Satan is on the outermost of the ten concentric spheres that make up the cosmos.

The rebel angels

Milton draws freely, for his Christian Heaven, on descriptions of the classical paradisal place, the Elysian fields.

Here referencing the thrones of both God and the son.

angels

judgments

summoned

These are the orders (ranks) of angels.

The Son of God, who long antedates the creation of Adam and who is actually the first created being, is later incarnated in Jesus Christ.

The merit of Christ attributed vicariously ("imputed") to human beings frees from original sin those who renounce their own deeds, good and bad, and hope to be saved by faith.

Reference to Jesus Christ who is willing to sacrifice himself (in this scene) to "restore" man from a "second root" (Adam being the "first root").

pleasure, delight

wonder

in spite of

intercession

Compare this to the devil's Great Consult (Book II, Lines 420-26).

In this speech, Milton's God rejects the Calvinist doctrine that he had from the beginning predestined the damnation or salvation of each individual soul; he claims rather that grace sufficient for salvation is offered to all, enabling everyone, if they choose to do so, to believe and persevere. He does, however, assert his right to give special grace to some.

"vouchsafed" = bestowed, given

profaned, speak irreverently about God or sacred things

Referencing Satan and his crew here.

Forming a wide breach between Heaven and Hell.

"glozing lies" = flattering lies

vast

dusky

angels

Heaven

Thamyris was a blind Thracian poet who lived before Homer; "Maeonides" is an epithet of Homer; Tiresias was the blind prophet of Thebes; Phineas wa sa blind king and seer (Aeneid 3).

always remember

Hell is "utter" (i.e. outer) darkness; Chaos is middle darkness.

cover

uncreated, eternal

at full speed

Jason and his fifty Argonauts, sailing through the Bosporus to the Black Sea in pursuit of the Golden Fleece, had to pass through the Symplegades, or crashing rocks.

i.e. civil wars (what an image to describe this!)

Chaos is not a monarch of his realm but, appropriately, "anarch" or "nonruler".

deep pit

Griffins, mythical creatures, half-eagle, half lion hoarded gold that was stolen from them by the one-eyes Arimaspians.

Quicksands of North Africa

useless wings ("pinions")

Goddess of war

"firth" = channel

seeds

Chaos is both the place where confusion reigns and personified confusion itself.

Cities built on the shifting sands of North Africa.

These subatomic qualities combine together in nature to form the four elements, fire, earth, water, and air but they struggle endlessly in Chaos, where the atoms of these elements remain undeveloped (in "embryo")....speaking of placenta....

"hoary" = ancient

billowing (smoke)

Hell

armies of hell

"rolling her bestial train" = propelling her yelping offspring

As the Son sits at God's right hand, Sin will at Satan's.

Unknown journey--a parody of Christ's errand on earth.

claims

I.e., the son of God.

The Caspian sea was known as a particularly stormy area.

Loaded with thunderbolts.

A vast northern constellation, "the Serpent bearer".

experience

misshapen face

Like Cerberus, the multi-headed hound of Hell.

pack

The allegorical figures of Sin and Death are founded on James 1:15. The incestous relations of Sin and Death, however, are Milton's own invention. Physically, Sin is modeled on Virgil or Ovid's Scylla, with some touches adopted from Spenser's Error. Death is a traditional figure, vague and vast.

Two of the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, part of modern day Indonesia.

When capitalized, a reference to Satan (remember that "Satan" means "adversary" in Hebrew)

The hydra was a serpent whose multiple heads grew back when severed; the Chimera was a fire-breathing creature, part lion, part dragon, part goat.

One of three Gorgons, women with snaky hair, scaly bodies, and boar's tusks, the sight of whose faces changed men to stone.

Tantalus, afflicted with raging thirst, stood in the middle of a lake, the water of which always receded as he tried to drink.

creature

make numb

These four rivers are traditional in hellish geography. Milton distinguishes them by the original meanings of their Greek names: Styx means "hateful" Acheron "woeful".

hardened

prejudiced

Wearing a poisoned robe given him in a deception, Hercules ("Alcides") in his dying agonies threw his beloved companion Lichas, along with a good part of Mount Oeta, into the Euboean Sea.

bristling

confronting

To drive a chariot as close as possible around a column without hitting it.

arrayed in ranks

supreme ruler

"louring element" = threatening sky

A literal reading of this word: "full of awe"

formerly

importance

Chaos is a womb in which all potential forms fragment (see: line 895).

Hell's fiery walls and gates have nine thicknesses.

"demur" = hesitation

Chaos, a striking example of sound imitating sense.

Darkness so thick is can be felt.

attempt, venture

nobles

Adam, the first man, is the "Root" of the human race.

ruin

originator, parent

To be defended by the occupants.

Granted

I.e., war has decided the question for us, but also limited us.

Reference to archangel Michael, a warrior angel, chief of the angelic armies.

Come to terms with

Pain felt by the senses.

servitude

proves

I.e., from the view of happiness, the devils are in an ill state, but it could be worse.

