WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.080 --> 00:00:03.759 Hey everyone, I'm Andrew Snyder. I am the host of 2 00:00:03.799 --> 00:00:06.200 the Mythic Mind podcast and the founder of the Mythic 3 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:08.800 Mind Fellowship. Now, if you're listening through the podcast, you 4 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:11.039 probably already know that, but I'm as supposeding this to YouTube, 5 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:13.839 and you know who knows it's going to come across it. Now. 6 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:16.320 We've been doing a number of things through the Mythic 7 00:00:16.359 --> 00:00:19.719 Mind Fellowship over the last year or so. The podcast 8 00:00:19.719 --> 00:00:21.600 has been going on for a while, but the larger 9 00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:23.960 fellowship has really been taken off over last year or so. 10 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:26.760 This fellowship is made of a number I'm at this 11 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:32.520 point over fifty mostly Christians who are generally interested in 12 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:36.520 the humanities, in literature. I'm representing a number of traditions, 13 00:00:36.600 --> 00:00:40.000 number of philosophies, but we all come around just the 14 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:45.000 same general focus on literature, on myths, on legends, on 15 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:48.520 you know, things like Tolkien and Lewis and the various 16 00:00:48.520 --> 00:00:52.039 things that inspire them. That sends to be our general focus. 17 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:56.159 Starting last year I began leading some independent courses out 18 00:00:56.159 --> 00:00:59.200 of the Fellowship, and so, beginning with the philosophy and 19 00:00:59.200 --> 00:01:01.880 Fiction of CS I led a course on Beowulf and 20 00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:05.200 Boethius just wrapped up a course on Tolkien and the 21 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:07.760 Lord of the Rings, and I've got a number of 22 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:10.319 courses that are lined up throughout this year and into 23 00:01:10.359 --> 00:01:13.159 the next. But what's really exciting right now and I 24 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:16.159 want to talk about, is that we are now including 25 00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:18.680 some other course creators who are coming alongside us, who 26 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:22.200 are joining with us in this fellowship to draw on 27 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:25.760 their interest, to draw on their expertise in order to 28 00:01:25.799 --> 00:01:30.280 just add to the catalog, the the array of courses 29 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:32.760 that we're able to provide for you. And in particular 30 00:01:32.840 --> 00:01:34.840 right now, I want to talk about Josh Taylor's Paradise 31 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:38.359 Lost course, which as I post this has just gotten started, 32 00:01:38.359 --> 00:01:40.159 and so it's not too late for you to join in. 33 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:42.680 But you know, whether you're able to join us live 34 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:45.159 or maybe you're you're viewing this or you're listening to 35 00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:47.760 this in the future, this is going to be a 36 00:01:47.799 --> 00:01:50.599 set up materials. It's going to be invaluable to you 37 00:01:51.159 --> 00:01:57.120 as you approach this. This this pivotal text in the 38 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:01.280 English literary tradition. And so you know, if you're somebody 39 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:03.760 who you know, you like Lewis for example, I mean 40 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:09.240 it's it's hard to find many more significant influences on 41 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:11.639 Lewis's writing. I mean, especially when're talking about something like 42 00:02:11.639 --> 00:02:15.199 Peril Andrew, but even beyond then than we have in 43 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:18.159 Paradise Lost. And so you know, if you're somebody who 44 00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:21.560 is inclined to watch this channel or listen to this podcast, 45 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:23.919 then you're somebody who's going to be who's going to 46 00:02:23.960 --> 00:02:28.400 benefit from having a strong guide to walk you through, 47 00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:31.199 to walk you into, to walk you, you know, further 48 00:02:31.280 --> 00:02:34.639 up and further into Paradise Lost. And Josh is really 49 00:02:34.639 --> 00:02:35.879 going to be a great guide for you, and that 50 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:38.919 as you're gonna be able to tell through this episode today, 51 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:42.199 as I'm going to provide you with his introduction to reading, 52 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:47.080 to studying, to working with Paradise Lost. Now, if you 53 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:49.840 want to continue on with Josh, and I strongly recommend 54 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:52.960 that you do, then I'll leave a link to his 55 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:55.879 his patron page, which is kind of what's the front 56 00:02:55.919 --> 00:02:59.479 door to the Google classroom. I'll leave that link in 57 00:02:59.639 --> 00:03:01.960 the show notes, both on YouTube and on the podcast. 