Paradise LostMilton, John(1667)

Albert Labriola (Duquesne University)

Genre: Poetry. Country: England.

John Milton (1608-1674) composed Paradise Lost as his magnum opus, an epic of almost 11,000lines. Though the dates of composition are uncertain, the work was published in ten books in1667, then slightly revised and restructured into twelve books for the 1674 edition. At the behestof his printer, Milton in the later edition included prose arguments at the head of each book toprovide a synopsis of the action, to identify major characters, and to facilitate the understandingof readers. The narrative begins with the defeat of Satan after his failed attempt to overthrow thegodhead, follows him through the stages of his vengeful plot to subvert God’s newest creation,humankind, and achieves its climax at the downfall of Adam and Eve and their expulsion fromEden. The epic ends with two books in which the archangel Michael narrates a dream-vision ofthe future, which Adam views.

Unifying the twelve books of Paradise Lost is the overarching theme to assert EternalProvidence, / And justify the ways of God to men (I. 25-26): to explain how and why Godpermits evil, and to vindicate God’s justice. God contends that he endowed humankind with thecapability to exercise both right reason and free will against evil temptation. He affirms that allhuman beings, typified by Adam and Eve, were created Sufficient to have stood, though free tofall (III. 99). Because human beings are not foreordained to fall, but free to pursue or reject asinful course of action, they bear responsibility for their misdeeds. But in the Christian theologyof Paradise Lost, the sacrifice of the Son on behalf of fallen humankind meets the demands ofGod’s justice and affords the merciful opportunity for repentance and regeneration.

Synopsis

Book 1. While the downfall of Adam and Eve and their loss of Eden (4) is foreseen at the outset,also emphasized is the role of the Son as the redeemer who performs the consummate act ofhumility, compassion, and mercy by assuming human nature to become one greater man (4) andby offering himself as a sacrifice on behalf of fallen humankind. After this initial section of Book1, the narrator recounts the aftermath of the War in Heaven, particularly the defeat andbanishment of the fallen angels to hell. Satan, who remains defiant, revives the fallen angels aftertheir defeat and assembles them to plan how they will avenge their loss.

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Book 2. A consultation takes place in Pandemonium, a structure built by the fallen angels in hell.In this edifice, which resembles both a temple and a palace, Satan occupies the position ofpreeminence: high on a throne of royal state (1). Four angels present their views concerning themeans of vengeance, and the overwhelming opinion inclines to open war or covert guile (41)against some new race called Man (348) that is less than the angels in power and excellence(350). Satan volunteers to conduct a reconnaissance of these newly created beings. Exiting thegates of hell, Satan flies through Chaos, a turbulent environment in which he is buffeted, until helands on the convex exterior of the cosmos, which is encased by a crystalline sphere or shell.

Book 3. Seeing what has happened, God the Father informs the Son that Satan will succeed in hisplan to subvert Adam and Eve, who will fall from their state of grace. Though God foresees thedownfall of Adam and Eve, he emphasizes that the fault is theirs, not his; for they are creatureswhom he created with free will. In the meantime, Satan having found an opening in the exteriorof the cosmos dives into it and flies to the brightest body in the heavens, the sun. Disguisinghimself as a lesser angel, a stripling cherub (636), Satan seeks information from Uriel, the seraphwho is regent of the sun, concerning Adam and Eve and their habitat. Directed to earth, he fliestill on Niphates’ top he lights (742) within view of Eden.

Book 4. Having assumed the shape of a cormorant, Satan perches on the Tree of Life, from whichhe surveys Eden. When he notices Adam and Eve, he enters the bodies of other animals; and as ifhe were stalking prey, he approaches Adam and Eve to overhear their conversation. He learns ofthe one prohibition on the activity of Adam and Eve - the divine command not to eat the fruit ofthe Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil - and plans their eventual downfall. Uriel, who directedSatan (disguised as a lesser angel) to earth, becomes aware of the deception, and alerts Gabriel,the seraph who protects Paradise, to the presence of the intruder. But Satan squat like a toad,close at the ear of Eve (800), while she and Adam are asleep, affects the organs of her fancy(802), thereby inducing her to dream.

