Reading 1

It starts out describing the story of Adam and Eve, and it relates the act of eating the Forbidden Fruit to Pandora opening her box—both of which brought all the death and woe into our world.  Then it describes how Jesus brought humanity back into the favor of God with a reference to how Aeneas, while founding Rome, brought the Trojans into good (or better) terms with the Latin gods and goddesses.  Then Milton directly invokes the muse while referring to the creation of the world and the Ten Commandments.  He boasts how his epic poem will become very famous and reach previously unattained heights (meant here as a pun to mean levels of mastery in poetry and as the literal sense of height because it will fly over Aonian’s Mountain).  Then he goes on and describes his goal to explain God’s actions to men which mirrors Virgil’s goal in the Aeneid (Muse, remember the causes for me, with what offense to her divinity or grieving over what did the queen of gods drive a man to undergo so many misfortunes to undertake so many labors).  Then he explains how it was the Devil’s influence over Adam and Eve that caused them to betray God.  The Devil once was an angel, but his pride had cast him out of Heaven; therefore, in an attempt to match his glory with God’s glory, he fought against God in a large war.  The Devil terrorizes men on Earth as well but not as long for he is tormented by the memories of lost happiness and now everlasting pain.  Then it goes on to describe Hell as a large furnace where inside the light only reveals darkness.  In Hell, this darkness visible serves only to illuminate sights of woe; sorrow; places where peace, rest, and hope are never found; and where torture never ends.  It also introduces Beelzebulb who is Satan’s right-hand man.