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].’
1. Wisdom xiv. 6. ‘In the old time also, when the proud giants perished, the hope of the world, governed by thy hand, escaped in a weak vessel.’ Auth. Version.
2. Ecclus. xvi. 7. ‘He was not pacified toward the old giants, who fell away in the strength of their foolishness.’ Auth. Version.
3. Baruch iii. 26, 8. ‘There were giants famous from the beginning.... But they were destroyed, because they had no wisdom, and perished through their own foolishness.’ Auth. Version.
We thus appear to find in Homer many displaced fragments of the old traditions of the Bible with respect to the Evil One. In the later Greek and the Roman literature, the traditions on the same subject had almost entirely lost their likeness to their original. The figure of Ἄτη, and the idea of spiritual danger to man through guile tempting him extrinsically but inwardly, entirely disappears. There remains only the recollection of a contest waged by brute force, and a solitary remnant of forgotten truth in the fame still adhering to Apollo, that he had been the deliverer and conqueror, who in the critical hour vindicated the supremacy of heaven. In the time of Horace even this recollection had become darkened and confused.
From the Homeric traditions of the Evil One and the fallen angels, we may properly pass to those of a future state, which involves, partially at least, the idea of retribution.