Book 5. In the dream, which she recounts to Adam, Eve is awakened by a voice, which resemblesAdam’s, though it is spoken by an angelic being. Led in her dream to the Tree of Knowledge ofGood and Evil, Eve is urged to take and eat of the forbidden fruit. She experiences highexaltation (90), which results in part from being addressed as a goddess (78) and fromaccompanying the angelic being up to the clouds (86) from which she viewed \"the earthoutstretched immense (88). To forewarn Adam and Eve of Satan and his wiles, God the Fatherinstructs Raphael, a seraph, to travel to earth. Raphael narrates how Satan, then Lucifer, seducedone third of the angels to revolt against the godhead, thus suggesting how formidable anadversary Adam may encounter on earth.

Book 6. Raphael continues his account of the revolt, which results in the War in Heaven betweenthe good and evil angels. After three days, the war becomes a stalemate, though Satan, bothresourceful and ingenious, invents gunpowder that ignites cannons. These implements ofmischief (488) overwhelm the good angels, whose recourse is to uproot the mountains of heavenand to topple them onto the weapons devised by Satan. To bring the three-day war to an end, the

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Father urges the Son to mount the chariot of Paternal Deity (750), from which he will assault theevil angels. Accelerating the chariot toward the evil angels, the Son, who in his right hand graspsten thousand thunders (835-836), discharges his weaponry in a volley, so intense that the evilangels leap from the precipice of heaven, falling for a period of nine days into hell.

Book 7. At Adam\’s request Raphael narrates the story of the Creation, a six-day process enactedby the Son at the behest of the Father. Sped by a chariot through the gates of heaven, the Son,accompanied by angels, oversees the vast immeasurable abyss, which is outrageous as a sea,dark, wasteful, wild (211-212). By a series of utterances, the Son begets one stage of the Creationafter another, in the course of which the beneficence of the godhead is emphasized. Plenitude,continuity, and gradation characterize Nature in its manifold diversity, including innumerablecreatures, whether fowl, fish, or other beasts. The account focuses, finally, on the creation ofhumankind and the enjoinder that Adam and Eve, endowed with sanctity of reason (508), shouldtravel erect and be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth (531).

Book 8. In the aftermath of Raphael’s account of the Creation, Adam inquires about the planetsand other celestial bodies, their placement in the heavens, and their motions. But Raphaeldiscourages such inquiry, even on the topic of the centric body of the universe whether the earthor the sun. Instructing Adam to \"be lowly wise (173), Raphael encourages discussion moredirectly relevant to the human condition. Adam, complying with his teacher’s guidance, affirmsthat it is more important to know what before us lies in daily life (192-193). Recollecting the firstmoments of consciousness after he was created, Adam indicates to Raphael that he felt the needfor collateral love, and dearest amity (426). The creation of Eve, Adam’s conjugal union with herunder the direction of God the Father, and Raphael’s instruction concerning the relationship ofAdam and Eve are the concluding topics of Book 8.

Book 9. Having infiltrated the Garden of Eden, Satan inhabits a serpent and waits for anopportune moment to seduce humankind. Eve proposes that she and Adam divide (214) theirlabors, for when they are together, they converse and become diverted from their custodial dutiesto tend plant, herb and flower (206). Adam resists the prospect of separation, but relents underongoing pressure from Eve. Spying Eve at work alone, the serpent-tempter begins hisblandishments and seduction, leading her, in turn, to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.The serpent-tempter accuses God of preventing humankind from becoming divine; for if, hecontends, Eve were to partake of the forbidden fruit, she would become godlike. Emboldened bythe serpent-tempter, Eve eats the forbidden fruit and offers it to Adam, who also partakes of it.Soon, however, Adam and Eve engage in mutual recrimination, each blaming the other for theirtransgressions.

Book 10. The Son exits heaven and travels to the Garden of Eden to judge Adam and Eve.Because of their transgressions, they are to be punished by various means: Adam in the sweat ofhis face will eat bread (205); Eve will experience the pangs of childbirth. In the meantime, thefigures of Sin and Death, who had been in hell, have followed Satan in his journey to the earth.Their appetites are aroused to prey on Adam and Eve, as well as on all their progeny. Satan,

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exulting in his successful temptation of humankind, returns to hell, mounts his throne, and reportshis triumph to the evil angels. He is transformed, however, into a monstrous serpent on his bellyprone (514), and the evil angels become serpents experiencing hunger and thirst, which theystrive to alleviate by eating fruit, but, instead, they chewed bitter ashes (566). By the end of thebook, Adam and Eve experience remorse and become contrite.

