To me, the challenge to "Invoke" is most tantalizing and this beckons me to comply.

Milton refers to "my adventrous song." He clearly takes credit for authorship although he is asking for assistance. Homer asks the Muse to sing through him, and "to begin when the two ( Achilles and Agemennon) broke and clashed..." Homer is asking the Muse to sing through him. Homer presents himself as a vessel; Milton presents himself as a poet/creator seeking "aid to my adventrous song."

"Satan awakens all his Legions:" like the morning after a party and the leader is the first to wake up and see the damage done and remember the unforgivable actions taken the night before, he realizes they need to get up and deal with their hangovers and injuries and face the music and start their process of recovery. He gets them in motion, and the story begins.

In the following verse Satan's status and valour etc is again proclaimed and exalted

Further enhancing Satan's status, as a being of superior qualities

Heroic qualities of valour, fortitude and stern, bold resolution. A man of action and a leader of others. At the same time as being impetuous and ambitious.

Maybe this could be seen as an example of Satan's more heroic virtues? His nobility and camaraderie; an acknowledgment of his responsibility to his fellow angels, for it was he who lead them to war and their now lamentable state. Empathising with his troops and preparing to rouse them once again. Or is it his fellow angels that are in tears?

Satan is like a leading hero in the army of fallen angels.

What a great spirit! Although they failed, Lucifer and their fellows are doing something needs great strength to do.

Is this Shepherd a reference to Satan? As a parody of Jesus being the Good Shepherd, Satan leads the innocent sheep Adam and Eve away from the religious path.

Or is it a reference to God being the shepherd of the chosen seed Adam?

Also see WP on Canaanite religion, and child sacrifice by the Carthaginians, who were transplanted Phoenicians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Canaanite_religion

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jan/21/carthaginians-sacrificed-own-children-study

Instead of Homer's catalogue of ships, Milton gives us a catalogue of devils.

See WP on horned deities. I don't have the research to show how some of those deities came to be identified as devils. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_deity

An echo of 1.177: To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep

And so is Milton a discoverer of new lands.

Also, of course, the shield of Achilles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shield_of_Achilles

(1) Hamlet II.2.249, when discussing Denmark as a prison:

...for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

(2) From the Stoic handbook of Epictetus:

Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.

The things in our control are by nature free, unrestrained, unhindered; but those not in our control are weak, slavish, restrained, belonging to others.

(3) The first verse of the Dhammapada, attributed to Buddha:

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.

Wasn't he chained on the burning lake?

This implies that getting Eve to bite the forbidden fruit was part of God's plan. Not only that, it was better than no bite, and it allowed Jesus to show mercy.

Fine words, but keep in mind that Satan is bragging- one might say strutting- to make up for his bad situation. Or as it says above:

So spake th' Apostate Angel, though in pain, [ 125 ] Vaunting aloud, but rackt with deep despare:

This could be Milton himself, writing PL during the Restoration.

Echoed in Tennyson's Ulysses:

One equal temper of heroic hearts,<br> Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will<br> To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Another echo of Dante (Inferno 3):

JUSTICE URGED ON MY HIGH ARTIFICER; MY MAKER WAS DIVINE AUTHORITY, THE HIGHEST WISDOM, AND THE PRIMAL LOVE.

BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS WERE MADE, AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY. ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE.

4Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore; 5fecemi la divina podestate, 6la somma sapïenza e ’l primo amore.

7Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create 8se non etterne, e io etterno duro. 9Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate’.

To approximate that theology, Genesis would have read:

In the beginning, before God created Heaven and Earth, created He Hell.

Of course, Milton does not say that Hell was created before creation.

A devilish echo of Ex. 3:2:

the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

Reminiscent of the chaos before creation.

From WP: in the Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound (translated by G. M. Cookson), Hephaestus is to bind Prometheus "to the jagged rocks in adamantine bonds infrangible".

There's also a book on Prometheus and Lucifer, though I haven't read it. I imagine it's not the only one to have made the connection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer_and_Prometheus

Note that Satan and the serpent are not the same in Genesis. Going further, Satan has quite a small part in the Old Testament. Even in Job, it's never assumed that he has any independent power. It was left to Christian readers to put Rev 12.9 together with Genesis.

The Bible quote is true, but we never see them as generals in God's army (as it were). Genesis goes right from the creation of Eve to the apple, so we never see the humans having dominion over the rest of nature.

Providence, from providere, to foresee, assumes that God foresaw the apple bite and it was all part of his plan. At the least, this smells like a mix of Greek notions read back into Genesis, or to use the words of Jesus, to pour new wine into old skins.

