Paradise Lost Book I

Paradise Lost Book I

At the beginning of Paradise Lost, the poet John Milton prays to the Heavenly Muse for help and guidance. He wants light and inspiration to write about a great subject — the Fall of Man — a story which, he says, no one has ever written before in prose or verse.

The story tells how Adam and Eve, the first human beings, disobeyed God by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree — the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They were tempted by Satan, who had been thrown out of Heaven for rebelling against God. Out of revenge, Satan decided to destroy God’s new creation — Man.

After their rebellion, Satan and his followers fell for nine days through the darkness of Chaos and finally landed in Hell, a vast and dark prison full of fire and suffering. At first, all the fallen angels lay stunned in the burning lake. Then Satan was the first to recover. He called his chief follower Beelzebub, who was lying near him, and spoke to him about their sad condition.

Together they moved to the shore of solid fire. There, Satan called all the other fallen angels to wake up and rise from the lake. His powerful speech filled all of Hell with noise and energy. The angels quickly rose into the air and gathered around their leader.

Satan spoke again to encourage and give them hope. He told them that even though they had lost Heaven, they would never give up their fight against God. If they could not win by force, they would try to win by fraud and trickery.

Satan also mentioned a rumour that God would soon create a new race of beings — mankind. He suggested that they should hold a council meeting to decide what to do next.

Soon, a grand building called Pandemonium — the Palace of Satan — rose magically from the ground, built by Mulciber, who was once the great architect of Heaven. Music played as the building appeared. Heralds then announced that a meeting would be held there.

All the fallen angels flew towards Pandemonium like bees returning to their hive. To fit inside the hall, they made their bodies smaller. Inside, the great lords of Hell took their seats and began their secret discussion — the first infernal council.