Book 11. The Son presents Adam\’s and Eve\’s prayers to God, who accepts them. Nonetheless,he ordains the banishment of Adam and Eve from Paradise. The archangel Michael informsAdam and Eve of God\’s verdict; but to prevent them from becoming disconsolate (113), God hasinstructed his angelic emissary to foretell to Adam what shall come in future days (114). Thatrevelation will include how the godhead will intermix his covenant in the woman’s seed renewed(115-116), a reference to the Virgin Mary, the so-called second Eve, through whom the Son willacquire the form and nature of humankind. While Eve is asleep, Michael escorts Adam to amountaintop, from which they view future events, which the angel narrates and interprets.Included in the vision are Cain’s slaying of Abel, various scenes of peace and war, the Delugeand Noah’s ark.

Book 12. The vision of the future continues, with Adam seeing instances of tyrants who willsubjugate others. Events in the unfolding vision are the sojourn of the Chosen People in Egypt,their liberation under the leadership of Moses, and the role of David as an ancestor of Jesus.Michael emphasizes, however, the coming of the Redeemer, particularly his temporal ministry,and the foundation and growth of Christianity under the Apostles. And the final victory of theSon is highlighted, when he, triumphing through the air (452) over Satan, then ascendsheavenward. At the world’s dissolution (459), the Final Judgment will occur. The Son willadjudicate the ultimate disposition of the souls of humankind to Heaven or hell. After Eveawakens, she and Adam are escorted by Michael from the Garden of Eden.

Epic Conventions

Though a biblical epic, Paradise Lost adapts the literary conventions of classical antiquityreflected in Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey and Vergil’s The Aeneid, works that Miltonknew and admired. Among the epic conventions in Paradise Lost are the narrator’s invocation ofthe muse, the intervention of supernatural beings, beginning the action in medias res (in the midstof things), the descent into the underworld, the interaction of love and war, a grand styledistinguished by extended similes, and the idea of heroism.

Concerning the first epic convention, Milton at the outset of Paradise Lost invokes his source ofinspiration:

Sing Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspireThat shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,In the beginning how the heav’ns and earth

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Rose out of chaos; or if Sion hillDelight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowedFast by the oracle of God; I thence Invoke thy aid to my advent’rous song,That with no middle flight intends to soarAbove the Aonian mount, while it pursuesThings unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. (I, 6-16)

In Milton’s case, the source of inspiration or the muse is the God of the Judaeo-Christiantradition, not the deities of Greco-Roman antiquity. Integrated into this invocation are severalbiblical allusions. The phrase secret top indicates that the general populace did not frequent thesummits of Oreb and Sinai. Atop Mt. Oreb, the Lord, who was manifested in the burning bush,summoned Moses to become a prophet (Exodus 3. 1). On Mt. Sinai, Moses received theCommandments from the Lord (Exodus 20. 1-17), afterwards descending to rejoin the Israelites.Sion or Zion designates the mountain on which Jerusalem was built; at this same place, the Lordinspired his prophets, such as Isaiah (Isaiah 2. 1-3). Near Siloa’s brook, which flows west of Mt.Sinai, Jesus moistened clay with spittle, which he then spread on the eyes of a blind man. Havingfollowed Christ’s instruction to wash his eyes in Siloa’s brook, the blind man miraculouslyacquired sight (John 9. 1-12).

By this series of biblical allusions, Milton acknowledges his dependency on the Lord of theJudaeo-Christian tradition for inspiration and imaginative vision. Much as the Lord chose Mosesto be not only his spokesperson or prophet but also the author of the Pentateuch (the first fivebooks of the Old Testament), so too Milton petitions the Lord for enlightenment to compose hisreligious poem, the first biblical epic in English. Milton also likens himself to the blind manwhom the Lord healed, for he wishes to be illuminated intellectually to create the architectonicsof an epic poem in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), the same prosody as that ofShakespeare’s plays. In addition, by referring to the Aonian mount, a classical allusion thatsupplements the previous biblical allusions, Milton identifies the summit better known as Mt.Helicon, the haunt of classical muses. By this means, Milton uses classical antiquity and itsacknowledged sources of creative inspiration, notably the muses, as prefigurations or pagananalogues of inspiration in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Milton, moreover, deliberately invitescomparison of his epic with classical antecedents. He perceives pagan epics as wellsprings ofmythology and fables, whereas he presents Paradise Lost as a biblical epic informed byJudaeo-Christian theology.

