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OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, [ 5 ]
Sing Heav'nly Muse,that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill [ 10 ]
Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow'd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian Mount, while it pursues [ 15 ]
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.
And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all Temples th' upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread [ 20 ]
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark


Paradise Lost

Title page of the first edition (1668)
Author(s) John Milton
Cover artist J. B. de Medina and Henry Aldrich
Country England
Language English
Genre(s) Epic poetry
Publisher Samuel Simmons (original)
Publication date 1667
Media type Print
Followed by Paradise Regained
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, changed into twelve books (in the manner of the division of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification.[1]
The poem concerns the Biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton's purpose, stated in Book I, is to "justify the ways of God to men."[2] Paradise Lost is often considered one of the greatest literary works in the English language




Gustave Doré, Depiction of Satan, the antagonist of John Milton's Paradise Lost c. 1866
As previously noted, the poem is separated into twelve "books" or sections, and the lengths of each book varies greatly (the longest being Book IX, with 1,189 lines, and the shortest Book VII, having 640). In the second edition, each book was preceded by a summary titled "The Argument". The poem follows the epic tradition of starting in medias res (Latin for in the midst of things), the background story being recounted later.
Milton's story has two narrative arcs: one of Satan (Lucifer) and another of Adam and Eve. It begins after Satan and the other rebel angels have been defeated and banished to Hell, or as it is also called in the poem, Tartarus. In Pandæmonium, Satan employs his rhetorical skill to organize his followers; he is aided by his lieutenants Mammon and Beelzebub. Belial and Moloch are also present. At the end of the debate, Satan volunteers himself to poison the newly-created Earth and God's new and most favored creation, Mankind. He braves the dangers of the Abyss alone in a manner reminiscent of Odysseus or Aeneas. After arduously traversing the Chaos outside Hell, he enters God's new material World, and later the Garden of Eden.
Partway through the story, the Angelic War over Heaven is recounted. Satan's rebellion follows the epic convention of large-scale warfare. The battles between the faithful angels and Satan's forces take place over three days. The final battle involves the Son of God single-handedly defeating the entire legion of angelic rebels and banishing them from Heaven. Following the purging of Heaven, God creates the World, culminating in his creation of Adam and Eve. While God gave Adam and Eve total freedom and power to rule over all creation, He gave them one explicit command: not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil on penalty of death.
The story of Adam and Eve's temptation and fall is a fundamentally different, new kind of epic: a domestic one. Adam and Eve are presented for the first time in Christian literature as having a full relationship while still without sin. They have passions and distinct personalities. Satan, disguised in the form of a serpent, successfully tempts Eve to eat from the Tree by preying on her vanity and tricking her with rhetoric. Later, Adam seeing Eve has sinned, knowingly commits the same sin. He declares to Eve that since she was made from his flesh, they are bound to one another so that if she dies, he must also die. In this manner, Milton portrays Adam as a heroic figure, but also as a deeper sinner than Eve, as he is aware that what he is doing is wrong.
After eating the fruit, Adam and Eve have lustful sex, and at first, Adam is convinced that Eve was right in thinking that eating the fruit would be beneficial. However, they soon fall asleep, having terrible nightmares, and after they awake, they experience guilt and shame for the first time. Realizing that they have committed a terrible act against God, they engage in mutual recrimination.
However, Eve's pleas to Adam reconcile them somewhat. Her encouragement enables Adam and Eve both to approach God, to "bow and sue for grace with suppliant knee", and to receive grace from God. Adam is shown a vision by the angel Michael, in which Adam witnesses everything that will happen to mankind until the Great Flood. Since Adam is very upset by this vision of humankind's future, Michael also tells him about humankind's potential redemption from original sin through Jesus Christ (whom Michael calls "King Messiah").
Adam and Eve are then cast out of Eden, and Michael says that Adam may find "a paradise within thee, happier far". Adam and Eve also now have a more distant relationship with God, who is omnipresent, but invisible (unlike the previous tangible Father in the Garden of Eden).


Satan: Satan is the first major character introduced in the poem. Formerly the most beautiful of all angels in Heaven, he's a tragic figure best described by the now-famous quote "Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven". He is introduced to Hell after he leads a failed rebellion to wrestle control of Heaven from God. Satan's desire to rebel against his creator stems from his unwillingness to be subjugated by God and his Son, falsely claiming that angels are "self-begot, self-raised",[4] thereby denying God's authority over them as their creator.
Satan is deeply arrogant, albeit powerful and charismatic. Satan's persuasive powers are evident throughout the book; not only is he cunning and deceptive, but he also is able to rally the demons to continue in the rebellion after their agonizing defeat in the Angelic War. He argues that God rules as a tyrant and that all the angels ought to rule as gods.[5]
Satan is comparable in many ways to the tragic heroes of classic Greek literature but, Satan's hubris far surpasses those of previous tragedies. Though at times he plays the narrative role of an anti-hero, he is still commonly understood to be the antagonist of the epic. However, the true nature of his role in the poem has been the subject of much notoriety and scholarly debate. While some scholars, like the critic and writer C.S. Lewis, interpret the poem as a genuine Christian morality tale, other critics, like William Empson, view it as a more ambiguous work, and Milton's complex characterization of Satan plays a big part in that perceived ambiguity.[6]
Adam: Adam is the first human created by God. Considered as God's prized creation, Adam along with his wife rule over all the creatures of the world and reside in the Garden of Eden. He is more intelligent and curious than Eve. He is also stronger in his moral devotion to God than his wife. From the questions he asks the angel Raphael, it is clear that Adam has a deep, intellectual curiosity about his existence, God, Heaven and the nature of the world. He is completely infatuated with Eve, which while pure in and of itself, eventually contributes to his reasons for joining Eve in disobedience to God.
As opposed to the Biblical Adam, this version of Adam is given a glimpse of the future of mankind (this includes a synopsis of stories from The Old and New Testaments), by the angel Michael, before he has to leave Paradise.


William Blake, The Temptation and Fall of Eve, 1808 (illustration of Milton's Paradise Lost)
Eve: Eve is the second human created by God, taken from one of Adam's ribs and shaped into a female form of Adam. In her innocence, she is the model of a good wife, graceful and happily submissive to Adam. Eve is extremely beautiful and thoroughly in love with Adam. She consents to Adam leading her away from her reflection when they first meet, trusting Adam’s authority in their relationship. One day, she convinces Adam that it would be good for them to split up and work different parts of the Garden. In her solitude, she is tempted by Satan to sin against God. Adam shortly follows along with her.
The Son of God: The Son of God is Jesus Christ, though he is never named explicitly, since he has not yet entered human form. The Son of God shares total union with God, and indeed is understood to be a person of the Godhead, along with the Father and the Spirit. He is the ultimate hero of the epic and infinitely powerful, singlehandedly defeating Satan and his followers when they violently rebel against God and driving them into Hell. The Son of God tells Adam & Eve of God's judgment after their sin. However, he sacrificially volunteers to eventually journey to the World, become a man himself, and redeem the Fall of Man through his own death and resurrection. In the final scene, a vision of Salvation through the Son of God is revealed to Adam by Michael. Still, the name, Jesus of Nazareth, and the details of Jesus' story are not depicted in the poem.[7]
God the Father: God the Father is the creator of Heaven, Hell, the World, and of everyone and everything there is. He desires glory and praise from all his creation. He is an all-powerful, all-knowing, infinitely good being who cannot be overthrown by even the great army of angels Satan incites against him. The poem begins with the purpose of justifying the ways of God to men, so God often converses with the Son of God concerning his plans and reveals his motives regarding his actions. The poem portrays God’s process of creation in the way that Milton believed it was done, that God created Heaven, Earth, Hell, and all the creatures that inhabit these separate planes from part of Himself, not out of nothing.[8] Thus, according to Milton, the ultimate authority of God derives from his being the "author" of creation. Satan tries to justify his rebellion by denying this aspect of God and claiming self-creation, but he admits to himself this is not the case, and that God "deserved no such return/ From me, whom He created what I was."[9][10]
Raphael: Raphael is an angel who is sent by God to warn Adam about Satan's infiltration of Eden and to warn him that Satan is going to try to curse Adam and Eve. He also has a lengthy discussion with the curious Adam regarding creation and events which transpired in Heaven.
Michael: Michael is a mighty archangel who fought for God in the Angelic War. In the first battle, he wounds Satan terribly with a powerful sword that God designed to even cut through the substance of angels. After Adam and Eve disobey God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge, God sends the angel Michael to visit Adam and Eve. His duty is to escort Adam and Eve out of Paradise. But before this happens, Michael shows Adam visions of the future which cover an outline of the Bible, from the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis, up through the story of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.


