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In this opening, Milton condenses and summarizes the subject of his poem – he is trying to write a great epic for the English language, in the tradition of Homer’s Iliad or Virgil’s Aeneid. Milton is even more ambitious than these classical poets, however, as his subject is not just heroic men, but the struggle and tragedy of all humanity. Already in this first sentence Milton points to the scope of Christian history, from Adam to Jesus (“one greater man”). In this invocation Milton sets the pattern for the whole poem. He points to his classical forebears, respecting them and seeking to enter into their epic canon, but at the same time he wants to soar beyond them in terms of ambition and truth. Milton’s Muse is the Holy Spirit, and his subject the Fall of Man, so his epic will be more fundamentally true (to the Christian worldview) and more sweeping in scope than the epics of Homer or Virgil. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the traditional Christian Trinity, but Milton did not consider the Holy Spirit as equal to God. Milton includes not only Adam and Eve’s disobedience, but also the original disobedience in Heaven – Satan’s rebellion against God, which is the ultimate revolt of creature against creator. Much of the poem’s plot will come from the first books of Genesis in the Bible, but the parts about the war in Heaven are based on various scattered Bible verses and Milton’s own conjecture. Like all epics, the tale begins “in media res,” or in the middle of the action, and the backstory will be explained later. Milton inverts tradition by beginning with the antagonist, Satan, instead of a protagonist. One of the great debates about Paradise Lost has been just how much of an “antagonist” Satan is, however, as he is the poem’s most dynamic and interesting character. Some critics have felt that Milton subconsciously sympathized with Satan even as he tried to “justify” God. Satan’s is the first and greatest revolt against the hierarchy of God’s universe. God arranges all his creation according to rank, and Satan upset this order by trying to do battle with God himself, the supreme monarch of all. Satan accepts that he has been defeated, but his pride is still too great to ask God for repentance. He will continue to suffer inner turmoil over this decision. Like the greatest of epic poets, Milton’s language is rich and grandiose. The critic Samuel Johnson commented on Milton’s power of “displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy, and aggravating the dreadful.” The devils like to think they can act of their own agency, but Milton will show that nothing in the universe happens without God’s consent. Satan makes this comment rather glibly now, but he will later feel its full implications when he realizes that he carries the pain of Hell within him even in Paradise. “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n” becomes something like his life motto, as he steadfastly refuses to accept God’s rulership, and struggles against his creator in whatever way he can. Milton describes Satan’s magnificent size and terrible appearance through many epic similes, but the overall picture of him is still vague – in such grand, imaginative places like Hell and Heaven, size is relative. The devils can change their size and shape, and Satan will gradually become smaller and lowlier in his incarnations, showing the corrupting effects of his disobedience, and Milton’s Biblical idea that with goodness comes power. Milton’s list of warriors echoes similar lists in the Iliad and the Aeneid, but he also reminds us that no matter how magnificent the devils appear, they just lost the war in Heaven. Milton reinforces the truth and ambition of his epic by casting all other gods – including the Greek and Roman gods of earlier epics – as merely fallen angels, lesser powers leading ancient nations away from God’s truth. Milton will often compare his characters and spectacles to famous examples from human history or other epics, but he almost always places his subjects (in this case the devil army) as “more than” these – more magnificent, more beautiful, huger. Satan acts as a “democratic” sort of leader, asking his devils for their opinions, but in reality he has already decided his plan – he assumes that the rebellion against God will continue. Satan’s great power is his persuasive words, as he convinces the devils to continue their revolt even after he led them into a hopeless war against God. “Mammon” basically means “riches,” which Jesus warns against on the Sermon on the Mount, but Mammon itself is often personified as a prince of devils. Milton was a radical Protestant opposed to the corrupt hierarchy of the Catholic and Anglican churches, and many of his critiques are leveled at their vanity and concern with earthly riches. Pandaemonium then becomes a grotesque parody of the most magnificent churches, all glitter and no substance. The devils shrink in size to enter the structure, but we had no clear idea how big they were before, as size is relative in Hell. Milton again associates a beloved Greek god with a devil.