Milton's Treatment of the Pagan Gods in Paradise Lost, Book I

Milton’s Treatment of the Pagan Gods in Paradise Lost, Book I

Soumyajit Chandra,

English Honours, PG I,

Jadavpur University.

The first Book of John Milton’s magnum opus, Paradise Lost, initiates the story of “Man’s First Disobedience” in medias res, and one comes across the fallen angel Lucifer, and his vanquished comrades-in-arms, incarcerated on the lake of fire in Hell. Milton provides a catalogue of the most powerful fallen angels in keeping with the epic tradition, and proleptically proclaims them to be the deities of three future pagan religions, namely the Semitic, Egyptian and Greek. Christianity has a long history of the diabolization of the pagan gods, and Milton may have been simply following that very tradition, but his treatment of these apostate angels turned pagan gods whispers of a multitude of sociological, cultural and religious traditions that were venerated for a long time indeed in the pre-Christian days.

Milton’s tone is proleptic as he asserts that the fallen angels would get “new names”, and turn into “Gods ador'd Among the Nations round”. The introductions of these erstwhile “many throned Powers” are coloured with their future reputation. Milton actually describes the Egyptian pantheon as “Names of Old Renown.” The past tense is continually used to speak of the future.

Moloch leads the catalogue; he was an ancient Ammonite god, worshipped by the Canaanites, Phoenicians, and related cultures of the Levant. In the valley of Gehenna adjacent to Jerusalem, apostate Israelites practiced propitiatory child sacrifice to him, by burning their children alive ^[1]. Hence, he is “besmeared with the blood of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears.”Milton’s claim, that loud noise of “drums and timbrels” was used to drown the wails of the victims, is corroborated by Plutarch in his De Superstitiones.

Next, we encounter Chemos—he was a god of the Moabites. His presence in the Old Testament world was well known, as his cult was imported to Jerusalem by King Solomon.  King Josiah destroyed the Israelite branch of the cult ^[2].  Milton relates the Biblical episode of the Israelites involving in fornications with the women of Moab, after their defeat of the Moabites on the journey to the Promised Land ^[3]. Hence Chemos, the “obscene dread of Moab’s sons”, becomes an agent of seduction, and the centre of “lustful orgies”.

Chemos is followed by a multitude of “Baalim and Ashtaroth”— One finds in the Tanakh the plural forms 'Baalim' or 'Lords' and 'Ashtaroth' or 'Astartes'. A theory holds that the people of each territory or in each wandering clan worshipped their own Baal, as the chief deity of each, the god of fertility. Joined with the Baals, there would be corresponding female figures which might be called Astartes, embodiments of Astarte. Post-Exilic allusions to the cult of Baal-Peor suggest that orgies prevailed. Human sacrifice, the burning of incense, violent and ecstatic exercises, and ceremonial acts of bowing and kissing appear among the offences denounced by the post-Exilic prophets; and show that the cult of Baal (and Astarte) included characteristic features of worship which recur in various parts of the Semitic (and non-Semitic) world, although attached to other names^[4] .

Milton goes on to speak of Astarte and Thammuz in close succession, who serve as an exemplification of the many “Baalim and Ashtaroth”. Astarte is one of the oldest goddesses in recorded history. She has been known as the ‘Queen of Stars’, ‘Morning Star of Heaven’, and ‘Venus in the Morning’. Astarte has been associated with goddesses such as Artemis, Aphrodite and Inanna, and indeed, these goddesses could represent Astarte under a different name. Her name is also synonymous with the Goddesses Ishtar and Ashart ^[5]. The worship of Adonis was practised by the Semitic peoples of Babylonia and Syria, and the Greeks borrowed it from them as early as the seventh century before Christ. The true name of the deity was Tammuz: the appellation of Adonis is merely the Semitic Adon, “lord,” a title of honour by which his worshippers addressed him. In the religious literature of Babylonia, Tammuz appears as the youthful spouse or lover of Ishtar, the great mother goddess, the embodiment of the reproductive energies of nature.  Every year, Tammuz was believed to die, passing away from the cheerful earth to the gloomy subterranean world, and his divine mistress journeyed in quest of him to the underworld.  During her absence, the passion of love ceased to operate: men and beasts alike forgot to reproduce their kinds: all life was threatened with extinction. So intimately bound up with the goddess were the sexual functions of the whole animal kingdom that without her presence they could not be discharged ^[6]. Every year, the death of Thammuz/Adonis was lamented by “Sion’s daughters”, and Milton’s succinct description is faithful to history. But the “Love tale” is deemed immoral, as it kindled “wanton passions” in their hearts; the rites of Astarte had a licentious character as well, and thus, these divine lovers were deemed insidious by Milton, so to say, Christianity.