Composition

In his introduction to the Penguin edition of Paradise Lost, the Milton scholar John Leonard notes, "John Milton was nearly sixty when he published Paradise Lost in 1667. [The writer] John Aubrey (1626-97) tell us that the poem was begun in about 1658 and finished in about 1663. But parts were almost certainly written earlier, and its roots lie in Milton's earliest youth."[11] Leonard speculates that the English Civil War interrupted Milton's earliest attempts to start his "epic [poem] that would encompass all space and time."
Leonard also notes that Milton "did not at first plan to write a biblical epic." Since epics were typically written about heroic kings and queens (and with pagan gods), Milton originally envisioned his epic to be based on a legendary English or Saxon king like the legend of King Arthur.
Having gone totally blind in 1652, Milton wrote Paradise Lost entirely through dictation with the help of amanuenses and friends. He also wrote the epic poem while he was often ill, suffering from gout, and despite the fact that he was suffering emotionally after the early death of his second wife, Katherine Woodcock, in 1658, and the death of their infant daughter (though Milton remarried soon after in 1663)

Themes


Marriage

Milton first presents Adam and Eve in Book IV with impartiality. The relationship between Adam and Eve is one of "mutual dependence, not a relation of domination or hierarchy." While the author does place Adam above Eve in regard to his intellectual knowledge, and in turn his relation to God, he also grants Eve the benefit of knowledge through experience. Hermine Van Nuis clarifies that although there is a sense of stringency associated with the specified roles of the male and the female, each unreservedly accepts the designated role because it is viewed as an asset.[13] Instead of believing that these roles are forced upon them, each uses the obligatory requirement as a strength in their relationship with each other. These minor discrepancies reveal the author’s view on the importance of mutuality between a husband and a wife.
When examining the relationship between Adam and Eve, critics tend to accept an either Adam- or Eve-centered view in terms of hierarchy and importance to God. David Mikics argues, by contrast, these positions "overstate the independence of the characters' stances, and therefore miss the way in which Adam and Eve are entwined with each other".[14] Milton's true vision reflects one where the husband and wife (in this instance, Adam and Eve) depend on each other and only through each other’s differences are able to thrive
Although Milton does not directly mention divorce, critics posit theories on Milton's view of divorce based on inferences found within the poem. Other works by Milton suggest he viewed marriage as an entity separate from the church. Discussing Paradise Lost, Biberman entertains the idea that "marriage is a contract made by both the man and the woman". Based on this inference, Milton would believe that both man and woman would have equal access to divorce, as they do to marriage.
Feminist critics of Paradise Lost suggest that Eve is forbidden the knowledge of her own identity. Moments after her creation, before Eve is led to Adam, she becomes enraptured by an image reflected in the water (her own, unbeknownst to Eve). God urges Eve to look away from her own image, her beauty, which is also the object of Adam’s desire. Adam delights in both her beauty and submissive charms, yet Eve may never be permitted to gaze upon her individual form. Critic Julia M. Walker argues that because Eve “neither recognizes nor names herself ... she can know herself only in relation to Adam.” “Eve’s sense of self becomes important in its absence ... [she] is never allowed to know what she is supposed to see.” Eve therefore knows not what she is, only what she is not: male. Starting in Book IV, Eve learns that Adam, the male form, is superior and “How beauty is excelled by manly grace/ And wisdom which alone is truly fair.” Led by his gentle hand, she yields, a woman without individual purpose, destined to fall by “free will.”

Idolatry
Milton's 17th century contemporaries by and large criticized Milton’s ideas and considered him as a radical, mostly because of his well-known Protestant views on politics and religion. One of Milton's greatest and most controversial arguments centers on his concept of what is idolatrous; this topic is deeply embedded in Paradise Lost.
Milton's first criticism of idolatry focuses on the practice of constructing temples and other buildings to serve as places of worship. In Book XI of Paradise Lost, Adam tries to atone for his sins by offering to build altars to worship God. In response, the angel Michael explains that Adam does not need to build physical objects to experience the presence of God.[20] Joseph Lyle points to this example, explaining "When Milton objects to architecture, it is not a quality inherent in buildings themselves he finds offensive, but rather their tendency to act as convenient loci to which idolatry, over time, will inevitably adhere."[21] Even if the idea is pure in nature, Milton still believes that it will unavoidably lead to idolatry simply because of the nature of humans. Instead of placing their thoughts and beliefs into God, as they should, humans tend to turn to erected objects and falsely invest their faith. While Adam attempts to build an altar to God, critics note Eve is similarly guilty of idolatry, but in a different manner. Harding believes Eve's narcissism and obsession with herself constitutes idolatry.[22] Specifically, Harding claims that "... under the serpent’s influence, Eve’s idolatry and self-deification foreshadow the errors into which her 'Sons' will stray."[22] Much like Adam, Eve falsely places her faith into herself, the Tree of Knowledge, and to some extent, the Serpent, all of which do not compare to the ideal nature of God.
Furthermore, Milton makes his views on idolatry more explicit with the creation of Pandemonium and the exemplary allusion to Solomon’s temple. In the beginning of Paradise Lost, as well as throughout the poem, there are several references to the rise and eventual fall of Solomon's temple. Critics elucidate that "Solomon’s temple provides an explicit demonstration of how an artifact moves from its genesis in devotional practice to an idolatrous end."[23] This example, out of the many presented, conveys Milton’s views on the dangers of idolatry distinctly. Even if one builds a structure in the name of God, even the best of intentions can become immoral. In addition, critics have drawn parallels between both Pandemonium and Saint Peter's Basilica,[citation needed] and the Pantheon. The majority of these similarities revolve around a structural likeness, but as Lyle explains, they play a greater role. By linking Saint Peter’s Basilica and the Pantheon to Pandemonium—an ideally false structure, the two famous buildings take on a false meaning.[24] This comparison best represents Milton's Protestant views, as it rejects both the purely Catholic perspective and the Pagan perspective.
In addition to rejecting Catholicism, Milton revolted against the idea of a monarch ruling by divine right. He saw the practice as idolatrous. Barbara Lewalski concludes that the theme of idolatry in Paradise Lost "is an exaggerated version of the idolatry Milton had long associated with the Stuart ideology of divine kingship".[25] In the opinion of Milton, any object, human or non-human, that receives special attention befitting of God, is considered idolatrous.


Interpretation and criticism



The Creation of Man, engraving from the 1688 edition, by John Baptist Medina
The writer and critic Samuel Johnson wrote that Paradise Lost shows off "[Milton's] peculiar power to astonish" and that "[Milton] seems to have been well acquainted with his own genius, and to know what it was that Nature had bestowed upon him more bountifully than upon others: the power of displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy, and aggravating the dreadful."
The editors of the Norton Anthology of English Literature write, "Paradise Lost is ultimately about the human condition, the Fall that caused 'all our woe,' and the promise and means of restoration. It is also about knowing and choosing, about free will." In addition to these philosophical concerns, they also note, "The great themes of Paradise Lost are intimately linked to the political questions at stake in the English Revolution(1640–1660) and Restoration, but the connection is by no means simple or straightforward.
Regarding the war in the poem between Heaven and Hell, the Milton scholar John Leonard writes:
Paradise Lost is, among other things, a poem about civil war. Satan raises 'impious war in Heav'n' (i 43) by leading a third of the angels in revolt against God. The term 'impious war'. . .implies that civil war is impious. But Milton applauded the English people for having the courage to depose and execute King Charles I. In his poem, however, he takes the side of 'Heav'n's awful Monarch' (iv 960). Critics have long wrestled with the question of why an antimonarchist and defender of regicide should have chosen a subject that obliged him to defend monarchical authority[28]
Leonard notes that some critics, like the noted Christian writer C.S. Lewis, argued that there was no contradiction at all since, from Lewis' point of view, "Milton believed that God was his 'natural superior' and that Charles Stuart was not." Others, like the literary critic William Empson argued that "Milton deserves credit for making God wicked [in the poem], since the God of Christianity is (for Empson) 'a wicked God.'" Leonard places Empson's interpretation "in the [Romantic interpretive] tradition of Blake and Shelley."[29] As the poet William Blake famously wrote, "The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devils party without knowing it."[30] And this quote succinctly represents the way in which the 18th and 19th century English Romantic poets viewed Milton. However, Empson's view is more complex. Leonard points out that "Empson never denies that Satan's plan is wicked. What he does deny is that God is innocent of its wickedness: 'Milton steadily drives home that the inmost counsel of God was the Fortunate Fall of man; however wicked Satan's plan may be, it is God's plan too [since God in Paradise Lost is depicted as being both omniscient and omnipotent].'"[31]
Although Leonard calls Empson's view "a powerful argument," he notes that this interpretation was challenged by Dennis Danielson in his book Milton's Good God (1982).

Iconography



In Sin, Death, and the Devil (1792), James Gillray caricatured the political battle between Pitt and Thurlow as a scene from Paradise Lost. Pitt is Death and Thurlow Satan, with Queen Charlotte as Sin in the middle.
The first illustrations to accompany the text of Paradise Lost were added to the fourth edition of 1688, with one engraving prefacing each book, of which up to eight of the twelve were by Sir John Baptist Medina, one by Bernard Lens II, and perhaps up to four (including Books I and XII, perhaps the most memorable) by another hand.[32]
Some of the most notable illustrators of Paradise Lost included William Blake, Gustave Doré and Henry Fuseli (1799); however, the epic's illustrators also include, among others, John Martin, Edward Burney, Richard Westall, Francis Hayman.
Outside of book illustrations, the epic has also inspired other visual works by well-known painters like Salvador Dalí who executed a set of ten colour engravings in 1974. Milton's achievement in writing Paradise Lost without his sight inspired a loosely biographical work in a painting by Eugène Delacroix entitled "Milton Dictating Paradise Lost to his Daughters"


Paradise Lost in popular culture
John Milton's poetic style
Paradise Regained, a shorter, later poem by Milton about the Temptation of Christ by Satan
[edit]Footnotes

