Christianity and Greek Epic Tradition as Devices for Miltons Object in

Christianity and Greek Epic Tradition as Devices for Milton's Object in Paradise Lost The widely known story of the Genesis account in the Bible of the creation and fall of humankind does not make for a very interesting story. Almost anyone familiar with Western tradition can provide at least this basic outline: God makes angels, the best angel wants to be God, the angel gets kicked out of Heaven into Hell, goes to the garden of Eden, persuades Eve to eat an apple, and down plunges humanity. So why, then, did Milton choose to use this particular piece of Biblical narrative, first, above his original intention of an Arthurian tale, and second, above any other account in the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments? Milton answers these questions both simply and enigmatically in the beginning of the poem: "What in me is dark/ Illumine, what is low raise and support;/ That to the heighth of this great Argument/ I may assert Eternal Providence/ And justify the ways of God to men" (Milton 47). The question that humanity begs an answer for, above all, is the reason for the rampant evil in the world. Many people over the last several centuries, and many Christians even, cannot reconcile the existence of unchecked evil alongside a loving, merciful God. Milton would heartily agree that characteristics of God can be found in any situation in the Bible (and so he did draw from these in other works), but within Milton's enlightened seventeenth-century society, the scientific process itself dictated that to discover the meaning of any process, one had to go back to the catalytic moment. In order to answer the most theologically difficult question this side of B.C., Milton had no choice but to go back to th e beginning and see, with what... ...adise Lost. ed. Thomas Kranidas. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969. 118-130. "Epic." Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica. 2015. Web 30 April 2015. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=119368>. Ferry, Anne. Milton's Epic Voice: The Narrator in Paradise Lost. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1963. "Milton, John." Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica. 2015. Web 30 April 2015. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=115562>. Milton, John. Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. New York: Signet Classics, 1968. New American Standard Bible. 2015. Web 30 April 2015. https://www.biblegateway.com Ricks, Christopher. Introduction. Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. By John Milton. New York: Signet Classics, 1968. vii- xxx. Webber, Joan Malory. Milton and His Epic Tradition. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1979.