Dagon appears next; he was originally an east-Semitic, fertility god who evolved into a major Northwest Semitic god, reportedly of grain (as symbol of fertility) and fish and/or fishing (as symbol of multiplying). He was worshipped by the early Amorites and by the inhabitants of the cities of Ebla and Ugarit. He was also, perhaps, chief of the pantheon of the Philistines. The account in 1 Samuel 5.2–7 relates how the Ark of Covenant, captured to Dagon’s temple in Ashdad, led to the amputation of his image. Milton mentions this episode, and loads the epithet “Sea Monster” on Dagon because of his fish-tail, which is now believed to have been a phallic symbol ^[7].

Rimmon is mentioned next, who appears to be a much-venerated deity of the Syrians ^[8].

 Milton proceeds with his catalogue, accusing “Osiris, Isis and Orus” to be the members of a similar race of impostor-gods, who have long seduced human beings to depraved religious practices, such as animal worship and sorcery. By “wand’ring gods”, Milton refers to the journeys of Osiris and Isis; Osiris has been seen variously as a corn god, tree spirit or a god of fertility, while the “myriad named” Isis has been revered as a benevolent mother goddess of fertility ^[9].

The “Ionian gods” are next in queue: Milton refers to the inter-generational revolts of the Greek gods to blame them with impiety, and also denies their divine identity, as he traces their descent from Javan, son of Japheth. Apart from the pagan gods, three well known demons in Christian myth are mentioned namely Beelzebub, Belial and Azazel.

Apart from fraudulence, deceit and presumption, Milton accuses the pagan gods on specific grounds, which may be summarized under a few heads, namely, the “wandering” nature of the gods, rites and rituals, and bestial associations. Let us examine them now.

Milton speaks of the pagan gods as “wand’ring” and “roaming to seek their prey on earth”. This vacillating connotation attached with pagan deities appears to differentiate them clearly from the high and immovable seat of Jehovah. Yet, this may have been an unconscious nod to the overlapping identities of all these deities. The word “Baal” could refer to any of the vast multitudes of tribal Semitic gods ^[10]; hence, he is synonymous with Tammuz, who in turn, becomes Adonis in Greek myth ^[11]. Biblical references speak of Baal-Peor, who might have been identical with Chemos ^[12]. A Semitic manifestation of Chemos was Chemos-Malik, which forges a relation between Moloch and Chemos ^[13]. A Byzantine record says that Dagon was Kronos in Phoenicia ^[14]. Also Astarte or Ishtar was equated with Venus ^[15]. Isis and Demeter have been regarded as avatars of the same Corn-Mother ^[16]. The struggle between Osiris and Seth has been interpreted as the one between Jove and Typhon ^[17]. Hence, all of these pagan gods seem to be united in essence as parts of a singular, colossal faith of nature worship.

