First of all, a correction about my earlier post. I said Satan proposed to attack God indirectly through attacking God’s creation, but that wasn’t true. Satan just proposed to be and do the direct opposite of everything God is and does. In Book 2 Satan and his minions discuss what specific actions to take.

43. He ceased. And next to him
Moloch, sceptered king
Stood up, the strongest and fiercest spirit
That fought in heaven, now fiercer by despair

Moloch proposed another direct attack against Heaven:

102. Our power sufficient to disturb His heaven…
105. Which, if not victory, is yet revenge.

Belial’s character description is of note:

109. Belial, in act more graceful and humane.
A fairer person lost not heaven; he seemed
For dignity composed, and high exploit.
But all was false and hollow, though his tongue
Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason…

Belial proposes to stay in hell and hope that God’s wrath will subside and the severity of the conditions in hell will lessen.

Mammon, who was described earlier in Book 1…

679. …For even in heaven, his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of heaven’s pavement,
Trodden gold…

…proposes that perhaps they will grow accustomed to hell and its conditions and eventually be able to live comfortably.

255. Free and to none accountable, preferring
Hard liberty before the easy yoke
Of servile pomp…

Beelzebub has another idea:

344. …What if we find
Some easier enterprise? There is a place –
If ancient and prophetic fame in heaven
Err not – another world, the happy seat
Of some new race, called Man…

Here is where Satan and Beelzebub discuss warring with God on a different front, where they might persuade men to join them in their opposition. Satan proposes to take on the journey alone to discover if there really is a new world. The other angels hang out in hell while they wait for Satan to return, taking up such activities as: singing, chatting, and exploring hell.

551. Their song was partial. But the harmony –
What could it less when spirits immortal sing?

598. Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy.

The explorers discovered these rivers; each symbolized different things:

Styx – deadly hate
Acheron – sorrow
Cocytus – lamentations loud
Phlegethon – rage
Lethe – oblivion

I notice Milton seems to borrow from mythology, as Lethe is mentioned in many mythological stories as a river in the underworld that causes sleep/forgetfulness. I think I heard that it’s where we get the word “lethargy” from, which makes sense.

Alright, so Satan goes on this journey, comes to the gates of hell, which are guarded by two figures we soon learn to be Sin and Death. Death is Satan’s son, and Sin is Death’s mother. Interesting, no?

Anyways, Sin and Death open the gates of hell for Satan and he finds chaos of the elements or “dark materials” swirling and clashing about outside:

914. Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create
More worlds….

This is what Richard Pullman referenced when he named his fantasy trilogy “His Dark Materials.” (The movie The Golden Compass, with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, was based on the first book in the trilogy.)

Satan sees Earth and heads towards it.

</Book 2>

Also, did I mention that my huge impressive-looking copy of Paradise Lost has illustrations by Gustave Dore? It does. I don’t know if that means anything to you, but apparently he’s famous. He was even in my English textbook…so that’s cool, I guess.