Paradise Lost by John Milton

 


Like most contemporary non-believers, I've always found Greek mythology more alluring than Christian mythology. John Milton has helped me to see that the Christian stories make for just as good reading as the adventures of Zeus and company.

Of course, as many have noted—whether or not this is what Milton intended, and whether or not Milton's contemporaries would have read the character this way—for a modern reader, Satan is the most sympathetic character. He's ambitious and a lover of liberty: he doesn't want to be under the thumb of an autocratic god-the-father, and makes a valiant attempt to get out from under that thumb. It's hard, at least nowadays, to fault him for that. The main reason, though, that Milton's Satan is so attractive is that he is the most richly drawn of all the characters, and this depth makes him fascinating in ways the other characters are not. Adam and Eve, for example, seem of little account, mere pawns (for all the big guy's claims that he has given them free will) in God's battle with the rebel angel.

The language is intricate, luscious and lovely; Milton's pioneering unrhymed blank verse is a much more engaging read than neat rhymed couplets could ever be. As Milton explained, it's all about liberty: "This neglect then of Rhime . . . is to be esteem'd an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recover'd to heroic Poem from the troublesom and modern bondage of Rimeing."

This foray into Christian mythology makes me wonder if I shouldn't give the King James another go. But I think I'd rather read more Milton.

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