58 00:03:02.120 --> 00:03:04.479 And also if you're already a Mythic Mind patron, then 59 00:03:04.479 --> 00:03:07.479 you can access that course which is already very inexpensive, 60 00:03:07.719 --> 00:03:10.719 but you can access that course for half price and 61 00:03:11.159 --> 00:03:13.840 you can find that code on Patreon. If you have 62 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:16.599 a hard time, then contact me on X contact me 63 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:20.159 through Patreon, contact me through Discord, and I'll make sure 64 00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:22.479 that you get that patron code. But for now, let's 65 00:03:22.520 --> 00:03:26.800 go ahead and jump right into Josh's introductory lesson on 66 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:28.199 studying Paradise Lost. 67 00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:33.479 Good day, everybody, So today this is going to be 68 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:37.879 the biggest video for the introductory portion of this course. 69 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:42.759 This videos is simply an introduction to Paradise Lost itself. 70 00:03:43.639 --> 00:03:47.439 Already talked about the life of John Milton, the historical context. 71 00:03:47.479 --> 00:03:49.960 Now we're going to get into talking about just a 72 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:55.120 sweeping overview of the text itself. So where I wanted 73 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:58.360 to start with that was with some of the influences 74 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:03.000 on Paradise Lost. Like any other great work or even 75 00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:08.680 not great work, Paradise Lost was written. It was written 76 00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:12.680 in a context, right. It was written with not just 77 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:16.759 a historical context, but within a tradition and a literary canon, 78 00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:25.199 with philosophical influences and different paradigms of thought. So we 79 00:04:25.279 --> 00:04:28.480 need to talk about how those things have influenced this, 80 00:04:28.680 --> 00:04:33.319 just very briefly and at a high level. So first 81 00:04:33.319 --> 00:04:38.439 and foremost, the number one influence on Paradise Lost should 82 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:44.720 obviously be the Bible scripture, Old Testament and New Testament, 83 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:47.720 though there's going to be more allusions to the Old Testament. 84 00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:53.120 It's all one cohesive work, and Milton is going to 85 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:57.079 see it that way, and they're a redemptive historical narrative 86 00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:02.720 that runs throughout scripture, which he will absolutely talk about it, 87 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:05.160 especially towards the end of Paradise Lost in the last 88 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:12.079 two books. So Milton is a Christian. Sometimes even Milton scholars, 89 00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:15.839 the secular ones, don't understand this point. We see this 90 00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:17.879 sometimes with the Donte too, where there's just so many 91 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:23.920 misreadings that come from people not understanding orthodox Christianity, not 92 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:28.120 specific denominational Christianity, but you know, the theology of the 93 00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:32.759 Nicene Creed and the Calcedonian definition and things that would 94 00:05:32.759 --> 00:05:39.279 be seen as historic Christian core beliefs. So people not 95 00:05:39.399 --> 00:05:44.439 understanding these things often limits their interpretation of something like 96 00:05:44.519 --> 00:05:48.399 Paradise Lost. But nevertheless Milton was influenced by those things. 