^ "Paradise Lost: Introduction" . Dartmouth College. Retrieved 26 March 2010.
^ Milton 1674, 1:26.
^ English literature: seminars. Milton's Paradise Lost and its contents
^ Milton 1674, 5:860.
^ Milton 1674, 5:794-802.
^ Leonard, John. "Introduction." Paradise Lost. New York: Penguin, 2000.
^ Marshall 1961, p. 17.
^ Lehnhof 2008, p. 15.
^ Milton 1674, 4:42-43.
^ Lehnhof 2008, p. 24.
^ Leonard, John. "Introduction." Paradise Lost. New York: Penguin, 2000.
^ Abrahm, M.H., Stephen Greenblatt, Eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: Norton, 2000.
^ Van Nuis 2000, p. 50.
^ a b Mikics 2004, p. 22.
^ Biberman 1999, p. 137.
^ Milton 1674, 4:447–464.
^ Walker 1998, p. 166.
^ Walker 1998, p. 169.
^ Milton 1674, 4:488–489.
^ Milton 1674, Book 11.
^ Lyle 2000, p. 139.
^ a b Harding 2007, p. 163.
^ Lyle 2000, p. 140.
^ Lyle 2000, p. 147.
^ Lewalski 2003, p. 223.
^ Johnson, Samuel. Lives of the English Poets. New York: Octagon, 1967.
^ Abrahm, M.H., Stephen Greenblatt, Eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: Norton, 2000.
^ Leonard, John. "Introduction." Paradise Lost. New York: Penguin, 2000.
^ Leonard, John. "Introduction." Paradise Lost. New York: Penguin, 2000.
^ Blake, William. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. 1793.
^ Leonard, John. "Introduction." Paradise Lost. New York: Penguin, 2000.
^ Illustrating Paradise Lost from Christ's College, Cambridge, has all twelve on line. See Medina's article for more on the authorship, and all the illustrations, which are also in Commons.
^ Delcroix painting of Milton . Retrieved on 2009-01-23.
^ "Bradley Cooper to play Satan in 'Paradise Lost'" . Retrieved November 08, 2011.
^ "Benjamin Walker to Play the Archangel Michael in ‘Paradise Lost’" . Retrieved November 08, 2011.
^ "Djimon Hounsou joins Bradley Cooper in 'Paradise Lost'" . Retrieved November 08, 2011.
^ "Casey Affleck Joins Paradise Lost" . Retrieved November 08, 2011.
^ "Paradise Lost to be filmed in Sydney" . Retrieved November 10, 2011.
^ http://www.deadline.com/2011/12/legendary-postpones-january-start-of-paradise-lost/
^ http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=32673
[edit]References

Anderson, G (January 2000), "The Fall of Satan in the Thought of St. Ephrem and John Milton" , Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 3 (1)
Biberman, M (1999, January), "Milton, Marriage, and a Woman's Right to Divorce", SEL Studies in English Literature 39 (1): 131–153, doi:10.2307/1556309 , JSTOR 1556309
Black, J, ed. (March 2007), "Paradise Lost", The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, A (Concise ed.), Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, pp. 998–1061, ISBN 978-1551118680, OCLC 75811389
Blake, W. (1793), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, London.
Blayney, B, ed. (1769), The King James Bible, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Bradford, R (1992, July), Paradise Lost (1 ed.), Philadelphia: Open University Press, ISBN 978-0335099825, OCLC 25050319
Butler, G (1998, February), "Giants and Fallen Angels in Dante and Milton: The Commedia and the Gigantomachy in Paradise Lost", Modern Philosophy 95 (3): 352–363
Carter, R. and McRae, J. (2001). The Routledge History of Literature in English: Britain and Ireland. 2 ed. Oxon: Routledge.
Carey, J; Fowler, A (1971), The Poems of John Milton, London
Doerksen, D (1997, December), "Let There Be Peace': Eve as Redemptive Peacemaker in Paradise Lost, Book X", Milton Quarterly 32 (4): 124–130, doi:10.1111/j.1094-348X.1997.tb00499.x
Eliot, T.S. (1957), On Poetry and Poets, London: Faber and Faber
Eliot, T. S. (1932), "Dante", Selected Essays, New York: Faber and Faber, OCLC 70714546 .
Empson, W (1965), Milton's God (Revised ed.), London
John Milton: A Short Introduction (2002 ed., paperback by Roy C. Flannagan, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 978-0-631-22620-8; 2008 ed., ebook by Roy Flannagan, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 978-0-470-69287-5)
Forsyth, N (2003), The Satanic Epic, Princeton: Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691113395
Frye, N (1965), The Return of Eden: Five Essays on Milton's Epics, Toronto: University of Toronto Press
Harding, P (January 2007), "Milton’s Serpent and the Pagan Birth of Error", SEL Studies in English Literature 47 (1): 161–177, doi:10.1353/sel.2007.0003
Hill, G (1905), Lynch, Jack, ed., Samuel Johnson: The Lives of the English Poets, 3 vols. , Oxford: Clarendon, OCLC 69137084
Kermode, F, ed. (1960), The Living Milton: Essays by Various Hands , London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN 0710016662, OCLC 17518893
Kerrigan, W, ed. (2007), The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton, New York: Random House, ISBN 978-0679642534, OCLC 81940956
Lewalski, B. (January 2003), "Milton and Idolatry", SEL Studies in English Literature 43 (1): 213–232, doi:10.1353/sel.2003.0008
Lewis, C.S. (1942), A Preface to Paradise Lost, London: Oxford University Press, OCLC 822692
Lyle, J (January 2000), "Architecture and Idolatry in Paradise Lost", SEL Studies in English Literature 40 (1): 139–155, doi:10.2307/1556158 , JSTOR 1556158
Marshall, W. H. (1961, January), "Paradise Lost: Felix Culpa and the Problem of Structure", Modern Language Notes 76 (1): 15–20, doi:10.2307/3040476 , JSTOR 3040476
Mikics, D (2004), "Miltonic Marriage and the Challenge to History in Paradise Lost", Texas Studies in Literature and Language 46 (1): 20–48, doi:10.1353/tsl.2004.0005
Miller, T.C., ed. (1997), The Critical Response to John Milton's "Paradise Lost", Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0313289262, OCLC 35762631
Milton, J (1674), Paradise Lost (2nd ed.), London: S. Simmons
Rajan, B (1947), Paradise Lost and the Seventeenth Century Reader, London: Chatto & Windus, OCLC 62931344
Ricks, C.B. (1963), Milton's Grand Style, Oxford: Clarendon Press, OCLC 254429
Stone, J.W. (1997, May), ""Man's effeminate s(lack)ness:" Androgyny and the Divided Unity of Adam and Eve", Milton Quarterly 31 (2): 33–42, doi:10.1111/j.1094-348X.1997.tb00491.x
Van Nuis, H (May 2000), "Animated Eve Confronting Her Animus: A Jungian Approach to the Division of Labor Debate in Paradise Lost", Milton Quarterly 34 (2): 48–56, doi:10.1111/j.1094-348X.2000.tb00619.x
Walker, Julia M. (1998), Medusa's Mirrors: Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and the Metamorphosis of the Female Self, University of Delaware Press, ISBN 978-0874136258
Wheat, L (2008), Philip Pullman's His dark materials--a multiple allegory : attacking religious superstition in The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe and Paradise lost, Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, ISBN 978-1591025894, OCLC 152580912
[edit]Further reading

Patrides, C. A. Approaches to Paradise Lost: The York Tercentenary Lectures (University of Toronto, 1968) ISBN 0802015778

BOOK 1

THE ARGUMENT

This first Book proposes, first in brief, the whole Subject, Mans disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein he was plac't: Then touches the prime cause of his fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent; who revolting from God, and drawing to his side many Legions of Angels, was by the command of God driven out of Heaven with all his Crew into the great Deep. Which action past over, the Poem hasts into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell, describ'd here, not in the Center (for Heaven and Earth may be suppos'd as yet not made, certainly not yet accurst) but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest call'd Chaos: Here Satan with his Angels lying on the burning Lake, thunder-struck and astonisht, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion, calls up him who next in Order and Dignity lay by him; they confer of thir miserable fall. Satan awakens all his Legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded; They rise, thir Numbers, array of Battel, thir chief Leaders nam'd, according to the Idols known afterwards in Canaan and the Countries adjoyning. To these Satan directs his Speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them lastly of a new World and new kind of Creature to be created, according to an ancient Prophesie or report in Heaven; for that Angels were long before this visible Creation, was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this Prophesie, and what to determin thereon he refers to a full Councel. What his Associates thence attempt. Pandemonium the Palace of Satan rises, suddenly built out of the Deep: The infernal Peers there sit in Councel.

OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, [ 5 ]
Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill [ 10 ]
Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow'd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian Mount, while it pursues [ 15 ]
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.
And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all Temples th' upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread [ 20 ]
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark
Illumin, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence, [ 25 ]
And justifie the wayes of God to men.
Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view
Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause
Mov'd our Grand Parents in that happy State,
Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off [ 30 ]
From thir Creator, and transgress his Will
For one restraint, Lords of the World besides?
Who first seduc'd them to that foul revolt?
Th' infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile
Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv'd [ 35 ]
The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride
Had cast him out from Heav'n, with all his Host
Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
He trusted to have equal'd the most High, [ 40 ]
If he oppos'd; and with ambitious aim
Against the Throne and Monarchy of God
Rais'd impious War in Heav'n and Battel proud
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurld headlong flaming from th' Ethereal Skie [ 45 ]
With hideous ruine and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
Who durst defie th' Omnipotent to Arms.
Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night [ 50 ]
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe
Confounded though immortal: But his doom
Reserv'd him to more wrath; for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain [ 55 ]
Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes
That witness'd huge affliction and dismay
Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:
At once as far as Angels kenn he views
The dismal Situation waste and wilde, [ 60 ]
A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great Furnace flam'd, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Serv'd onely to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace [ 65 ]
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all; but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed
With ever-burning Sulphur unconsum'd:
Such place Eternal Justice had prepar'd [ 70 ]
For those rebellious, here thir Prison ordain'd
In utter darkness, and thir portion set
As far remov'd from God and light of Heav'n
As from the Center thrice to th' utmost Pole.
O how unlike the place from whence they fell! [ 75 ]
There the companions of his fall, o'rewhelm'd
With Floods and Whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
He soon discerns, and weltring by his side
One next himself in power, and next in crime,
Long after known in Palestine, and nam'd [ 80 ]
Beelzebub. To whom th' Arch-Enemy,
And thence in Heav'n call'd Satan, with bold words
Breaking the horrid silence thus began.
If thou beest he; But O how fall'n! how chang'd
From him, who in the happy Realms of Light [ 85 ]
Cloth'd with transcendent brightness didst out-shine
Myriads though bright: If he Whom mutual league,
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
And hazard in the Glorious Enterprize,
Joynd with me once, now misery hath joynd [ 90 ]
In equal ruin: into what Pit thou seest
From what highth fall'n, so much the stronger prov'd
He with his Thunder: and till then who knew
The force of those dire Arms? yet not for those,
Nor what the Potent Victor in his rage [ 95 ]
Can else inflict, do I repent or change,
Though chang'd in outward lustre; that fixt mind
And high disdain, from sence of injur'd merit,
That with the mightiest rais'd me to contend,
And to the fierce contention brought along [ 100 ]
Innumerable force of Spirits arm'd
That durst dislike his reign, and me preferring,
His utmost power with adverse power oppos'd
In dubious Battel on the Plains of Heav'n,
And shook his throne. What though the field be lost? [ 105 ]
All is not lost; the unconquerable Will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome?
That Glory never shall his wrath or might [ 110 ]
Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace
With suppliant knee, and deifie his power,
Who from the terrour of this Arm so late
Doubted his Empire, that were low indeed,
That were an ignominy and shame beneath [ 115 ]
This downfall; since by Fate the strength of Gods
And this Empyreal substance cannot fail,
Since through experience of this great event
In Arms not worse, in foresight much advanc't,
We may with more successful hope resolve [ 120 ]
To wage by force or guile eternal Warr
Irreconcileable, to our grand Foe,
Who now triumphs, and in th' excess of joy
Sole reigning holds the Tyranny of Heav'n.
So spake th' Apostate Angel, though in pain, [ 125 ]
Vaunting aloud, but rackt with deep despare:
And him thus answer'd soon his bold Compeer.
O Prince, O Chief of many Throned Powers,
That led th' imbattelld Seraphim to Warr
Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds [ 130 ]
Fearless, endanger'd Heav'ns perpetual King;
And put to proof his high Supremacy,
Whether upheld by strength, or Chance, or Fate,
Too well I see and rue the dire event,
That with sad overthrow and foul defeat [ 135 ]
Hath lost us Heav'n, and all this mighty Host
In horrible destruction laid thus low,
As far as Gods and Heav'nly Essences
Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains
Invincible, and vigour soon returns, [ 140 ]
Though all our Glory extinct, and happy state
Here swallow'd up in endless misery.
But what if he our Conquerour, (whom I now
Of force believe Almighty, since no less
Then such could hav orepow'rd such force as ours) [ 145 ]
Have left us this our spirit and strength intire
Strongly to suffer and support our pains,
That we may so suffice his vengeful ire,
Or do him mightier service as his thralls
By right of Warr, what e're his business be [ 150 ]
Here in the heart of Hell to work in Fire,
Or do his Errands in the gloomy Deep;
What can it then avail though yet we feel
Strength undiminisht, or eternal being
To undergo eternal punishment? [ 155 ]
Whereto with speedy words th' Arch-fiend reply'd.
Fall'n Cherube, to be weak is miserable
Doing or Suffering: but of this be sure,
To do ought good never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight, [ 160 ]
As being the contrary to his high will
Whom we resist. If then his Providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil; [ 165 ]
Which oft times may succeed, so as perhaps
Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from thir destind aim.
But see the angry Victor hath recall'd
His Ministers of vengeance and pursuit [ 170 ]
Back to the Gates of Heav'n: The Sulphurous Hail
Shot after us in storm, oreblown hath laid
The fiery Surge, that from the Precipice
Of Heav'n receiv'd us falling, and the Thunder,
Wing'd with red Lightning and impetuous rage, [ 175 ]
Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now
To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep.
Let us not slip th' occasion, whether scorn,
Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe.
Seest thou yon dreary Plain, forlorn and wilde, [ 180 ]
The seat of desolation, voyd of light,
Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend
From off the tossing of these fiery waves,
There rest, if any rest can harbour there, [ 185 ]
And reassembling our afflicted Powers,
Consult how we may henceforth most offend
Our Enemy, our own loss how repair,
How overcome this dire Calamity,
What reinforcement we may gain from Hope, [ 190 ]
If not what resolution from despare.
Thus Satan talking to his neerest Mate
With Head up-lift above the wave, and Eyes
That sparkling blaz'd, his other Parts besides
Prone on the Flood, extended long and large [ 195 ]
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge
As whom the Fables name of monstrous size,
Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr'd on Jove,
Briareos or Typhon, whom the Den
By ancient Tarsus held, or that Sea-beast [ 200 ]
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim th' Ocean stream:
Him haply slumbring on the Norway foam
The Pilot of some small night-founder'd Skiff,
Deeming some Island, oft, as Sea-men tell, [ 205 ]
With fixed Anchor in his skaly rind
Moors by his side under the Lee, while Night
Invests the Sea, and wished Morn delayes:
So stretcht out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay
Chain'd on the burning Lake, nor ever thence [ 210 ]
Had ris'n or heav'd his head, but that the will
And high permission of all-ruling Heaven
Left him at large to his own dark designs,
That with reiterated crimes he might
Heap on himself damnation, while he sought [ 215 ]
Evil to others, and enrag'd might see
How all his malice serv'd but to bring forth
Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shewn
On Man by him seduc't, but on himself
Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance pour'd. [ 220 ]
Forthwith upright he rears from off the Pool
His mighty Stature; on each hand the flames
Drivn backward slope thir pointing spires, and rowld
In billows, leave i'th' midst a horrid Vale.
Then with expanded wings he stears his flight [ 225 ]
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky Air
That felt unusual weight, till on dry Land
He lights, if it were Land that ever burn'd
With solid, as the Lake with liquid fire;
And such appear'd in hue, as when the force [ 230 ]
Of subterranean wind transports a Hill
Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter'd side
Of thundring Ætna, whose combustible
And fewel'd entrals thence conceiving Fire,
Sublim'd with Mineral fury, aid the Winds, [ 235 ]
And leave a singed bottom all involv'd
With stench and smoak: Such resting found the sole
Of unblest feet. Him followed his next Mate,
Both glorying to have scap't the Stygian flood
As Gods, and by thir own recover'd strength, [ 240 ]
Not by the sufferance of supernal Power.
Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,
Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat
That we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he [ 245 ]
Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid
What shall be right: fardest from him is best
Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream
Above his equals. Farewel happy Fields
Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrours, hail [ 250 ]
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be chang'd by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. [ 255 ]
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then he
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: [ 260 ]
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th' associates and copartners of our loss [ 265 ]
Lye thus astonisht on th' oblivious Pool,
And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy Mansion, or once more
With rallied Arms to try what may be yet
Regaind in Heav'n, or what more lost in Hell? [ 270 ]
So Satan spake, and him Beelzebub
Thus answer'd. Leader of those Armies bright,
Which but th' Onmipotent none could have foyld,
If once they hear that voyce, thir liveliest pledge
Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft [ 275 ]
In worst extreams, and on the perilous edge
Of battel when it rag'd, in all assaults
Thir surest signal, they will soon resume
New courage and revive, though now they lye
Groveling and prostrate on yon Lake of Fire, [ 280 ]
As we erewhile, astounded and amaz'd,
No wonder, fall'n such a pernicious highth.
He scarce had ceas't when the superiour Fiend
