It is perhaps worth while to notice the coincidence between the language of Homer as to the Giants, and that of the Books of the Ancient Scriptures. Homer says of Eurymedon[290],
ὅς ποθ’ ὑπερθύμοισι Γιγάντεσσιν βασίλευεν·
ἀλλ’ ὁ μὲν ὤλεσε λαὸν ἀτάσθαλον, ὤλετο δ’ αὐτός.
Either the rebellion, or the punishment in hell, of a wicked gang under the name of Giants is referred to in the following passages of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. The allusion is not made evident, as to the former set of passages, in the Authorized Version; I therefore quote from the Septuagint or the Vulgate.
1. Job xxvi. 5. Ecce gigantes gemunt sub aquis, et qui habitant cum eis. Vulgate. μὴ γίγαντες μαιωθήσονται ὑποκάτωθεν ὕδατος καὶ τῶν γειτόνων αὐτοῦ; LXX.
2. Prov. ii. 18. ἔθετο γὰρ παρὰ τῷ θανάτῳ τὸν οἶκον αὐτῆς, καὶ παρὰ τῷ ἅδῃ μετὰ τῶν γηγένων τοὺς ἄξονας αὐτῆς. LXX.
3. Prov. xxi. 16. Vir, qui erraverit a viâ doctrinæ, in cœtu gigantum commorabitur. Vulg. ἀνὴρ πλανώμενος ἐξ ὅδου δικαιοσύνης ἐν συναγωγῇ γιγάντων ἀναπαύσεται. LXX.
See Gen. vi. 4, 5: in which we perhaps see the original link between the Giants, and the rebellion of the fallen angels described by St. Jude, ver. 6: ‘And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.’
We have also the corresponding declaration of St. Peter: ‘God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world[291].’
Again, in the Apocryphal Books.