97 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:54.959 Milton was an Orthodox Christian. The work De Doctrina Christiano, 98 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:58.759 which I'll get to talking about in a different video, 99 00:05:59.160 --> 00:06:03.360 sometimes seems to reveal that he was heretical in some 100 00:06:03.399 --> 00:06:07.160 ways being Aryan, which again we can talk about that 101 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:10.120 later if you don't know what that is. But there's 102 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:12.879 a lot of there's a lot of things we don't 103 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:14.720 know about that work. It's hard to say what Milton 104 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:16.279 was doing with it, and it was written at the 105 00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:19.680 end of his life, so we paradise loss is absolutely 106 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:23.279 written from the perspective of Orthodox Christianity. There's way too 107 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:26.879 much to unpack and comb through there for this video, 108 00:06:27.079 --> 00:06:30.240 but just know that, and certainly if you don't see 109 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:33.319 it that way during the class, please feel free to 110 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:35.720 ask questions and bring it up and we will have 111 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:40.399 a good, healthy dialogue about that. The main foundation for 112 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:43.680 this poem, of course, is going to be Genesis chapters 113 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:47.920 one through three in the Biblical canon. So this is 114 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:50.800 going to be foundational for the entire poem because there's 115 00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:56.519 events that take place before Genesis one and events that 116 00:06:56.560 --> 00:07:00.600 take place after the Fall in Genesis three, and the 117 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:03.720 archangel Michael at the end of this poem is going 118 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:07.680 to explain to Adam the history that takes place throughout 119 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:10.399 the Old and New Testament. But Genesis one to three 120 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:13.839 of the main backdrop, I highly highly recommend that you 121 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:19.920 are reading and meditating on God's word, especially Genesis one 122 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:24.000 through three throughout this entire class, and just seeing the 123 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:27.279 pieces connecting there and trying to see what Milton's doing 124 00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:31.319 with the imagination and with the questions He's asking there 125 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:35.680 things that scripture doesn't clearly answer for us. And God 126 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:39.959 certainly is not required to answer all of our questions 127 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:42.439 and provide more. Right, he revealed to us what he 128 00:07:42.519 --> 00:07:45.720 chose to. But these questions are good to ask, they're interesting, 129 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:47.759 they can even be helpful for the Christian life, and 130 00:07:47.800 --> 00:07:52.839 Milton's working with that. So another thing is just the 131 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:55.079 Exodus journey. There's going to be kind of this pattern 132 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:57.959 of the Exodus journey with the social context and the 133 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:01.399 journey through the wilderness. Important to keep that in the 134 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:05.279 in the back of your mind as well. In Paradise Laws, 135 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:09.439 it starts with Promise Land Eden and it ends with 136 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:14.360 wilderness exile from Eden because of the Fall, where Michael 137 00:08:14.519 --> 00:08:18.040 has to kick them out of Eden because of them 138 00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:22.160 being sinful now, and that's sort of like almost like 139 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:24.560 a reverse Exodus, where like they're in the Promise Land 140 00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:27.439 and then they leave the Promised Land, whereas if you 141 00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:30.920 know the Exodus story, they're in Egypt, Moses leads them 142 00:08:30.920 --> 00:08:33.879 out of Egypt through the wilderness, doesn't actually enter the 143 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:37.919 Promised Land. That's that's gonna be Joshua and Caleb's journey, 144 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:41.919 and in the Book of Joshua right after the Torah 145 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:46.080 and the English Bible. But nevertheless we see those those patterns. 