Was moving toward the shoar; his ponderous shield
Ethereal temper, massy, large and round, [ 285 ]
Behind him cast; the broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the Moon, whose Orb
Through Optic Glass the Tuscan Artist views
At Ev'ning from the top of Fesole,
Or in Valdarno, to descry new Lands, [ 290 ]
Rivers or Mountains in her spotty Globe.
His Spear, to equal which the tallest Pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the Mast
Of some great Ammiral, were but a wand,
He walkt with to support uneasie steps [ 295 ]
Over the burning Marle, not like those steps
On Heavens Azure, and the torrid Clime
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with Fire;
Nathless he so endur'd, till on the Beach
Of that inflamed Sea, he stood and call'd [ 300 ]
His Legions, Angel Forms, who lay intrans't
Thick as Autumnal Leaves that strow the Brooks
In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades
High overarch't imbowr; or scatterd sedge
Afloat, when with fierce Winds Orion arm'd [ 305 ]
Hath vext the Red-Sea Coast, whose waves orethrew
Busiris and his Memphian Chivalry,
While with perfidious hatred they pursu'd
The Sojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the safe shore thir floating Carkases [ 310 ]
And broken Chariot Wheels, so thick bestrown
Abject and lost lay these, covering the Flood,
Under amazement of thir hideous change.
He call'd so loud, that all the hollow Deep
Of Hell resounded. Princes, Potentates, [ 315 ]
Warriers, the Flowr of Heav'n, once yours, now lost,
If such astonishment as this can sieze
Eternal spirits; or have ye chos'n this place
After the toyl of Battel to repose
Your wearied vertue, for the ease you find [ 320 ]
To slumber here, as in the Vales of Heav'n?
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn
To adore the Conquerour? who now beholds
Cherube and Seraph rowling in the Flood
With scatter'd Arms and Ensigns, till anon [ 325 ]
His swift pursuers from Heav'n Gates discern
Th' advantage, and descending tread us down
Thus drooping, or with linked Thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this Gulfe.
Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n. [ 330 ]
They heard, and were abasht, and up they sprung
Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch
On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread,
Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake.
Nor did they not perceave the evil plight [ 335 ]
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;
Yet to thir Generals Voyce they soon obeyd
Innumerable. As when the potent Rod
Of Amrams Son in Egypts evill day
Wav'd round the Coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud [ 340 ]
Of Locusts, warping on the Eastern Wind,
That ore the Realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like Night, and darken'd all the Land of Nile:
So numberless were those bad Angels seen
Hovering on wing under the Cope of Hell [ 345 ]
'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding Fires;
Till, as a signal giv'n, th' uplifted Spear
Of thir great Sultan waving to direct
Thir course, in even ballance down they light
On the firm brimstone, and fill all the Plain; [ 350 ]
A multitude, like which the populous North
Pour'd never from her frozen loyns, to pass
Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous Sons
Came like a Deluge on the South, and spread
Beneath Gibralter to the Lybian sands. [ 355 ]
Forthwith from every Squadron and each Band
The Heads and Leaders thither hast where stood
Thir great Commander; Godlike shapes and forms
Excelling human, Princely Dignities,
And Powers that earst in Heaven sat on Thrones; [ 360 ]
Though of thir Names in heav'nly Records now
Be no memorial blotted out and ras'd
By thir Rebellion, from the Books of Life.
Nor had they yet among the Sons of Eve
Got them new Names, till wandring ore the Earth, [ 365 ]
Through Gods high sufferance for the tryal of man,
By falsities and lyes the greatest part
Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake
God thir Creator, and th' invisible
Glory of him that made them, to transform [ 370 ]
Oft to the Image of a Brute, adorn'd
With gay Religions full of Pomp and Gold,
And Devils to adore for Deities:
Then were they known to men by various Names,
And various Idols through the Heathen World. [ 375 ]
Say, Muse, thir Names then known, who first, who last,
Rous'd from the slumber, on that fiery Couch,
At thir great Emperors call, as next in worth
Came singly where he stood on the bare strand,
While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof? [ 380 ]
The chief were those who from the Pit of Hell
Roaming to seek thir prey on earth, durst fix
Thir Seats long after next the Seat of God,
Thir Altars by his Altar, Gods ador'd
Among the Nations round, and durst abide [ 385 ]
Jehovah thundring out of Sion, thron'd
Between the Cherubim; yea, often plac'd
Within his Sanctuary it self thir Shrines,
Abominations; and with cursed things
His holy Rites, and solemn Feasts profan'd, [ 390 ]
And with thir darkness durst affront his light.
First Moloch, horrid King besmear'd with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,
Though for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud
Thir childrens cries unheard, that past through fire [ 395 ]
To his grim Idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipt in Rabba and her watry Plain,
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart [ 400 ]
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His Temple right against the Temple of God
On that opprobrious Hill, and made his Grove
The pleasant Vally of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna call'd, the Type of Hell. [ 405 ]
Next Chemos, th' obscene dread of Moabs Sons,
From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild
Of Southmost Abarim; in Hesebon
And Horonaim, Seons Realm, beyond
The flowry Dale of Sibma clad with Vines, [ 410 ]
And Eleale to th' Asphaltick Pool.
Peor his other Name, when he entic'd
Israel in Sittim on thir march from Nile
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
Yet thence his lustful Orgies he enlarg'd [ 415 ]
Even to that Hill of scandal, by the Grove
Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate;
Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell.
With these came they, who from the bordring flood
Of old Euphrates to the Brook that parts [ 420 ]
Egypt from Syrian ground, had general Names
Of Baalim and Ashtaroth, those male,
These Feminine. For Spirits when they please
Can either Sex assume, or both; so soft
And uncompounded is thir Essence pure, [ 425 ]
Not ti'd or manacl'd with joynt or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose
Dilated or condens't, bright or obscure,
Can execute thir aerie purposes, [ 430 ]
And works of love or enmity fulfill.
For those the Race of Israel oft forsook
Thir living strength, and unfrequented left
His righteous Altar, bowing lowly down
To bestial Gods; for which thir heads as low [ 435 ]
Bow'd down in Battel, sunk before the Spear
Of despicable foes. With these in troop
Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd
Astarte, Queen of Heav'n, with crescent Horns;
To whose bright Image nightly by the Moon [ 440 ]
Sidonian Virgins paid thir Vows and Songs,
In Sion also not unsung, where stood
Her Temple on th' offensive Mountain, built
By that uxorious King, whose heart though large,
Beguil'd by fair Idolatresses, fell [ 445 ]
To Idols foul. Thammuz came next behind,
Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur'd
The Syrian Damsels to lament his fate
In amorous dittyes all a Summers day,
While smooth Adonis from his native Rock [ 450 ]
Ran purple to the Sea, suppos'd with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the Love-tale
Infected Sions daughters with like heat,
Whose wanton passions in the sacred Porch
Ezekiel saw, when by the Vision led [ 455 ]
His eye survay'd the dark Idolatries
Of alienated Judah. Next came one
Who mourn'd in earnest, when the Captive Ark
Maim'd his brute Image, head and hands lopt off
In his own Temple, on the grunsel edge, [ 460 ]
Where he fell flat, and sham'd his Worshipers:
Dagon his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man
And downward Fish: yet had his Temple high
Rear'd in Azotus, dreaded through the Coast
Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon [ 465 ]
And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds.
Him follow'd Rimmon, whose delightful Seat
Was fair Damascus, on the fertil Banks
Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.
He also against the house of God was bold: [ 470 ]
A Leper once he lost and gain'd a King,
Ahaz his sottish Conquerour, whom he drew
Gods Altar to disparage and displace
For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn
His odious off'rings, and adore the Gods [ 475 ]
Whom he had vanquisht. After these appear'd
A crew who under Names of old Renown,
Osiris, Isis, Orus and their Train
With monstrous shapes and sorceries abus'd
Fanatic Egypt and her Priests, to seek [ 480 ]
Thir wandring Gods disguis'd in brutish forms
Rather then human. Nor did Israel scape
Th' infection when thir borrow'd Gold compos'd
The Calf in Oreb: and the Rebel King
Doubl'd that sin in Bethel and in Dan, [ 485 ]
Lik'ning his Maker to the Grazed Ox,
Jehovah, who in one Night when he pass'd
From Egypt marching, equal'd with one stroke
Both her first born and all her bleating Gods.
Belial came last, then whom a Spirit more lewd [ 490 ]
Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love
Vice for it self: To him no Temple stood
Or Altar smoak'd; yet who more oft then hee
In Temples and at Altars, when the Priest
Turns Atheist, as did Ely's Sons, who fill'd [ 495 ]
With lust and violence the house of God.
In Courts and Palaces he also Reigns
And in luxurious Cities, where the noyse
Of riot ascends above thir loftiest Towrs,
And injury and outrage: And when Night [ 500 ]
Darkens the Streets, then wander forth the Sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
Witness the Streets of Sodom, and that night
In Gibeah, when the hospitable door
Expos'd a Matron to avoid worse rape. [ 505 ]
These were the prime in order and in might;
The rest were long to tell, though far renown'd,
Th' Ionian Gods, of Javans Issue held
Gods, yet confest later then Heav'n and Earth
Thir boasted Parents; Titan Heav'ns first born [ 510 ]
With his enormous brood, and birthright seis'd
By younger Saturn, he from mightier Jove
His own and Rhea's Son like measure found;
So Jove usurping reign'd: these first in Creet
And Ida known, thence on the Snowy top [ 515 ]
Of cold Olympus rul'd the middle Air
Thir highest Heav'n; or on the Delphian Cliff,
Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds
Of Doric Land; or who with Saturn old
Fled over Adria to th' Hesperian Fields, [ 520 ]
And ore the Celtic roam'd the utmost Isles.
All these and more came flocking; but with looks
Down cast and damp, yet such wherein appear'd
Obscure some glimps of joy, to have found thir chief
Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost [ 525 ]
In loss it self; which on his count'nance cast
Like doubtful hue: but he his wonted pride
Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore
Semblance of worth, not substance, gently rais'd
Thir fainting courage, and dispel'd thir fears. [ 530 ]
Then strait commands that at the warlike sound
Of Trumpets loud and Clarions be upreard
His mighty Standard; that proud honour claim'd
Azazel as his right, a Cherube tall:
Who forthwith from the glittering Staff unfurld [ 535 ]
Th' Imperial Ensign, which full high advanc't
Shon like a Meteor streaming to the Wind
With Gemms and Golden lustre rich imblaz'd,
Seraphic arms and Trophies: all the while
Sonorous mettal blowing Martial sounds: [ 540 ]
At which the universal Host upsent
A shout that tore Hells Concave, and beyond
Frighted the Reign of Chaos and old Night.
All in a moment through the gloom were seen
Ten thousand Banners rise into the Air [ 545 ]
With Orient Colours waving: with them rose
A Forest huge of Spears: and thronging Helms
Appear'd, and serried shields in thick array
Of depth immeasurable: Anon they move
In perfect Phalanx to the Dorian mood [ 550 ]
Of Flutes and soft Recorders; such as rais'd
To hight of noblest temper Hero's old
Arming to Battel, and in stead of rage
Deliberate valour breath'd, firm and unmov'd
With dread of death to flight or foul retreat, [ 555 ]
Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage
With solemn touches, troubl'd thoughts, and chase
Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain
From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they
Breathing united force with fixed thought [ 560 ]
Mov'd on in silence to soft Pipes that charm'd
Thir painful steps o're the burnt soyle; and now
Advanc't in view, they stand, a horrid Front
Of dreadful length and dazling Arms, in guise
Of Warriers old with order'd Spear and Shield, [ 565 ]
Awaiting what command thir mighty Chief
Had to impose: He through the armed Files
Darts his experienc't eye, and soon traverse
The whole Battalion views, thir order due,
Thir visages and stature as of Gods, [ 570 ]
Thir number last he summs. And now his heart
Distends with pride, and hardning in his strength
Glories: For never since created man,
Met such imbodied force, as nam'd with these
Could merit more then that small infantry [ 575 ]
Warr'd on by Cranes: though all the Giant brood
Of Phlegra with th' Heroic Race were joyn'd
That fought at Theb's and Ilium, on each side
Mixt with auxiliar Gods; and what resounds
In Fable or Romance of Uthers Son [ 580 ]
Begirt with British and Armoric Knights;
And all who since, Baptiz'd or Infidel
Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban,
Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond,
Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore [ 585 ]
When Charlemain with all his Peerage fell
By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond
Compare of mortal prowess, yet observ'd
Thir dread commander: he above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent [ 590 ]
Stood like a Towr; his form had yet not lost
All her Original brightness, nor appear'd
Less then Arch Angel ruind, and th' excess
Of Glory obscur'd: As when the Sun new ris'n
Looks through the Horizontal misty Air [ 595 ]
Shorn of his Beams, or from behind the Moon
In dim Eclips disastrous twilight sheds
On half the Nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes Monarchs. Dark'n'd so, yet shon
Above them all th' Arch Angel: but his face [ 600 ]
Deep scars of Thunder had intrencht, and care
Sat on his faded cheek, but under Browes
Of dauntless courage, and considerate Pride
Waiting revenge: cruel his eye, but cast
Signs of remorse and passion to behold [ 605 ]
The fellows of his crime, the followers rather
(Far other once beheld in bliss) condemn'd
For ever now to have thir lot in pain,
Millions of Spirits for his fault amerc't
Of Heav'n, and from Eternal Splendors flung [ 610 ]
For his revolt, yet faithfull how they stood,
Thir Glory witherd. As when Heavens Fire
Hath scath'd the Forrest Oaks, or Mountain Pines,
With singed top thir stately growth though bare
Stands on the blasted Heath. He now prepar'd [ 615 ]
To speak; whereat thir doubl'd Ranks they bend
From wing to wing, and half enclose him round
With all his Peers: attention held them mute.
Thrice he assayd, and thrice in spight of scorn,
Tears such as Angels weep, burst forth: at last [ 620 ]
Words interwove with sighs found out thir way.
O Myriads of immortal Spirits, O Powers
Matchless, but with th' Almighty, and that strife
Was not inglorious, though th' event was dire,
As this place testifies, and this dire change [ 625 ]
Hateful to utter: but what power of mind
Foreseeing or presaging, from the Depth
Of knowledge past or present, could have fear'd,
How such united force of Gods, how such
As stood like these, could ever know repulse? [ 630 ]
For who can yet beleeve, though after loss,
That all these puissant Legions, whose exile
Hath emptied Heav'n, shall fail to re-ascend
Self-rais'd, and repossess thir native seat?
For mee be witness all the Host of Heav'n, [ 635 ]
If counsels different, or danger shun'd
By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns
Monarch in Heav'n, till then as one secure
Sat on his Throne, upheld by old repute,
Consent or custome, and his Regal State [ 640 ]
Put forth at full, but still his strength conceal'd,
Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.
Henceforth his might we know, and know our own
So as not either to provoke, or dread
New warr, provok't; our better part remains [ 645 ]
To work in close design, by fraud or guile
What force effected not: that he no less
At length from us may find, who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.
Space may produce new Worlds; whereof so rife [ 650 ]
There went a fame in Heav'n that he ere long
Intended to create, and therein plant
A generation, whom his choice regard
Should favour equal to the Sons of Heaven:
Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps
Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere: [ 655 ]
For this Infernal Pit shall never hold
Cælestial Spirits in Bondage, nor th' Abyss
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
Full Counsel must mature: Peace is despaird, [ 660 ]
For who can think Submission? Warr then, Warr
Open or understood must be resolv'd.
He spake: and to confirm his words, out-flew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze [ 665 ]
Far round illumin'd hell: highly they rag'd
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms
Clash'd on thir sounding Shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heav'n.
There stood a Hill not far whose griesly top [ 670 ]
Belch'd fire and rowling smoak; the rest entire
Shon with a glossie scurff, undoubted sign
That in his womb was hid metallic Ore,
The work of Sulphur. Thither wing'd with speed
A numerous Brigad hasten'd. As when Bands [ 675 ]
Of Pioners with Spade and Pickax arm'd
Forerun the Royal Camp, to trench a Field,
Or cast a Rampart. Mammon led them on,
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell
From heav'n, for ev'n in heav'n his looks and thoughts [ 680 ]
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of Heav'ns pavement, trod'n Gold,
Then aught divine or holy else enjoy'd
In vision beatific: by him first
Men also, and by his suggestion taught, [ 685 ]
Ransack'd the Center, and with impious hands
Rifl'd the bowels of thir mother Earth
For Treasures better hid. Soon had his crew
Op'nd into the Hill a spacious wound
And dig'd out ribs of Gold. Let none admire [ 690 ]
That riches grow in Hell; that soyle may best
Deserve the precious bane. And here let those
Who boast in mortal things, and wond'ring tell
Of Babel, and the works of Memphian Kings
Learn how thir greatest Monuments of Fame, [ 695 ]
And Strength and Art are easily out-done
By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour
What in an age they with incessant toyle
And hands innumerable scarce perform.
Nigh on the Plain in many cells prepar'd, [ 700 ]
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluc'd from the Lake, a second multitude
With wondrous Art found out the massie Ore,
Severing each kind, and scum'd the Bullion dross:
A third as soon had form'd within the ground [ 705 ]
A various mould, and from the boyling cells
By strange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook,
As in an Organ from one blast of wind
To many a row of Pipes the sound-board breaths.
Anon out of the earth a Fabrick huge [ 710 ]
Rose like an Exhalation, with the sound
Of Dulcet Symphonies and voices sweet,
Built like a Temple, where Pilasters round
Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid
With Golden Architrave; nor did there want [ 715 ]
Cornice or Freeze, with bossy Sculptures grav'n,
The Roof was fretted Gold. Not Babilon,
Nor great Alcairo such magnificence
Equal'd in all thir glories, to inshrine
Belus or Serapis thir Gods, or seat [ 720 ]
Thir Kings, when Ægypt with Assyria strove
In wealth and luxurie. Th' ascending pile
Stood fixt her stately highth, and strait the dores
Op'ning thir brazen foulds discover wide
Within, her ample spaces, o're the smooth [ 725 ]
And level pavement: from the arched roof
Pendant by suttle Magic many a row
Of Starry Lamps and blazing Cressets fed
With Naphtha and Asphaltus yeilded light
As from a sky. The hasty multitude [ 730 ]
Admiring enter'd, and the work some praise
And some the Architect: his hand was known
In Heav'n by many a Towred structure high,
Where Scepter'd Angels held thir residence,
And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King [ 735 ]
Exalted to such power, and gave to rule,
Each in his Hierarchie, the Orders bright.
Nor was his name unheard or unador'd
In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land
Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell [ 740 ]
From Heav'n, they fabl'd, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o're the Chrystal Battlements: from Morn
To Noon he fell, from Noon to dewy Eve,
A Summers day; and with the setting Sun
Dropt from the Zenith like a falling Star, [ 745 ]
On Lemnos th' Ægean Ile: thus they relate,
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout
Fell long before; nor aught avail'd him now
To have built in Heav'n high Towrs; nor did he scape
By all his Engins, but was headlong sent [ 750 ]
With his industrious crew to build in hell.
Mean while the winged Haralds by command
Of Sovran power, with awful Ceremony
And Trumpets sound throughout the Host proclaim
A solemn Councel forthwith to be held [ 755 ]
At Pandæmonium, the high Capital
Of Satan and his Peers: thir summons call'd
From every Band and squared Regiment
By place or choice the worthiest; they anon
With hunderds and with thousands trooping came [ 760 ]
Attended: all access was throng'd, the Gates
And Porches wide, but chief the spacious Hall
(Though like a cover'd field, where Champions bold
Wont ride in arm'd, and at the Soldans chair
Defi'd the best of Paynim chivalry [ 765 ]
To mortal combat or carreer with Lance)
Thick swarm'd, both on the ground and in the air,
Brusht with the hiss of russling wings. As Bees
In spring time, when the Sun with Taurus rides,
Pour forth thir populous youth about the Hive [ 770 ]
In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers
Flie to and fro, or on the smoothed Plank,
The suburb of thir Straw-built Cittadel,
New rub'd with Baum, expatiate and confer
Thir State affairs. So thick the aerie crowd [ 775 ]
Swarm'd and were straitn'd; till the Signal giv'n.
Behold a wonder! they but now who seemd
In bigness to surpass Earths Giant Sons
Now less then smallest Dwarfs, in narrow room
Throng numberless, like that Pigmean Race [ 780 ]
Beyond the Indian Mount, or Faerie Elves,
Whose midnight Revels, by a Forrest side
Or Fountain some belated Peasant sees,
Or dreams he sees, while over-head the Moon
Sits Arbitress, and neerer to the Earth [ 785 ]
Wheels her pale course, they on thir mirth and dance
Intent, with jocond Music charm his ear;
At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.
Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms
Reduc'd thir shapes immense, and were at large, [ 790 ]
Though without number still amidst the Hall
Of that infernal Court. But far within
And in thir own dimensions like themselves
The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim
In close recess and secret conclave sat [ 795 ]
A thousand Demy-Gods on golden seats,
Frequent and full. After short silence then
And summons read, the great consult began.



