Jonson, The Alchemist (1610).
Mammoth (The), or big buffalo, is an emblem of terror and destruction among the American Indians. Hence, when Brandt, at the head of a party of Mohawks and other savages, was laying waste Pennsylvania, and approached Wyo´ming, Outalissi exclaims:
The mammoth comes—the foe—the monster Brandt,
With all his howling, desolating band ...