146 00:08:46.120 --> 00:08:48.200 It's almost like a reverse Exodus in a way. So 147 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:50.480 just keeping keeping that in mind as well. There's certainly 148 00:08:50.600 --> 00:08:56.320 Theman influence there, all right. So most important influence is 149 00:08:56.360 --> 00:09:00.080 the Bible, no question about it. Just the history of 150 00:09:00.279 --> 00:09:03.200 the theology of the Christian Church as well, just broadly 151 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:08.039 speaking in terms of Orthodoxy and Catholicity. But outside of 152 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:13.200 Christian influences, the biggest influence is going to be the 153 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:16.159 epic poets, the great epic poets of our Western canon. 154 00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:21.720 So the first really maybe the usually consider the first 155 00:09:22.159 --> 00:09:26.919 literary author of our Western canon is Homer. Homer, writing 156 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:33.320 out of usually roughly eight hundred BC, maybe sometimes dated 157 00:09:33.320 --> 00:09:36.039 all the way back to one thousand BC, being the 158 00:09:36.039 --> 00:09:39.840 first person to write down the oral tradition of the 159 00:09:39.879 --> 00:09:43.840 Trojan Wars, which occurred before all of that. And so 160 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:48.240 we see so many Homeric styles and themes and conceptions 161 00:09:48.279 --> 00:09:54.399 throughout Paradise Lost. No doubt Milne is writing intentionally this 162 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:58.320 as an epic, not any other type of poem or 163 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:02.279 any other type of narrative. Is specifically trying to write 164 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:04.919 a great epic here, and I believe, of course he 165 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:08.440 accomplishes that, as many would agree. But there's going to 166 00:10:08.519 --> 00:10:12.960 be influences here. So we're going to see at one 167 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:15.799 point in Paradise Lost. I cannot remember the exact book 168 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:17.440 off the top of my head. It might be like 169 00:10:17.480 --> 00:10:20.519 book four or five, maybe even six. But somewhere in 170 00:10:20.519 --> 00:10:22.840 the middle of Paradise Lost, there's going to be a 171 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:27.080 recounting of the story of the war between the rebellious 172 00:10:27.120 --> 00:10:31.399 Angels aka the Fallen Angels and the demons, Satan being 173 00:10:31.399 --> 00:10:35.720 their leader, Satan wants Lucifer, the unfallen Angel, leads the 174 00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:39.679 rebellion against God, who he sees as a tyrant. And 175 00:10:39.879 --> 00:10:44.200 the military conflict recounted here is very, very, very much 176 00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:47.799 in the style of many of the passages in the Iliad. 177 00:10:48.279 --> 00:10:50.960 If you've ever read the Iliad, and if you haven't, 178 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:55.080 I'll tell you now, there is a lot of warfare 179 00:10:55.080 --> 00:10:57.720 in the Iliad. There's a lot of military conflict there's 180 00:10:57.720 --> 00:11:01.120 a lot of descriptions of battle scenes. This is very 181 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:03.960 You might see this in some like modern you know, 182 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:06.360 like modern fantasy stories or something here and there, but 183 00:11:06.360 --> 00:11:07.759 other than that, you don't really see a lot of 184 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:11.080 battle scenes. This is there's a section of Paradise Loss 185 00:11:11.080 --> 00:11:13.559 that really pays homage to Homer in a way, talking 186 00:11:13.559 --> 00:11:18.399 about the battle between God's angels who remained faithful to 187 00:11:18.519 --> 00:11:22.120 him and those who fall away from God and his grace. 188 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:29.159 Another Homeric convention is the the idea of really the 189 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:33.039 action being split into two, so you kind of have 190 00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:36.720 this hero's peril and social context or quest theme, and 191 00:11:36.840 --> 00:11:39.080 then the setting of social order in a way. So 192 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:44.960 in the Odyssey, you have first Odysseus in the hero's 193 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:48.519 journey is his journey back to Ithaca from the Trojan war. 194 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:50.759 Ithaca is his homeland, he is the king of that. 195 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:54.320 He's trying to return and he's going to get back there, 196 00:11:54.320 --> 00:11:56.799 and he has to establish social order