Housman (Terrence, This is Stupid Stuff):

For Malt does more than Milton can To justify God's ways to man.

Were Milton not a powerful poet, many of his positions would be considered heretical. The same could be said of Dante, despite those who see him as St. Thomas in verse.

Shelly refers to this and Genesis in The Cloud:

And when Sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath, Its ardours of rest and of love, And the crimson pall of eve may fall From the depth of Heaven above, With wings folded I rest, on mine aëry nest, As still as a brooding dove.

Perhaps the real subject of the poem: Milton's pure and upright heart.

It may be considered heterodox, but it's also the position in the Jewish Study Bible:

A tradition over two millennia old sees 1.1 as a complete sentence: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In the 11th century, the great Jewish commentator Rashi made a case that the verse functions as a temporal clause. This is, in fact, how some ancient Near Eastern creation stories begin-including the one that starts at 2-4b. Hence the translation, When God began to create heaven and earth. 2: This clause describes things just before the process of creation began. To modern people, the opposite of the created order is "nothing," that is, a vacuum. To the ancients, the opposite of the created order was something much worse than "nothing." It was an active, malevolent force we can best term "chaos." In this verse, chaos is envisioned as a dark, undifferentiated mass of water. In 1.9, God creates the dry land (and the Seas, which can exist only when water is bounded by dry land). But in 1.1-2.3, water itself and darkness, too, are primordial (contrast Isa. 45.7). In the midrash, Bar Kappara upholds the troubling notion that the Torah shows that God created the world out of preexistent material. But other rabbis worry that acknowledging this would cause people to liken God to a king who had built his palace on a garbage dump, thus arrogantly impugning His majesty (Gen. Rab. 1.5). In the ancient Near East, however, to say that a deity had subdued chaos is to give him the highest praise.

It seems that Milton the Protestant agrees with the Church fathers when it suits his purposes, and considers then ignorant when it suits his purposes.

I'm assuming this is from Rev 12:9: And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

The larger question is when is Milton quoting scripture, and when is he using poetic license? The latter point could be put less sympathetically: when is he creating his own theology?

Gen 2.8: God did make him in one place, and then moved him to Eden: And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, to the East, and He place there the human He had fashioned (Alter)

Heroic virtues. Reminds me of the 'wrath of Achilles'

Adjectives and similes enhancing Satan's status.

Here we see Satan has not given up, even after facing immense hardship and the loss of the comforts of Heaven. In a way, one could see this as Satan exhibiting bravery and believing in his convictions. In Satan's mind, in order to get even, he is trying to pervert God's intended purpose (by reveling in causing "evil") and bringing grief to his cretor. One could, perhaps, in a way even sympathize with Satan for a bit, Satan, after all, felt shackled and limited by the will of God, and wanted to break free. The rebellious spirit of Satan is strangely relatable, and people often experience a rebellious phase during the teenage years.

cf. 133. Another example of self delusion. The rebel angels fail to see that their release from the amercement of the "Stygian flood" is due to the "sufferance" or allowance of God, ascribing this release to their own power "as Gods". Milton makes explicit that this is not the case.

An instance of the inherent atheism behind the rebellion of Satan and the other fallen angels. They cannot comprehend or choose not to see that God upholds his throne not by "strength, or chance, or fate" but by right of his eternal nature - a nature that sets him apart from all creatures.

Had Satan won the heavenly battle and became ruler of all, would we have had a more just, good, better god/ ultimate ruler? Is God truly tyrannical?

Trait of epic poetry: the hero witnessing some kind of horrible disaster, as well as establishing a damaging character flaw.

This feels very much like the Aeneid after Aeneas and his men crash on Carthage

Here character's will appears to be powerful and changes the world a lot, just like nobles in epic poems.

I'm curious what the poet meant here - is the epic composed of a description of the origin and fall, but not much of the "middle" ? Doubtful I would think from the length!

From the very beginning Milton's intention to write an epic are obvious, echoing the much older Odyssey and it's first line "Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns..." (Fagles trans)

The style and the sense is also epic. The way of expression great and powerful.

This first phrase, it seems to me an epic introdution. It has some sense from Homer, as start Iliad. It seems that disobedience is the prime theme in this poem.

As in other epic poems, the author ask help, to reveal to him the details and the information, here ask nothing hide from him. It is an epic elemet.

The "resource curse."

Sandbagging.

Ironic, considering Satan is saying this from a place that had been prepared for rebels, in advance of any rebellion.

Why?