"inured" = accustomed

proposals

In this context, "cascades"

struck

headlong

feat

confuse

Here referencing "manna from heaven" - i.e. honey words seemed like the manna supplied to the Israelites in the desert.

portended

I.e., we cannot be worse off than we are now, and still live.

outcome

natural to us

Tartarus is a classical name for hell.

the thunderbolts

A typical epic convention (in Homer, Virgil, Tasso and elsewhere) involved counsels debating war or peace, with a spokesman on each side. Satan here only offers the option of war: covert or open.

schemes

India; "Ormus" is an island in the Persian Gulf (modern Hormuz) famous for its pearls.

witness

The pygmies were supposed to live beyond the Himalayas.

"Pandemonium" (a Miltonic coinage) means literally "all demons" an inversion of "pantheon" - meaning "all gods".

Hephaestus was the god of the forge, a craftsman.

Hephaestus, or Vulcan, was sometimes known as "Mulciber".

Basket-like lamps, hung from the ceiling.

boiling dregs

Doric pillars are severe and plain. The devils' palace combined classical architectural features with elaborate ornamentation, suggesting, perhaps, St. Peter's in Rome. Here is a rendering:

The Tower of Babel and the pyramids of Egypt.

"Mammon," an abstract word for riches, came to be personified and associated with the god of wealth, Plutus, and so with Pluto, god of the underworld.

Sulfur and mercury were considered the basic elements of all metals.

Like Roman legionnaires, the fallen angels applaud by beating swords on shields.

covert (hidden)

contradictory

potent, powerful

"essayed" = attempted (yes, the term "essay" comes from this :)

deprived

Satan's forces also surpass the "British and Armoric" (from Brittany) knights who fought with King Arthur ("Uther's son") and all the romance knights who fought at the famous named sites in the following lines.

allied

Pygmies (little people, with a pun, in "infantry" on "infants") had periodic fights with the cranes, in Pliny's account. Compared with Satan's forces, all other armies are puny.

Severe, martial music used by the Spartans marching to battle.

pushed close together

lustrous

In Paradise Lost, Chaos and Night rule the region of unformed matter between Heaven and Earth.

trumpets

Their flags bear the heraldic arms of the various orders of angels and memories of their battles.

Traditionally, one of the four standard-bearers in Satan's army.

immediately

accustomed

Satan's face reflected the same mixed emotions.

This passage, with its present tense verbs, invites application to current examples--i.e., at court and in Restoration London.

flushed

leveled

Referencing the "golden calf" the Israelities worshiped as Moses collected the ten commandments:

A Phoenician god whose temple was in Damascus.

The cities mentioned here are the five major cities of the Philistines (where Dagon was worshiped).

When the Philistines stole the ark of God, they placed it in the temple of the sea god, Dagon, but in the morning the mutilated statue of Dagon was found on the threshold ("grunsel edge").

Here, a reference to the Lebanese river named for the deity because every spring it turned bloodred from sedimentary mud.

A Syrian god; his Greek form was Adonis, beloved of Aphrodite and god of the solar year. Annual festivals marked his death and celebrated his rebirth as the "rebirth" of vegetation.

Here referencing the fact that Israelites, convinced that Moses had died, took up idol-worship in the Book of Exodus, turning away from their belief in a single God, Jehovah.

Plural forms, masculine and feminine, respectively, denoting aspects of the sun god Baal and the moon goddess Astarte (referenced below).

close by

Chemos, or Chemosh was the god of the Moabites, whose lands are mentioned in the following lines.

The rites of Molach on "that opprobrious hill" (the Mount of Olives), just opposite the Jewish temple, and the valley of Hinnom so polluted those places that they were turned into the refuse dump of Jerusalem. Under the name "Tophet" and "Gehennda" Hinnom became a type of hell.

Golden cherubim (angels) adorned opposite end of the gold cover of the Ark of the Covenant:

The catalog of gods to follow is an epic convention; Homer catalogs ships, Virgil, warriors.

mixed

one at a time

showy rites

"razed" = erased

formerly

Moses, who drew down the plague of locusts in Egypt

battle flags

A mythical Egyptian pharaoh who Milton associates with the one found in Exodus (who persecutes the Israelites).

Orion is a constellation whose rising near sunset in the late summer and autumn was associated with storms in the Red Sea.

seaweed

form bowers (shade or enclosure)

The name means "shady valley" - referring to a region high in the Apennines in Tuscany. Similes comparing the numberless dead to falling leaves are common in epics.

nevertheless

soil

admiral's ship

Reference to Galileo, who looked through a telescope ("optic glass") from the hill town of Fiesole, outside Florence, in the valley of the Arno river. In 1610, he published a book describing the mountains on the moon.

An ironic echo of the Odyssey where the shade of Achilles tells Odysseus that it is better to be a farmhand on earth than a king among the dead.

estate

permission

hellish

Pelorus and Etna are volcanic mountains in Sicily:

alights

covers

out of the wind

The story of the deceived sailor and the illusory island was a commonplace tale; the reference to Norway suggests that Milton is referencing a 16th century version by Olaus Magnus, a Swedish historian.

overcome by night

The whale (sea monster) and enemy of the Lord in the Book of Isaiah and the crocodile-like creature of Job.

Both the Titans, led my Briareos (said to have 100 hands), and the earth-born Giants, represented by Typhon (said to have 100 heads), fought with Jove (Jupiter). They were punished by being thrown into the underworld. Christian mythographers found in these stories an analogy to Satan's revolt and punishment.

armies

bluish

let slip

calmed

Necessarily

outcome

feared for

I.e, what else does it mean not be overcome?