because he's been 197 00:11:56.879 --> 00:11:59.159 gone for a long time, and he has a wife 198 00:11:59.480 --> 00:12:02.679 and a son named Telemachus who are going to be 199 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:07.080 He has to reorder his house, the Oikos, and he 200 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:10.320 has to reorder the police his city state, those are 201 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:15.320 themes in this two part epic of the Odyssey, and 202 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:17.039 you're gonna you're you kind of see that in a 203 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:20.960 little bit with Paradise Lost in some ways or another, 204 00:12:21.879 --> 00:12:26.759 you're gonna kind of see things taking place really before 205 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:29.480 the fall and after the Fall. But really Milton says 206 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:33.000 that book seven is where the rest of the poem is, 207 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:35.000 and he shows us that the poem is confined to 208 00:12:35.080 --> 00:12:37.679 Earth basically from book seven on where a lot of 209 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:40.759 things are taking place outside of Earth from the perspective 210 00:12:40.840 --> 00:12:44.120 of God and the perspective of Satan in the first 211 00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:49.759 half of Paradise Lost books one through six. So we 212 00:12:49.919 --> 00:12:53.080 kind of have this, uh, this this twofold way where 213 00:12:53.399 --> 00:12:57.240 it's almost like two arcs maybe in a way. You 214 00:12:57.320 --> 00:13:00.919 see this also in Virgil as well. So in the Anea, 215 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:04.360 the action is split into two. The first part of 216 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:09.240 the Enia is Eneas journeying out of Troy, which has 217 00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:13.639 been sacked, sieged, and destroyed, and he's going to be 218 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:18.960 taking his journey, fulfilling his destiny to establish what eventually 219 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:21.960 becomes Rome in the Roman Republic and then later the 220 00:13:22.039 --> 00:13:25.480 Roman Empire. And he moves out of the Italian Peninsula 221 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:29.360 and or moves out of Troy to the Italian Peninsula. 222 00:13:29.480 --> 00:13:31.320 And then when he gets to the Italian Peninsula he 223 00:13:31.320 --> 00:13:34.840 has to set some sort of social order there. It 224 00:13:34.840 --> 00:13:37.960 has conflict with all of the different Italian War awards, 225 00:13:38.039 --> 00:13:41.279 and that's what the second half of the Aenia is about. 226 00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:45.159 It's him establishing that and then receiving this prophecy that 227 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:49.120 you know, one day from this Romulus and Remus are 228 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:52.279 going to be you know, born from Reya, Sylvia. They 229 00:13:52.279 --> 00:13:55.879 are going to be nursed by the she wolf, and 230 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:59.360 they are going to one day establish Rome, and Romulus 231 00:13:59.399 --> 00:14:02.120 is going to be the first king of Rome. If 232 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:07.120 you never read read Olivy, specifically the Roman author, that's 233 00:14:07.159 --> 00:14:09.600 a great place to read all of that at as 234 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:13.399 kind of I guess as like a sequel to the Eneid. Okay, 235 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:16.440 So that's one aspect. Another aspect that we absolutely need 236 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:20.600 to talk about is this epic convention of media res. 237 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:25.799 So media res is basically Latin for in the middle 238 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:29.679 of things, And what this is going to mean is 239 00:14:29.720 --> 00:14:33.639 that we don't get the story from the beginning. The 240 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:36.480 Ilia does not take place at the beginning of the 241 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:39.039 Trojan War. It takes place at the end. It takes 242 00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:42.120 place in year ten of ten, really towards the very 243 00:14:42.200 --> 00:14:46.799 end of the war, leading up to finally sacking the 244 00:14:46.840 --> 00:14:49.600 city of Troy, which is what the entire war was 245 00:14:49.639 --> 00:14:53.080 about for ten years anyway. And we see the same 246 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:55.480 thing in the Odyssey where Odysseus. We do not start 247 00:14:55.519 --> 00:15:00.200 with Odysseus. We don't start with him at Troy like 248 00:15:00.279 --> 00:15:04.879 right after the sack, in him with his military platoon, 249 