but Gray is alluding to hair, and not to a standard; to the original derivation of the word comet (κόμη), and possibly to a different passage in Milton, viz. Par. Lost, ii. 706.:
"on the other side,
Incens'd with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrified: and like a comet burned,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge,
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war."
Or as Virgil before him, Æneid, lib. x. 270.:
"Ardet apex capiti, cristisque a vertici flamma
Funditur, et vastos umbo vomit aureus ignes: