********************************** The Western Canon Mailing List Moderator: Paul John Barnette Jr. Activation Date: March 8, 1997 Current Date: May 17, 1997 Current Membership: 55 ********************************** Some random thoughts (is this how it works?): During Milton's time, I would imagine that the Greek heroes illustrated the educated person's everyday image of the pinnacle of human glory and achievement. I wonder whether Milton is poking at us a little by using so many classical images and references in connection with devils.... is he saying that our own best endeavors, in and of themselves, are nothing more than small imitations of the fallen hosts of Heaven? Satan's shield is grander than that given to Achilles by the gods; Satan's staff makes a huge Norwegian pine look tiny. I'm already seeing that the only form of heroism I'm capable of understanding, let alone doing, is the kind Satan is also capable of. Maybe Milton is already setting us up for an encounter with another kind of hero that we find it much more difficult to understand. He's knocking down the heroes we can easily relate to from our fallen human outlook by showing the devils excelling within the very classical and romantic traditions we tend to idealize - maybe even more so during Milton's time than now. Or may it's just that the images he uses are appropriate to his own time--if he was writing now, maybe Milton would represent the demons as great athletes or guitar players or movie stars. I have really been struggling with Milton's statement that he intends to "justify the ways of God to man." Why should anyone need to? What purpose would it serve? Does he think that this is a way to win converts to Christianity? Obviously not. Does he think this will make better believers out of those who are already Christians? Doubtful. I don't know enough about Milton himself to interpret this statement in light of any knowledge about the kind of person he was. Perhaps he had been struggling with his own attempts to understand God's mysteriousness, as each of us does in his or her own way (regardless of religion; even my most atheistic friends do this), and this is the result of what we might today call "journaling." None of this satisfies me much. If anybody knows anything about the meaning behind this statement or has any insight into what Milton might have meant by it, please share! I love the way the devils are always blaming God for tricking them into revolting by hiding his strength, yet at the same time they repeatedly tell themselves that they're not much weaker than God - never considering that maybe he only showed as much strength as he needed to prevent them from taking Heaven, and still has infinite strength left untapped. The devils are like little beetles scurrying around convinced that themselves and their tasks are important, not impotent.... Gotta run - more later. I'm interested in hearing more about PJB Jr.'s British socio-historical interpretations - I'm not so well-educated in English history that I can see character similarities, etc. But I'd like to be. Bybybyby----- Robin Kolwicz ********************************************************* The Western Canon Mailing List pbarnett@geocities.com The Western Canon WWW Site http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/6681/index.html *********************************************************