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:07.399 but we rather we see him on Calypso's Island, so 250 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:10.240 we wonder what happened there. Homer doesn't tell us. He 251 00:15:10.279 --> 00:15:13.080 doesn't tell us what happens at the beginning of the 252 00:15:13.320 --> 00:15:16.440 for most of the Trojan War, though there's references and 253 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:19.679 allusions to things, a lot of that is left open. 254 00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:23.559 And we see the same thing with the Aeneid in 255 00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:25.720 a sense as well, where he starts at the destruction 256 00:15:25.799 --> 00:15:28.919 of Troy, not before that, goes on a journey and 257 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:33.240 then ends in New Troy what eventually becomes Rome. And 258 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:35.120 here's whe we're going to see this in Paradise Lost. 259 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:39.360 It opens and you might expect, I'm not sure what 260 00:15:39.399 --> 00:15:42.360 you would expect, to be honest, but perhaps you might 261 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:47.000 expect that it'll start with the battle, or that it'll 262 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:51.919 start with creation, but it doesn't. It starts with Satan 263 00:15:53.320 --> 00:15:58.159 and his demons waking up basically in Hell. They're going 264 00:15:58.240 --> 00:16:00.279 to wake up by the Lake of Fire and Hell. 265 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:03.519 They've already lost the war. It's going to be recounted later. 266 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:07.519 This is an epic convention. It's the media res. Satan's 267 00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:10.720 in the middle of things. He hasn't gotten to Eden 268 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:16.519 to tempt and corrupt earth and humanity yet, but he 269 00:16:16.600 --> 00:16:20.200 has already lost the fight. He's already lost to that battle. 270 00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:22.759 And this is this is the media res. That's where 271 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:28.039 Paradise loss begins. Undoubtedly, this is where this is where 272 00:16:28.440 --> 00:16:31.200 John Milton is pulling these thrones and these from. And 273 00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:34.080 I believe that it's completely intentional at the end of 274 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:39.279 the day, certainly an epic convention. A couple other influences 275 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:43.759 I just want to mention here is the Ecclesiastical History 276 00:16:43.879 --> 00:16:48.200 by Caedmon. This is basically just a medieval text recounting 277 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:52.759 the history of the English Church. And this is where 278 00:16:52.759 --> 00:16:55.759 Milton's going to draw a lot of his British history from, 279 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:59.200 and his invocation of the muse. That's going to be 280 00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:03.000 another convention here where you know, you think like sing 281 00:17:03.080 --> 00:17:07.119 demo muse and Homer he's going to invoke the Muse, 282 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:11.079 and this is the Muse of all muses. It's the 283 00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:13.200 Holy Spirit that's You're going to see that right at 284 00:17:13.240 --> 00:17:16.920 the beginning of book one. But Cadman famously claimed to 285 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:19.440 have talked to an angel before he wrote this, and 286 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:23.240 whatever angel that was, that was supposedly supposed to be 287 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:29.079 his muse. Another key epic convention. Another one is it'd 288 00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:32.680 be hard to mention in English epic without mentioning the 289 00:17:32.839 --> 00:17:37.200 Arthurian Legend, the works of you know, Sir Thomas Mallory 290 00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:39.920 being the most profound, but other ones of course, like 291 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.480 Jeffrey of Monmouth and other medieval texts as well. But 292 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:47.559 we see themes of chivalry a very key theme in 293 00:17:47.599 --> 00:17:50.920 the Arthurian legend, and we see those in Paradise lost, 294 00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:55.920 especially as Adam falls, Eve falls and they have to 295 00:17:56.240 --> 00:17:59.200 leave Eden and go on a journey just the two 296 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:01.640 of them because no one their humans exists yet and 297 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:04.240 Adam Adam failed at chivalry in a sense, but he 298 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:06.960 