The second epic convention observed in Paradise Lost involves the actions of supernaturalbeings. Transcending humankind, these beings, chiefly the Father and the Son, as well as thegood and evil angels, intervene in the human condition both before and after the Fall of Adamand Eve. To be sure, the Father creates Adam and later Eve from a rib taken from Adam’s side.Before the Fall, Raphael, who is sent by the Father to educate Adam and Eve concerningobedience, discourses with them across four books of the epic, V through VIII. After the Fall,Michael in Books XI and XII educates Adam by expounding biblical history from the Old

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Testament, through the New Testament, and to the Second Coming and the afterlife. For Adam,such a preview informs him of the course of human history and the role of the redeemer whoseCrucifixion and Resurrection will counteract the tragic effects of the Fall. At one point inMichael’s exposition, Adam becomes joyful that his sinfulness occasioned the advent of theredeemer. His reaction reflects the theological view of the felix culpa or fortunate fault, whichholds that after the misdeeds of Adam and Eve, the Lord enacts greater goodness when the Son asthe redeemer enters into the human condition. Without the sinfulness of Adam and Eve, the Lordpresumably would not have become incarnate. This consummate expression of love forhumankind results in the voluntary humiliation of the Son and his self-sacrifice. In that way,divine intervention in human history offers regeneration after the Fall, as Adam learns underMichael’s tutelage.

The third epic convention that Milton observes is to begin the action of his epic in medias res orin the midst of things. The opening two books of Paradise Lost take place in hell, the lowermostregions of Chaos into which the evil angels plummeted from the precipice of Heaven and fromwhich enormous gates of adamantine rock and metal bar their egress and imprison them. IfMilton recounts the aftermath of the War in Heaven at the outset of the epic, in later books thereader paradoxically enters into earlier action, learning thereby how and why the evil angelsdisobeyed the godhead, experienced divine wrath, and suffered the loss of Heaven. By delayingthese accounts of angelic disobedience, Milton proceeds directly and more meaningfully into thecentral books of Paradise Lost that dramatize how and why Adam and Eve disobeyed the divinecommand concerning the Tree of Knowledge, after which they were expelled from Eden. Byjuxtaposing two acts of disobedience, the first involving angels, the second humankind, Miltonmay explore more fully their commonalities: the lure of evil temptation, the role of pride indisobedience, rebelliousness against the godhead as a sign of inordinate aspiration to attain toloftier status, an affirmation of independence from the godhead, a declaration of self-sufficiency,and the horrific loss of proximity to the Lord.

The fourth epic convention to which Milton adheres includes action in the underworld, notablyhell. In Books I, II, and X, hell combines topographic features of classical Hades, sheol, and theplace of everlasting damnation envisioned by Christians. All three views of the afterlife stressdarkness, affliction, and incarceration. Accordingly, Milton derives the imagery with which hedescribes hell from classical, Judaic, and Christian concepts of the afterlife. At the beginning of Paradise Lost, for instance, Milton recounts that the Lord deployed thunderbolts to expel Satanand the fallen angels from Heaven:

. . . Him the almighty powerHurled headlong flaming from th’ ethereal skyWith hideous ruin and combustion downTo bottomless perdition, there to dwellIn adamantine chains and penal fire (I, 44-48)

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Continuing, Milton describes Satan’s perception of hell:

A dungeon horrible, on all sides roundAs one great furnace flamed, yet from those flamesNo light, but rather darkness visibleServed only to discover sights of woe,Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peaceAnd rest can never dwell, hope never comesThat comes to all (I, 61-67)

Because Satan and the fallen angels dwell in a fiery location on all sides round, the site resemblesa volcano. This resemblance thus recalls the punishment of Briareos and Typhon, two of theTitans who rebelled against Jove and who suffered incarceration inside Mt. Aetna, an activevolcano. As they fulminated against Jove, their exhalations fanned the flames tormenting them.Traditionally, the fires of everlasting torment inflict pain but do not illuminate, a phenomenonthat Milton cites (from those flames / No light) in his account of hell. Coupled with this classicalallusion is a reference to sheol, a Judaic concept. In some renditions of sheol, it is merely thegrave or death; in others, it suggests a place of punishment. In Luke’s Gospel, for instance, theparable of the rich man and Lazarus focuses on the damnation of the former, who remains insheol, the netherworld, where he was in torment (16. 23). He describes his suffering . . . in flames(16. 24). Incorporated into the New Testament, the conception of the rich man’s punishment isclearly Judaic. Similarly, Scripture warns of the fiery pool burning with sulphur (Revelation 19.20) into which one of the beasts of the Apocalypse and the false prophet were cast. Describedalso as the burning pool of fire and sulfur (Revelation 21. 8), this site of punishment will tormentall evildoers. Enriching these classical, Judaic, and Christian conceptions are Milton’s allusionsto literature of the underworld, such as Dante’s Divine Comedy. In fact, Milton’s reference to thehopelessness of the fallen angelshope never comes / That comes to allparaphrases the inscriptionover the portal to hell in Dante’s Inferno (III. 9): Abandon all hope ye who enter here. BothDante and Milton exclude the damned from hope of salvation, whereas all others may yet besaved.

