The god of jealous mockery. In Hesiod's Theogony (214) we read that 'Night produced Destiny ai/d Black Fate, and Sleep and the tribe of Dreams . . . and Momus and bitter Care.' Plato, in the Republic, uses the word as a proverbial personification of carping criticism. But Swift, doubtless, had in his mind Lucian's Assembly of the Gods, where Momus is the principal spokesman, and accuses all the gods in turn, not excepting Zeus himself, of various crimes. He confesses himself to be 'free of tongue and loth to pass in silence any wrong.' At the close Zeus tells him that there is some truth in his censures, and that it is well to nip in the bud wrongs that may spread. Momus is, therefore, the Spirit of Censure: from whom to the Spirit of modern Criticism, Swift intends us to infer that there is but one step, but that a considerable step (p. 214, 1. 24).