The Satanic Epic

395 Pages·2003·1.3 MB·English

by  Neil Forsyth

the satanic epic
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The Satanic Epic
neil forsyth
princeton university press
princeton and oxford
copyright (cid:2) 2003 by princeton university press
published by princeton university press, 41 william street,
princeton, new jersey 08540
in the united kingdom: princeton university press, 3 market place,
woodstock, oxfordshire ox20 1sy
all rights reserved
library of congress cataloging-in-publication data
forsyth, neil, 1944–
the satanic epic / neil forsyth.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-691-09996-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. milton, john, 1608–1674. paradise lost. 2. christian poerty,
english—history and criticism. 3. epic poerty, english—history and
criticism. 4. milton, john, 1608–1674—characters—devil. 5. devil
in literature. 6. evil in literature. I. title.
pr3562 .f64 2003
821(cid:3).4—dc21
2002025138
british library cataloging-in-publication data is available
publication of this book has been aided by grants from the
450th anniversary foundation and the faculty of letters of the
university of lausanne
this book has been composed in bembo
printed on acid-free paper. (cid:2)
www.pup.princeton.edu
printed in the united states of america
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
contents
preface ix
introduction 1
(1) “Too full of the Devill” 1
(2) “God is not the devil” 8
(3) The Narrative Theology of “therefore” 12
(4) “The most heroic subject that ever was chosen” 18
1. a brief history of satan 24
(1) The Old Enemy 25
(2) Ancient Myth and Epic 28
(3) Hesiod 30
(4) Apocalypses 35
(5) The satan 37
(6) The New Testament 39
(7) The Early Church 43
(8) Heresy 45
(9) Medieval Heresy 49
(10) Old English Genesis to Chaucer 50
(11) Satan’s Rebellion 54
(12) Warfare and Imperialism 56
(13) Elizabethan Drama 60
(14) Politics 62
(15) The Miltonic Moment 64
(16) Subversive Satan 66
(17) Critical Controversies 69
2. the epic voice 77
(1) Seeing through Satan 77
(2) Hope and Despair 81
(3) “Dark designs” 86
(4) “Devils into Dwarfs” 87
(5) The Critical Need for the Narrator 90
(v)
vi contents
(6) Epic Similes 100
(7) Erring 105
(8) Parliamentary Devils 108
3. follow the leader 114
(1) Chaos 115
(2) Approaching Paradise 124
(3) Satan’s Entry into Paradise 129
(4) Paradise 129
(5) Sex 134
4. “my self am hell” 147
(1) Niphates 148
(2) Faustus and the Abyss 152
(3) God in Satan 155
(4) Hell in Heaven 157
(5) Witchcraft 160
5. satan’s rebellion 167
(1) Rebellion in Hesiod 170
(2) God’s Creative Word 171
(3) Satan’s Theology 176
(4) Sources of Satan’s motive 180
(5) Hebrews 183
(6) Psalm 2 185
6. the language of “evil” 188
(1) Classical versus Christian 188
(2) Hate in Heaven 190
(3) The “Problem of Evil” 192
(4) Satan and Ancient Evils 195
(5) Allecto: Hell’s Fury 196
(6) The Darkness of Hell 201
(7) “God created evil” 204
(8) The Language of Sin 206
(9) Evil Eve 207
contents vii
(10) Openings 209
(11) “Perverse” 212
(12) Odium Dei 214
7. Of Mans First Dis 217
(1) Dis— 218
(2) Satan’s “dark suggestions” 221
(3) Quibbles 224
(4) Vergil 228
(5) Ovid 229
(6) Dante 233
(7) Difference 235
8. homer in milton: the attendance motif
and the graces 239
9. satan tempter 259
(1) Intercourse 259
(2) “Stupidly good” 261
(3) Sexual Serpents 263
(4) Discourse 265
(5) The Seductive Text 268
(6) Commentators 272
(7) “What delight” 277
(8) Satan’s Sewers 280
(9) Satanic Verses 282
10. “if they will hear” 285
11. at the sign of the dove and serpent 301
(1) Irenaeus 303
(2) The Wisdom of the Serpent 304
(3) Image 305
(4) The Brazen Serpent 308
(5) The Meaning of History 309
(6) Christ and Serpent 311
viii contents
12. “full of doubt i stand”: the structures of
paradise lost 314
conclusion: signs portentous 329
(1) Apocalypse 329
(2) “Disastrous twilight” 332
(3) Editors 338
(4) Sun-Son 341
(5) Reading Signs 342
(6) “Good with bad expect to hear” 344
bibliography 349
index 371
preface
The death of Satan was a tragedy
For the imagination
—wallace stevens, “Esthe´tique du mal”
“Evil” has been much on the lips of politicians recently, and some have talked
of the Devil as its representative. This kind of discourse has a long history and
is common in times of crisis, like the present, or the early Christian Era, or
indeed the years of the English Revolution through which Milton lived. I have
described some of the reasons for this apocalyptic attitude to politics in my
earlier book, The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth. I also showed how
much it has to do with the very invention of Satan. This new book extends
that argument, and shows how Milton made use of the Satanic tradition. It
may be an additional bonus of this study to discover how Milton anticipated,
and even shaped, the combat discourse of our current leaders with their talk of
“darkness visible” and “all hell broke loose,” or indeed “the sound of public
scorn.” Had they read Paradise Lost, these leaders might be neither so strident,
nor so confident of success.
Some chapters of this book, or parts of them, have been published as arti-
cles, but I always intended that they would join together in this book. I
wanted to apply to Milton some of the research I had done for The Old
Enemy. This new book must stand on its own, but there are surely more
references to my previous work than a proper dose of scholarly modesty
should permit. In the first chapter I have tried to explain the important find-
ings of the earlier book and to establish the connections with Paradise Lost that
emerge more fully in subsequent chapters. But this book is not a sequel: it is
about Milton, not, as was The Old Enemy, about the Devil.
In one respect, though, the present book follows the earlier model. It is
written with that quixotic idea of an interested, but nonexpert, reader in
mind. To that end, I have tried to make it fully readable beyond the flourish-
ing and privileged republic of professional Miltonists. What, I have asked my-
self, would that ideal reader need to know? The answer was usually that,
though I should not underestimate what he or she might have read, I should
provide too much, rather than too little, help. Reading Milton can be a thor-
ough and robust education in much of what constitutes Western civilization.
One of the functions of the footnote is to point towards that education. Like
Aristotle I assume that most people take pleasure in learning.
For permission to rework earlier essays, I am grateful to the publishers of
Comparative Literature, Etudes de Lettres, The International Journal for the Classical
(ix)