Interrelating love and war becomes the fifth epic convention in Paradise Lost. The War inHeaven in Book VI pits the good angels against their evil counterparts in a contest that featurestwo kinds of battles: hand-to-hand combat between principal characters and encounters involvinglarge groups of angels. Early in the War in Heaven, Satan engages Michael. In this struggle, theprotocol derives from classical epic combat, where each antagonist identifies his opponent,speaks derisively and threateningly to him, then proceeds to deliver martial blows. The epithetsthat each uses to the other have theological overtones in a biblical epic. Accordingly, Michael’sfirst words to Satan, Author of evil, unknown till thy revolt (VI. 262), lead inevitably to astatement of the pernicious influence of the archfiend on vast numbers of angels: how hast thouinstilled / Thy malice into thousands (VI. 269-270), a foreshadowing of satanic malevolence thatwill taint Adam and Eve and then their countless progeny through history. Satan debunks theaccusations of Michael and belittles the retribution that the archangel promises, which he calls

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the wind / Of airy threats (VI. 282-283). A three-day War in Heaven ensues, though it ends in astalemate until the Son, who is empowered by the Father, mounts his chariot and by deployingthunderbolts against the rebellious angels drives them over the brink of Heaven into theunderworld.

While the martial action of Book VI dramatizes the triumph of the Son, his greater victoryderives from the consummate expression of love for humankind. Throughout Paradise Lost, theSon though heroically militant elicits even greater admiration and praise for his willingness tobecome incarnate and to suffer and die on behalf of fallen humankind. Anticipating this temporalministry of the Son, the narrator of the epic, during the Celestial Dialogue in Book III, notes thatin the face of the Second Divine Person Divine compassion visibly appeared, / Love without end(III. 141-142). The Son, In whom the fullness dwells of divine love (III. 225), mediates andintercedes on behalf of Adam and Eve and their descendants, so that humankind, unlike theobdurate fallen angels who confirm their damnation by continuous evildoing, may be granted theoffer of redemption. Against such a wholly pure and profound expression of love, the epicpresents the relationship of Adam and Eve. While their conjugal love for one another manifests,albeit imperfectly, the love that the Son will express toward them and their descendants, thefallibility of human nature to evil temptation results in the sinfulness of inordinate self-love,which results from pride, vainglory, and lustful appetites, not only concupiscence but also theacquisitive impulses of greed and avarice. In a post-lapsarian environment in which human natureis fallen and humankind is typically self-serving rather than self-sacrificing, the love that emergeseven in a spousal relationship falls short of the ideal selfless love reflected in the incarnate Son.When, after their lapse into sinfulness, Adam and Eve seek to evade culpability, they becomeembroiled in mutual recrimination, so that each faults the other and neither acknowledgesresponsibility for evildoing. Eventually, to be sure, they become repentant, individually thencollectively, but their emotional turmoil after they sin tests their love for one another anddiscloses imperfections in their spousal relationship. While spousal love in the human conditionis beset by vagaries and vicissitudes, the constant and ever-present loving relationship of the Sonfor humankind serves as the ideal to be emulated.

A grand style characterized by the frequent use of epic similes or extended comparisons is thesixth epic convention in Paradise Lost. Typically introduced by like or as, these extendedcomparisons that unfold over several lines of verse contribute to the majesty of Milton’s epic andenhance the treatment of the lofty theme. When Satan is revived after his expulsion into Hell, hewelters on the lake of liquid fire, then moves to the shore:

. . . his ponderous shieldEthereal temper, massy, large and round,Behind him cast; the broad circumferenceHung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orbThrough optic glass the Tuscan artist viewsAt evening from the top of Fesole,Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,

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Rivers of mountains in her spotty globe. (I. 284-291)

Likening Satan’s shield to the moon as seen through the telescope of Galileo, Milton recalls hisvisit to Italy in 1638-1639, when he traveled to Florence and visited Galileo through whoseoptical instrument he viewed the heavens. Whether situated atop the hills of Tuscany or in thevalley of the Arno River, the newly invented telescope enabled Galileo to chart the topography ofthe moon and document its distinguishing features. Though the moon when viewed by theunaided eye appears as a small disk, it may occupy the entire field of vision when seen through atelescope. The contrast between the smaller and larger appearances of the moon permits Miltonto stress the gargantuan size of Satan’s instruments of war and the apparent formidability of hisopposition to the godhead.