Argument. Milton announces that he intends to follow classical precedents by beginning his epic in medeas res, in the middle of things, and only later coming back, by reported action, to beginnings. The story of creation, for example, comes in book 7.

Death into the World, and all our woe. This locution echoes fairly closely Virgil's narrative voice in Aeneid book 4, announcing that death and woe followed the ersatz nuptials of Aeneas and Dido:

To the same cave come Dido and the Trojan chief. Primal earth and nuptial Juno give the sign; fires flashed in heaven, the witness to their bridal, and on the mountain-top screamed the Nymphs. That day was the first day of death, that the first cause of woe. (Trans. H. Rushton Fairclough in Virgil vol. 1 [Cambridge, MA: Havard University Press, 1935] 407)
See also the Perseus Project edition of this passage.
Pandemonium. Literally, "all the demons." Milton coins the name for the assembly hall of devils whose erection is recounted at the end of book 1.

one greater Man. The Messiah.

Heav'nly Muse. Is the "Heavenly Muse" invoked here the same as the "Urania," traditionally the muse of astronomy, invoked at book 7.1? More likely, contemporary readers would have first thought of the "Holy Spirit," as the inspiration of Moses.

Oreb. Moses, "That Shepherd," received the Law on Mt. Horeb (Deuteronomy 4: 10) or its spur, Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19: 20).

adventrous Song. Note the similarities between Milton's opening and the opening lines of Virgil's Aeneid and of Homer's Odyssey. Milton wants not only to compare his project to the ancient epics, but also himself to those poets and his main character, Adam, to their celebrated heroes. All of these comparisons raise interesting and complicated questions of authority, heroism, and nationalism in art.

chosen seed.The people of Israel. See Exodus 19-20.

In the Beginning. The opening words of both Genesis (Geneva) and the Gospel of John (Geneva).

Sion. To the haunts of the classical muses near the Castalian spring on Mt. Parnassus, Milton prefers to claim Mt. Sion and its brooks Kidron and Siloa, a kind of biblically authorized Parnassus.

out of Chaos. One of Milton's several heterodox positions. Orthodoxy held that God created everything ex nihilo, out of nothing (the "void" of Genesis 1:2; See Calvin's Commentary on Genesis). Milton borrows the concept of chaos, or unformed matter, from Hesiod and Platonic philosophy (especially the Timaeus 53b). Milton was also a monist, holding that all things were created out of God; see book 5.468-490.

Aonian Mount. Mt. Helicon, in Aonia, sacred to the classical muses.

Line 16. The line ironically (maybe even sarcastically?) recalls the stanza 2 of canto 1 of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.

Dove-like. The Holy Spirit appears as a dove in John 1: 32. See also Paradise Regain'd 1.30-1.

brooding on the vast Abyss. Milton's "brooding" is a better translation of the Hebrew than the familiar "moved upon the face of the waters" of the Authorized version of Genesis 1:2.

pregnant. Milton invites us to imagine the Holy Spirit copulating with the unformed matter of Chaos ("the vast Abyss"). In Milton's monism, distinctions between spirit and matter are not absolute.

Say first. Compare this with Homer's invocation to the muse in the Iliad 1.8.

one restraint. That is, the single injunction against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2: 17).

Lords of the World. According to Genesis 1:28, human beings were created to "have dominion" over the rest of creation.

Hurld headlong flaming. This description recalls Pieter Bruegel's Fall of the Rebel Angels (about 1562). See also William Blake's 1808 watercolor illustration of the rebel angels' fall (told by Raphael at 6.864-66).

Adamantine. Unbreakable, rocklike.

Nine times the Space. In Hesiod's Theogony 664-735, the Titans take a similar fall.

kenn. Range; which in the case of angels must be presumed to be nearly limitless.

hope never comes. A deliberate echo of Dante's Inferno 3.9: "All hope abandon ye who enter here."

thir. Their. Milton's preferred spelling was "thir," and Flannagan reports that "their" was changed to "thir" in later stages of the 1674 edition. The same is true of line 499 and other lines.

from the Center to ... the Pole. Milton asks us to refer to the Ptolemaic model of the universe with the earth at the center of nine concentric spheres. On Milton's cosmology, Ptolemaic or Copernican, see also book 8. 119-68.

Beelzebub. "God of the flies" or "Chief of the devils." See Matthew 10: 25, Mark 3: 22, and Luke 11: 15. See also Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy 1.2.1-2 (search the Dartmouth Library catalogue); see also the Britannica Online entry.

call'd Satan. Originally Lucifer, "bringer of light," his name in heaven is changed to Satan, "enemy."

Gods. That is, the strength of empyreal angels, virtually gods.

eternal Warr. To speak of "eternal war" is to be quite doubtful about the prospects for victory.

thralls. Slaves.

rood. A rod, a variable measure of six to eight yards.

Titanian. For Hesiod's story of Zeus's (Jove's) war with the giants, the Titans and Briareos, see Theogony 713-16. Also see Ovid, Metamorphoses 5. 325-31 and 346-58.

Typhon. See Theogony 819-85.

Leviathan. See Isaiah 27:1 and Job 41.

incumbent. Literally "pressing upon."

Pelorus. In Sicily, the peninsula of Pelorus is dominated by Mt. Aetna. See Virgil's Aeneid 3. 570-77.

Sublim'd with Mineral fury. Vaporized by the volcano's fire.

Stygian. Styx was, in classical mythology, one of the rivers of hell; thus Stygian connotes hellish.

Clime. Climate.

Sovran. Sovereign.

The mind is its own place. See Satan's later speech on the relationship between self, mind, and place: 4.75.

serve in Heav'n. But see Abdiel's (chronologically) prior warning to Satan: 6. 178-88. Homer's Odysseus says that when he interviewed Achilles in the underworld, Achilles expressed an attitude opposite to Satan's: "I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man's house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead" (Odyssey 11.363-65).

Ethereal temper. Tempered in ethereal (heavenly) fire. Aeneas's shield was said to have been forged in the netherworld by Vulcan and was blazoned with stories of gods and heroes (Aeneid 8).

Optic Glass. Telescope. Galileo (1564-1642) was one of the earliest makers of telescopes; he was the first to make one powerful enough to view the surface of the moon. See Denise Albanese's (New Science, New World, 125) consideration of the allusions to Galileo and his telescope here and in 3.588-590.

Tuscan artist. Galileo (1564-1642). Milton visited him and saw his telescope in Valdarno, the valley of the Arno. Galileo's telescope and the observations he made with it supported the Copernican model of the cosmos over the Ptolemaic model, much to the Church's chagrin. Galileo spent most of the last years of his life under house arrest, ordered by the Church.

Fesole. Fiesole, a hill town near Florence.

Valdarno. The Arno valley, where Florence is located.

Ammiral. Admiral or flagship.

Marle. "A kind of soil consisting principally of clay mixed with carbonate oflime, forming a loose unconsolidated mass, valuable as a fertilizer. The marl of lakes is a white, chalky deposit consisting of the moulderingremains of Mollusca, Entomostraca, and partly of fresh-water algae" (OED2).

Nathless. Nevertheless.

Vallombrosa. A famously shady valley near Florence.

Etrurian shades. "Etrurian" is another way of saying Etruscan, that is of or from Tuscany, a region of Italy. "Shades" leaves both positive (cool and pleasant) and negative (ghosts) impressions, complicated further by Vallambrosa's suggestion of a valley of shadows or shades (Psalm 23:4 and Dante's Inferno 3.112-15).

sedge. Seaweed.

Orion. A "stormy" constellation in Aeneid 1. 535 and 4. 73.

Busirus. The Greek name for Pharaoh, in this instance as leader of the Egyptian (Memphian, from Memphis) cavalry (chivalry) who chased the Israelites across the Red Sea and was drowned by the returning seas.

Sojourners of Goshen. The Israelites.

Cherubim and Seraphim. Two orders or ranks of angels. Images of Cherubim stood by the sanctuary in the temple at Jerusalem.

evil . . . good. Compare to 12.471.

Amrams Son. Moses. See Exodus 10: 12-15.

Cope. "Cope of heaven" was a common expression in Milton's day, indicating "the over-arching canopy or vault of heaven" (OED2). The cope of hell is even more imaginable as a vaulted ceiling.

thir great Sultan. Satan as Sultan, or "the sovereign or chief ruler of a Muslim country" OED2. The poem literally demonizes Islam rulers.

the populous North. In accounts of the fall of Rome, the place from which the invading barbarian hordes were thought to have come.

Rhene or the Danaw. Rhine and Danube rivers. The narrator compares the devils to the hordes of "barbarians" who invaded Rome.

Got them new Names. Many Church Fathers believed the fallen angels came to be known and worshipped as pagan deities. See Tertullian, Apologeticum 22-24.

Devils ... for Deities. That is to say that, though nameless at this time and blotted from the book of life in heaven, the fallen angels later came to be named by fallen men as pagan gods.

Moloch. Literally "King." See Milton's description of his worship in the Nativity Ode 205-12. See also the Catholic Encyclopedia on Moloch.

children's cries unheard. The cries of children being sacrificed to Moloch were drowned out by drums and timbrels.

Ammonite. Non-Hebrew tribe mentioned in 2 Samuel 12: 26-27. The Israelites destroyed the "sons of Ammon" near the Moabite border stream of Arnon in Argob and Basan.

Rabba. The capital of the Ammonites, Rabbah; now Amman in Jordan.

Argob, Basan, Arnon. Lands east of the Dead Sea, where Moloch was worshipped, now part of Jordan.

Hill. See 2 Kings 23: 13.

Hinnom. See Jeremiah 19: 6. Gehenna, or Gehinnom, is Hebrew for the place or valley of the damned, especially the valley where Moloch was worshipped with human sacrifices.

Chemos. Chemosh a Moabite diety to whom Solomon built a shrine according to 1 Kings 11:7. See also Numbers 21: 29.

Aroar. Aroer, now Arair in modern Jordan.

Nebo. A southern Moabite town; also the name of the mountain from which Moses first glimpsed the promised land of Canaan (Deuteronomy 32:49).

Abarim. Hill of western Moab, overlooking the Jordan and the Dead Sea.

Hesebon. Heshbon and Horonaim were Amorite cities. Sihon (Milton's Seon) was king of the Amorites.

Sibma. Region east of the Jordan famous for its wine. Elealeh, a nearby city.

Asphaltick Pool. The Dead Sea.

Israel in Sittim. The Isrealites "began to commit whoredom" with the daughters of Moab at Shittim, on the flight from Egypt to Canaan. See Numbers 25: 1-3.