still has to aim at the good of chivalry in 299 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:11.279 a way to lead his wife start a family with 300 00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:16.480 her and properly lead the people after falling from Eden, 301 00:18:16.599 --> 00:18:19.200 He's still, you know, he's promised of this future hope, 302 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:21.400 like the seed of the woman crushing the head of 303 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:24.759 the serpent. And so with that theological virtue of hope, 304 00:18:24.799 --> 00:18:28.319 he's going to carry on out there from from uh, 305 00:18:28.599 --> 00:18:31.079 from that, from that hope he's been given by Michael, 306 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:33.559 who is sent by God, and he's going to have 307 00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:38.119 to really have these masculine and chivalric virtues as he 308 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:43.559 properly leads his woman and his family through the new world, 309 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:47.400 the fallen world, which they will inhabit and dwell in 310 00:18:47.480 --> 00:18:50.960 from here on out. Milton actually wanted to write his 311 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:54.759 own Arthurian epic. He toyed around with the idea as 312 00:18:54.880 --> 00:18:57.680 for the Great English Epic, but he ended up writing 313 00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:01.960 Paradise Lost instead. Alfred Lord Tennyson in the late nineteenth 314 00:19:02.039 --> 00:19:04.559 century would take up the Man to Love, doing so 315 00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:07.480 with his Ideals of the King, which was written throughout 316 00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:09.359 it written and published throughout the second half of the 317 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:14.880 nineteenth century. Other influences were just medieval courtly love poetry. 318 00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:17.799 So this was kind of just like a don't think 319 00:19:17.799 --> 00:19:19.920 of this as like a romance, like a like a 320 00:19:19.960 --> 00:19:23.079 soap opera or a romance to see book or anything 321 00:19:23.079 --> 00:19:26.839 that we would, you know, associate with romance in our time. 322 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:29.720 I certainly can be quite critical of those things, and 323 00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:32.359 in some ways we should be, because I don't think 324 00:19:32.359 --> 00:19:35.400 they portray love and romance and such things very well. 325 00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:39.599 But courtly love poetry did portray these things in a 326 00:19:39.640 --> 00:19:43.039 more wholesome and I think true way. And we see 327 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:45.039 this even influence with Dante and the way that he 328 00:19:45.079 --> 00:19:49.440 talks about Beatrice in the Divine Comedy certainly influenced by 329 00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:53.519 Italian and French courtly love poetry, and Milton's going to 330 00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:55.359 be drawing on these things as well. There's a lot 331 00:19:55.400 --> 00:19:58.440 to say about the connection between Milton and Dante. Hopefully 332 00:19:58.440 --> 00:20:01.200 to talk about that at some point, but just time permitting, 333 00:20:01.240 --> 00:20:05.359 because there's a lot there as well. There's yeah, there's 334 00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:08.920 many questions up there and wondering if he actually, you know, 335 00:20:08.920 --> 00:20:11.920 if he actually was alluding to Dante in any way, 336 00:20:12.119 --> 00:20:14.359 or whether he read Dante, whether he liked him, whether 337 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:17.240 he saw them as like a somebody who was challenging 338 00:20:17.279 --> 00:20:21.400 for the Laurel crown in a sense. A lot there. 339 00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:23.880 I'm not gonna I'm not going to digress into that 340 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:25.440 right now, but I hope we can talk about it 341 00:20:25.480 --> 00:20:28.440 at some point. And one last piece I want to 342 00:20:28.519 --> 00:20:31.000 hit on here as far as literary influences, This is 343 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:33.920 not an exhaustive list, by the way, there are certainly many, many, 344 00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:38.839 many more, but the concept of a Socratic dialogue. A 345 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:41.599 lot of the dramatic scenes you're going to see where 346 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:45.480 characters are dialoguing with one another, it's usually one character 347 00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:48.960 talking to another for pretty much the entirety of the poem. 348 00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:53.200 And you see this especially in a