Another epic simile describes the vast numbers of fallen angels whom Satan strives to rally afterthey plummeted into Hell:

Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooksIn Vallombrosa, where th’ Etrurian shadesHigh overarched embow’r; or scattered sedgeAfloat, when with fierce winds Orion armedHath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves o’erthrewBusiris and his Memphian chivalry,While with perfidious hatred they pursuedThe sojourners of Goshen, who beheldFrom the safe shore their floating carcassesAnd broken chariot wheels. (I. 302-311)

Milton here recalls his travel through Vallombrosa or the Shady Valley outside Florence in theregion of Tuscany, formerly called Etruria. The red-and-yellow leaves afloat on the brookssuggest the flames that afflict the angels on the burning lake. Moving to another point ofreference in his extended comparison, Milton cites Orion, the constellation whose appearance isassociated with turbulence in the climate, storms that churn the flotsam or sedge on rivers, lakes,brooks, and sea. By alluding, as well, to the Chosen People or sojourners of Goshen, the region inEgypt that they occupied before their deliverance, Milton recalls the parting of the waters at theRed Sea. Recounted in Exodus 14. 10-31, the passage through the Red Sea and onto the oppositeshore enabled the Chosen People to view the collapse of the waters that inundated the Egyptianspursuing them. The Egyptian charioteers and their armaments were strewn on the Red Sea afterthe failed attempt of their pharaoh, whom Milton cites as Bursiris, to prevent the Exodus. Theproliferating details of this epic simile presage the ultimate, cataclysmic defeat of Satan and hisfallen angels, the defeat figured in the apocalyptic imagery of the Book of Revelation.

The seventh and final epic convention in Paradise Lost is the idea of heroism. Greek and Romanepics celebrated the heroism of military valor and the passions that impelled warriors to clashwith one another: pride, implacable hate, wrath, envy, lust, and the like. Epic heroes likeAgamemnon, Achilles and Menelaus in The Iliad, Odysseus in The Odyssey; and Aeneas and

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Turnus in The Aeneid manifest such emotions and are incited to action by them. At times, an epichero was celebrated for his guile, the ability to deceive an adversary or to pursue treachery toachieve a goal, whether conquest, revenge, or the acquisition of political power. In Paradise Lost,Milton characterizes Satan with all of the foregoing traits in order to contrast him with the Son,whose heroism includes humility, pity, compassion, mercy, and the love that informs hisvoluntary self-sacrifice. The contrast between Satan and the Son enables Milton to highlight thedifferences between classical and Christian heroism. By juxtaposing these two ideas of heroismin Paradise Lost, Milton identifies the one as spurious and the other as genuine. Milton’s biblicalepic recasts the traits of classical heroism until they become vices to be shunned, whereas thetraits of the incarnate Son, the ideal Christian hero, are virtues to be emulated.

In sum, Milton’s Paradise Lost subsumes two epics in one. If, in other words, Paradise Lost isperceived after the manner of a classical epic, then Satan may be construed as heroic, for heembodies the traits of Greek and Roman heroes. When, however, the Son’s virtues are identifiedas heroic, then the second epic embedded in Paradise Lost comes to the fore, serving thereby toexpose the spurious nature of Satan’s heroism and of its Greek and Roman antecedents. Indeed,the so-called Satanistsauthors like William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelleywho extol thearchfiend of Paradise Lost admire his resemblances to classical epic heroes. Readers who discernthat Paradise Lost infuses the traditional epic form and conventions with a new Christian idea ofheroism will possess a richer perspective from which to reject Satan wholesale, admire andemulate the Son wholly, and to assess Milton’s unique literary achievement.

Albert Labriola (Duquesne University)

First published 15 November 2004

Citation: Labriola, Albert. "Paradise Lost". The Literary Encyclopedia. 15 November 2004.[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2924, accessed 3 December 2010.]

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