The Satanic Epic
Satanic Epic
1st Edition
Published on 10. January 2009
400 pages
978-1-4008-2523-3 (ISBN)
Description
The Satan of Paradise Lost has fascinated generations of readers. This book attempts to explain how and why Milton's Satan is so seductive. It reasserts the importance of Satan against those who would minimize the poem's sympathy for the devil and thereby make Milton orthodox.
Neil Forsyth argues that William Blake got it right when he called Milton a true poet because he was "of the Devils party" even though he set out "to justify the ways of God to men." In seeking to learn why Satan is so alluring, Forsyth ranges over diverse topics--from the origins of evil and the relevance of witchcraft to the status of the poetic narrator, the epic tradition, the nature of love between the sexes, and seventeenth-century astronomy. He considers each of these as Milton introduces them: as Satanic subjects.
Satan emerges as the main challenge to Christian belief. It is Satan who questions and wonders and denounces. He is the great doubter who gives voice to many of the arguments that Christianity has provoked from within and without. And by rooting his Satanic reading of Paradise Lost in Biblical and other sources, Forsyth retrieves not only an attractive and heroic Satan but a Milton whose heretical energies are embodied in a Satanic character with a life of his own.
Neil Forsyth argues that William Blake got it right when he called Milton a true poet because he was "of the Devils party" even though he set out "to justify the ways of God to men." In seeking to learn why Satan is so alluring, Forsyth ranges over diverse topics--from the origins of evil and the relevance of witchcraft to the status of the poetic narrator, the epic tradition, the nature of love between the sexes, and seventeenth-century astronomy. He considers each of these as Milton introduces them: as Satanic subjects.
Satan emerges as the main challenge to Christian belief. It is Satan who questions and wonders and denounces. He is the great doubter who gives voice to many of the arguments that Christianity has provoked from within and without. And by rooting his Satanic reading of Paradise Lost in Biblical and other sources, Forsyth retrieves not only an attractive and heroic Satan but a Milton whose heretical energies are embodied in a Satanic character with a life of his own.
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The Satanic Epic
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12/2002
Princeton University Press
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Neil Forsyth is Professor of English Literature at the University of Lausanne and the author of The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth (Princeton).
Content
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
Chapter 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
Chapter 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
(6) Epic Similes 100
(7) Erring 105
(8) Parliamentary Devils 108
Chapter 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
Chapter 4: "MYSELF 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
Chapter 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
Chapter 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
(10) Openings 209
(11) "Perverse" 212
(12) Odium Dei 214
Chapter 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
Chapter 8: HOMER IN MILTON: THE ATTENDANCE MOTIF AND THE GRACES 239
Chapter 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
Chapter 10: "IF THEY WILL HEAR" 285
Chapter 11: AT THE SIGN OF THE DOVE AND THE 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
12. " f ul l of doubt i stand": th e structures of
parad i se lost 314
conclu s i on: s i g n s p ortentou s 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
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
Chapter 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
Chapter 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
(6) Epic Similes 100
(7) Erring 105
(8) Parliamentary Devils 108
Chapter 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
Chapter 4: "MYSELF 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
Chapter 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
Chapter 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
(10) Openings 209
(11) "Perverse" 212
(12) Odium Dei 214
Chapter 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
Chapter 8: HOMER IN MILTON: THE ATTENDANCE MOTIF AND THE GRACES 239
Chapter 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
Chapter 10: "IF THEY WILL HEAR" 285
Chapter 11: AT THE SIGN OF THE DOVE AND THE 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
12. " f ul l of doubt i stand": th e structures of
parad i se lost 314
conclu s i on: s i g n s p ortentou s 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