scene where Raphael 349 00:20:53.440 --> 00:20:57.279 is educating Adam, trying to prepare him and educate him 350 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:01.279 properly to be virtuous and not take the fruit from 351 00:21:01.319 --> 00:21:03.200 the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and 352 00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:05.359 do also lead his wife to not do the same. 353 00:21:06.359 --> 00:21:09.519 That's going to be a key component here. But like 354 00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:13.119 the way even Satan just talking to his demons, or 355 00:21:14.440 --> 00:21:18.400 Adam and Eve talking to one another, Michael and Adam 356 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:20.519 talking at the end of the poem, these all have 357 00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:24.119 a very Socratic dialogue feel. And if you've never read 358 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:28.200 the dialogues of Plato, there's certainly a couple that are 359 00:21:28.680 --> 00:21:33.279 absolute essential reads, absolute essential parts of the Western canon. 360 00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:36.480 One of the most important authors of all time in 361 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:39.119 my opinion, and I think in the opinions of many, 362 00:21:39.119 --> 00:21:43.759 I don't think that's even much of an opinion practically effect. So, 363 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:48.000 moving out of influences, I would like to talk about 364 00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:52.039 the poem itself, the text of the poem. So what's 365 00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:55.200 the style here? Well, first of all, it is going 366 00:21:55.240 --> 00:21:59.079 to be i ambic pentameter, blank verse, So this is 367 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:04.279 just a poetry sc poetry, poetry way of method of 368 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:07.279 doing things. Sorry, losing my losing my voice here a 369 00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:09.799 little bit. But it's going to be a five foot 370 00:22:09.880 --> 00:22:13.000 line and it's going to be essentially just like ten 371 00:22:13.039 --> 00:22:16.880 syllables long, so you can count it out dead dead. 372 00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:19.960 You see that a lot in Shakespeare. Right, like to 373 00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:23.359 be or not to be? That is the question you're 374 00:22:23.400 --> 00:22:26.359 going to see these this same convention, Milton coming right 375 00:22:26.359 --> 00:22:29.480 out of the English Renaissance, that Shakespeare was one of 376 00:22:29.519 --> 00:22:33.599 the predominant authors of that. But more than I am 377 00:22:33.640 --> 00:22:36.079 bit pandemic or I want to focus on the idea 378 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:42.240 of blank verse here. So blank verse essentially means that 379 00:22:42.440 --> 00:22:47.440 it doesn't rhyme. Milton saw this as extremely vulgar. He 380 00:22:47.480 --> 00:22:50.839 did not see it as fitting the epic convention, and 381 00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:55.599 he actually wanted poetry to move away from rhyming and 382 00:22:55.720 --> 00:22:58.079 these this idea of like these couplets, the you know, 383 00:22:58.119 --> 00:23:00.720 the suffix of one line we're on with the suffix 384 00:23:00.759 --> 00:23:02.880 of the next line. He wanted to move away from 385 00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:06.440 that entirely. And we certainly see that a lot in 386 00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:09.079 the English poetic tradition. People think about poetry and they're like, 387 00:23:09.480 --> 00:23:12.160 you know, in rhymes. George Lucas, of course, once said 388 00:23:12.279 --> 00:23:15.119 it's like poetry rhymes. This isn't exactly what he was 389 00:23:15.160 --> 00:23:17.960 talking about, but poetry doesn't rhyme a lot of the time. 390 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:21.319 That's a common misconception, and Milton was trying to move 391 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:24.519 away from that. And so there's no rhyming scheme here. 392 00:23:24.599 --> 00:23:27.599 There's no rhyming scheme in Homer, there's not a rhyming 393 00:23:27.640 --> 00:23:32.279 scheme in Virgil or Avid, the main epic poets of 394 00:23:32.519 --> 00:23:36.880 the classical Greco Roman world. In fact, you know the 395 00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:39.200 same thing with Beowulf, right, We really only see this 396 00:23:40.039 --> 00:23:42.720 in Dante in a sense, with this terce arima rhyme scheme, 397 00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:45.319 which I'm not going to digress to explain what that means. 398 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:48.359 But Dante had a very specific rhyme scheme, and he 399 00:23:48.920 --> 00:23:51.920 used that, and you see that in the original Italian. 400 00:23:53.799 --> 00:23:56.119 But Milton's not going with that. He's not going to 401 00:23:56.160 --> 00:23:58.119