How could Satan aspire to be God's equal in glory if he didn't even assess God's strength?

Was Satan's intention to share his power sincere?

The syllable "Sabu" crops up frequently in stories such as this. See, for instance, the Anonymous hacker-turned-FBI-informant who used that handle.

If it was foreordained that some one(s) would rebel, to the extent that a prison was pre-built for them, can that be considered Justice?

Where does the association of Hell with sulfur come from originally?

Several of Jesus's disciples argued about who would be first among them in the Kingdom of Heaven. By contrast with God in this poem, Jesus didn't punish these disciples for their ambition to sit "in Glory above [their] Peers," but taught them that whomever wanted to be first among them had to be like a servant to the rest.

The idea of a heroic Satan seems undermined by the reference to a 'great argument … [that will] justifie the ways of God to men'. We need to wait to identify Milton's Aeneas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seraph

The highest Angel

What a wonderful word this is, 'Pandaemonium'. The poem deserves to be remembered for this creation alone! I guess is shows the benefit of a classical education.

With Beelzebub we have the beginning of a long list of 'heroes', perhaps combatants is better. This is typical of Homer, especially the Iliad.

This seems like a "thesis" to me, cementing the First Disobedience as the central object

Reminds me of Buddhist thought: how the perceptions and views we have about experience can have a dramatic positive or negative effect on our happiness. It also makes me think the power S.T.Coleridge attributes to the imaginal faculty.

Satan casting himself as hero fighting tyranny

The epic hero who will restore us from the consequences of the original sin

Description helping to create a sense of Satan as heroic

An example of Satan's heroic stance? Engaged in combat against, injustice, despotism, tyranny?

this description of hell is so vivid

hell

can it be a reference to Satan?

God's Will for the Man he created

Milton considers him as mediator between God and men. He believes that God has chosen him to write poetry and justify the ways of God to men.

Shows the basic nature of man. Milton here accepts that he is not capable to writing this epic poem without the help of his Muse, that is the Holy Spirit.

shows the trinity nature of God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. From this we can understand that God was not alone when he created the universe.

it can be a reference to Moses, who God chose to free the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.

Jesus Christ, Son of God who came to save the mankind from death

tree of knowledge of good and evil

Hell

Eating the fruit of the tree of good and knowledge causing disobedience to God.

in this line, to me, recalls back to Milton's efforts to mimic the Homeric / Classical Style of invoking (asking) Divine aid in telling or singing the tale of an epic hero, as can be seen in the opening lines of The Iliad, The Odyssey and The Aeneid. in this particular line, Milton explicitly asks for divine aid (line 6) in singing / telling his song (although in this line and previously, it is not abundantly clear (to me) who the epic hero(es) is (or are).

This is ridiculous. Satan just summarizes the disadvantages of the hell, and then he implies that those disadvantages are the advantages of their union? Maybe union is true(because misery wants company), but when it comes to faith or firm accord, it is too much. It is more like a twisted union bounded by misery. Maybe he says this for encouraging everyone because latter hes' going to find that falling from the heaven is everything but an advantage.

sounds a bit like Hamlet's: "...unhousel'd, disappointed, unaneled..."

His red hand.... Her stores were o....

Her referring to ?

Here we see no one is brave enough to accept the task upon which the fate of their kind rests, no one but Satan that is. In the lines that come after, Satan offers to take up the role that no one else would, and in doing so he showcases heroism -he has the courage that others lacked. Yes, one could argue that doing evil deeds are not the hallmark of a hero, but one would have to concede that taking on a task that no one else is willing to take on has to be considered heroic.

Here, we can see one more reason as to why Satan and his army might be displeased with God - humans even though less in power and excellence than them are said to be more favored. One could place themselves in the position of Satan and, perhaps, to a degree understand why Satan felt undervalued by God, when "lesser" beings were being given more attention.

Here we see Beelzebub described in a grand manner, almost, as if he was someone to be admired; Milton seems to devote a good amount of time, initially, to set up the motives of the "evil" characters, and in doing so makes them easier to understand and feel sympathy for. While they are not without flaws, we do see them feeling the pain of being thrown out of heaven and that humanizes them in our eyes.

Satan has shown elements of Ulysses in his search: he talks his way through the gates, but is willing to faces challenges bravely.

Satan, like a true warrior, a hero to the fore dealing to the challenge.

Here the heroic, undaunted by the tasks he faces.

Be he god, hero or mere man, he, Satan here, struggles in the confusion of anarchy and Chaos.

This is the loving God of the new testament that I expect, and Grace for all, not just the elect few.