Hill of scandal. The place just east of the Jerusalem temple, across the Kidron valley, often called the Mount of Olives, where Solomon erected shrines to pagan dieties like Moloch, Baal, Chemosh, and Ashtoreth. King Josiah, according to 2 Kings 23, destroyed these "abominations."

Josiah. See 2 Kings 23: 10.

Brook. According to Fowler, the river Besor.

Baalim and Ashtaroth. Plural forms of Baal and Astarte. Baal-Peor was one of several sites for the worship of Baal, often depicted as a calf or other beasts. Astarte was a middle eastern goddess of fertility and war.

Essence pure. The bodilessness of spirits and angels comes up in another context in 8.615-629.

cumbrous. Cumbersome.

Sidonian. Phonician.

Sion. Israel's promised land.

th' offensive Mountain. Presumably the same site as the "Hill of Scandal" above (416).

uxorious King. That is, Solomon, who had several hundred wives (uxor being Latin for wife). Milton tends to link adultery with idolatry, as did the biblical authors in the expression, "whoring after false gods."

Thammuz. Tammuz, lover and spouse of Sumerian Inanna (Ishtar in Akkadian and Astarte in the Bible). Often identified with Adonis, his death was celebrated in the spring.

Adonis. The Lebanese river Adonis, red with mud in the summer.

Sions daughters. Israelite women.

the dark Idolatries. See Ezekiel 8: 14.

alienated. That is, alienated from God; apostate.

grunsel. Groundsill or threshold.

Dagon. Philistine sea-God. When the Philistines captured the ark of the Lord and placed it in Dagon's temple, the idol was found dismembered the next morning. See 1 Samuel 5: 4. See also Samson Agonistes 13.

Azotus. Ashdod, along with Askelon and Ekron, were three of the five principal cities of Philistia; the others were Gath and Gaza.

Rimmon. Hadad, the west Semitic God of weather.

Damascus. Damascus is the capital city of Syria.

A Leper once he lost. When the prophet Elisha told the Syrian Naaman that bathing in the Jordan would cure his leprosy, Naaman scoffed, asking "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean?"; when he later bathed in the Jordan and was cured, he worshipped the God of Israel. See 2 Kings 5. Israel's King Ahaz, however, built an altar to Rimmon (2 Kings 16).

Osiris, Orus, Isis. Osiris was perhaps the most important god of ancient Egypt. Isis was his consort and mother of Horus.

The Calf. Exodus 32: 1-20.

Rebel King. Jereboam. See 1 Kings 12: 28-30.

equal'd with one stroke. See Exodus 12: 12.

Belial. Belial a Vulgate synonym for Satan, but here a separate devil. Also the Hebrew word for "worthless." "Sons of Belial" means good-for-nothings. See Paradise Regain'd 2.150.

Ely's sons. See 1 Samuel 2: 12-25.

flown. Flying free like a sheet, halyard or sail that has come loose in a wind and flies dangerously free without check.

worse rape. See the stories in Genesis 19:4-13 and Judges 19. Milton's notion that rape of men is "worse" than rape of women, even when a "Matron" is raped to death, appears supported by the biblical accounts.

Javan. Japhet's son and therefore Noah's grandson (Genesis 10:2). The Geneva notes to Genesis 10:2 identify Javan as the progenitor of the "Medes and the Grekes," so Milton identifies him with Ion, the progenitor of the Ionian Greeks according to Pausanius's Description of Greece 7.1.4.

boasted Parents. Heaven and Earth, according to many ancient poets, were the parents of the Titans. Milton casts some doubt here upon these claims with the term "boasted," implying pretence. See Apollodorus' Library 1.1.1; also Virgil's Aeneid 4.254. According to Hesiod's Theogony 126-139, Chaos was the first being, then the earth came to be the foundation of "the deathless ones." The children of Chaos were Erebus (a place of darkness between earth and Hades) and Night, whose union produced Aether (air) and Day. Earth gave birth to Heaven, with whom she later copulated to produce the Titans: Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. She also gave birth to Chronus (Saturn), the cyclopes and various other monsters. According to Apollodorus' Library 1.1.4-1.1.7, the Titans and Titanides (female Titans) were cast by the gods into Hades and, in revenge for this, Earth spurred them on to rebellion, giving Chronos a special sickle with which he cut off Heaven's testicles and threw them into the sea. Assuming dominion over creation, Cronus (Saturn) coupled with his sister Rhea and she became pregnant with Zeus (Jove) who, according to prophecy, killed his father to become king of the Gods.

Creet. Crete. Rhea, pregnant with Zeus, feared that Chronus would try to destroy the child prophesied to supplant him, so she hid in Crete and bore Zeus in a cave there. She gave the infant Zeus into the care of the Cretans and the nymphs Adrastia and Ida (Apollodorus' Library 1.1.6.)

Olympus. Mountain in northern Thessaly reputed to be the home of the gods.

Delphian. The oracle of Apollo was at Delphi, the Delphian oracle; that of Zeus was at Dodona. See Herodotus' Histories 1.46.

Doric Land. Greece.

Adria. The Adriatic Sea.

Hesperian Fields. The land of the westering sun, or Italy.

utmost Isles. The British isles.

Azazel. Hebrew word for "scapegoat." See Leviticus 16:8-20. According to some Cabbalistic writers, one of the four standard bearers of Satan's army.

Chaos. In Milton's cosmology, Chaos and Night reigned over the "eternal anarchy," the formless void between hell and heaven. See Regina Schwartz's excellent discussion of Chaos in Remembering and Repeating: Biblical Creation in Paradise Lost.

Phalanx. In Greek antiquity, "a body of heavy-armedinfantry drawn up in close order, with shields joined and long spearsoverlapping; especially famous in the Macedonian army" OED2).

Dorian. "Of Doris or Doria, a division of ancient Greece. The Dorian mode in Music was one of theancient Grecian modes, characterized by simplicity and solemnity; also, the first of the 'authentic' ecclesiastical modes" (OED2).

swage. Assuage.

Warr'd on by Cranes. In Iliad 3. 1-5, Homer compares the cries of the Trojans to the sound made by cranes in their annual rush to the sea, when they slaughter pygmies in their path.

Phlegra. In Ovid's Metamorphoses 10. 233, the giants battle the gods on the plain of Phlegra in Macedonia.

Theb's. The "Heroic Race" are the seven heroes of the Trojan war in Statius' Thebaid and Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes.

Uther's Son. King Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon.

Armoric. From Brittany in the north of France.

Aspramont or Montalban. Castles in chivalric romances, sites of great international tournaments.

Damasco, Morocco, Trebisond. Sites from chivalric romances of famous tournaments between Christian and pagans or "infidels" (Moslems). These sites and those mentioned above, figure prominently on Arisoto's romance epic, Orlando Furioso 17.14 and 18.158.

Biserta. Legendary versions of history tell of Muslims setting out from Bizerte in Tunisia to conquer Carolingian Spain; actually Muslims invaded Spain in 711, some 30 years before Charlemagne's birth. Modern Fuenterrabia is in northern Spain.

dim Eclips. See a photo of a total solar eclipse.

Perplexes Monarchs. Until modern times, eclipses were believed to portend the fall of monarchs and emperors.

amerc't. Deprived.

th' event. The result.

puissant. Powerful and courageous.

custome. Milton frequently scorned the role played by "custom" in politics, religion and law. See Areopagitica; and a second place in Areopagitica. See also the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce book 1 and book 2; and The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates.

fame. Rumor.

Pioners. Pioneers, trench-diggers.

Mammon. His name is Aramaic for "wealth." Milton also alludes to Spenser's Mammon in the Faerie Queene 2.7.

downward bent. Compare this to Satan at the bottom of the stairs to heaven in 3.542.

Babel. The famous tower of Babel, erected by Nimrod; see Genesis 11:4 and PL 12.38-62. See also Pieter Bruegel's depiction of the Tower of Babel (1563).

Memphian. Egyptian. Milton refers to the great pyramids of the Pharaohs.

bossy Sculptures. Embossed and engraved sculptures.

fretted Gold. OED2: "Adorned with carving in elaborate patterns; carved or wrought intodecorative patterns."

Alcairo. Cairo.

Belus or Serapis. Belus is Latinized Bel, Mesopotamian god of the air, also know to the ancient Hebrews as Baal (Jeremiah 51:44). Sarapis is a Greco-Egyptian god of the sun.

Cressets. Iron basket lamps.

Ausonian land. Italy.

Mulciber. Vulcan or Hephaistos in Greek. The gods' smith. According to legend, Hephaistos was born by Hera, queen of the gods, without any sire. Hera threw him down to Hades, but he was rescued by his own wit with the help of Dionysius. See Pausanius' Description of Greece 1.20.3.

they relate. Homer, in Iliad 1. 591-5 and Lucretius in Elegia 7 and Natram non pati senium 23, tell the story of Hephaistos's fall.

Pandæmonium. Milton coined the word from familiar Greek lexemes: pan meaning "all"; daimon meaning "demon" or "mortal-to-god go-between"; and ion, meaning "assembly" as in Panathenaion, "assembly of all."

awful. Awe-inspiring.

Paynim. Pagan. The 1674 copy text has "Panim" as in 1667, but the manuscript of PL 1 has a "y" inserted with a caret (Flannagan), so I have restored the "y." "Soldan" is Sultan.

Bees. Homer describes the Achaean assembly (Iliad 2. 87-90) and Virgil the Carthaginians (Aeneid 1.430-36) as busy bees.

Pigmean Race. In his Natural History 7. 26, Pliny locates the land of the Pygmies in the mountains beyond the source of the Ganges.

some belated Peasant. Milton echoes the episode of Bottom's dream in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream 4.1.

conclave. The word deliberately alludes to the secret conclave of cardinals who elect the pope, thus insinuating the demonic character of such meetings.