Satan as hero and as ruler. The creation of hell and the infernal council scene in ›Paradise Lost‹

Abstract

Milton’s verse epic ›Paradise Lost‹ stages, already in the second book, a major council scene in Hell. The first two books of the epic are closely interrelated insofar as the first offers a magnificent performative production of Hell, which is accentuated as a new beginning of rule and thereby sets the stage for the council scene. In my reading, I examine both books in their systematic relationship to one another. The striking text-aesthetic dimensions of the epic, above all the bringing forth of the infernal space as well as the heroization of the figure in the council scene, are to be read with regard to the staging of Satan as a charismatic, unique leader and of his rule, which is based on the male bonding with Beelzebub.