As far as rites and rituals were concerned, first, the child sacrifices to Moloch, if true, were undoubtedly unacceptable and gruesome. It was a fire rite: however, prejudice has often fabricated the real nature of such rites. The fire rite was regarded as purificatory in function, and often carried out on the principles of sympathetic magic. Human sacrifice by burning was feigned—a man would pretend to writhe in pain very close to the bonfire, or his associates would feign flinging him into it. The man would have to lie low for a few days, and he would be spoken of as if he were dead. The man would generally represent some obnoxious spirit ^[18]. Secondly, we have the “lustful orgy”—it consisted of young men and women dancing chaotic dances around fire, song, music, loud utterances of obscenities, and drunken revelry. It was principally a part of harvest festivals, and is reminiscent of the bacchanalia ^[19]. Thirdly, a variety of sexual rites was observed to enhance the fertility of the land, rain, and abundant cattle and children—it was believed by many tribal cultures that this would mirror the impregnation of the earth by the sun, and lead to a plentiful harvest ^[20]. Apart from this, certain gods were inherently libidinous in nature. The temple of Baal in Babylon always housed a beautiful virgin as the consort of the deity; the former would have to sleep on a sumptuous bed at night, lying in wait for the god ^[21]. The cult of Astarte professed sexual intercourse as a rite, where the couple would stand for the goddess and Adonis/Thammuz/Baal, respectively ^[22]. Also, women were entitled to prostitute themselves once a year in the temple of Astarte, and donate their earning to the temple ^[23]. Fourthly, human sacrifice was clearly intended to enhance fertility—it originated from various myths about gods of fertility being quartered and strewn over the land ^[24]. Nevertheless, one cannot help oppose it on humanitarian grounds.

Pagan religion had well forged connections with beasts. In peasant folk lore, the corn spirit and wood spirit were represented in animal form. While the pig and the bull were popular choices for the former, the goat was preferred for the latter. Dionysus, a tree god was depicted as a goat, and so was Pan, the Greek god of shepherds, along with his train of fawns and satyrs ^[25]—Milton’s “bleating gods”. Christianity had no tolerance whatsoever for primitive pantheistic religious creeds that worshipped gods “disguis’d in brutish forms”.  Pan, though ugly, half-goat, and characterized by a remarkable sexual appetite, was a popular and benign nature god. His ugliness was interpreted as a sign of evil, and Judeo-Christian value for asceticism convicted him for his lustfulness. Pan came to be the standard icon for Satan, the arch-fiend, though his wanton nature was perfectly suited to a pastoral deity who stood for production and plenty ^[26]. These bestial associations lead Milton to demean the pagan gods remarkably, especially the “Baalim and Ashtaroth”. Milton dismisses them as insubstantial, shape-shifting mischief-makers, who can change their sexes at will. Their dexterity at fulfilling “works of love and enmity” equates them with succubi and incubi—a remarkable degradation for powerful gods of yore.

A semantic examination of the names of certain pagan gods would not be out of place. Moloch had the title “king” ^[27], and thus, Milton’s fitting epithet, “horrid king”. Baal was merely the honourary title for Hadad, a god of thunderstorms and the lord of heaven ^[28]. “Chemosh” probably meant “destroyer” or “subduer” ^[29]. Rimmon was known in Assyria as “The Thunderer” ^[30]. The etymological root of “Adonis” is “lord” ^[31]. Many of these names, then, call to mind the image of the Christian God. The nerve to “fix their Seats…next the Seat of God” had thus landed them in a position of discomfort with the Church Fathers, who vowed to extirpate them.

The first Commandment enjoined the rejection of other gods, and the story of the Golden Calf illustrated the punishment that awaited those who strayed. The Psalm of David reinforced this lesson:”For all the gods of pagans are demons(daimonia); but the Lord made the Heavens…” and “ The idols of the pagans are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands…Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust them.” The Apostle Paul reaffirmed such beliefs: “An idol has no real existence.” In the second century, Christianity had moved deeper into the gentile world. They found it harder to condemn the Hellenic Gods, like the Zeus of Homer and Pheidias, than Moloch or Baal, who had always been obscure, esoteric, and associated with atrocities. The answer came to them in the form of pagan converts such as Justin Martyr and Tatian; the former was one of the first Apologists. Through their writing, they preached that the sins and adulteries ascribed to the gods by the Greeks were actually committed by demons. When Socrates tried to discourage the worship of these demons, he was put to death. Tatian too held that the pagan gods were demons in disguise ^[32]. This demonization was no accident, but rather a deliberate twisting of pagan ideals as Christianity spread its influence throughout Europe ^[33]. Like pagans, Christians still sensed and saw the gods and their power, and as something, they had to assume, lay behind it, by an easy traditional shift of opinion they turned these pagan daimones into malevolent 'demons', the troupe of Satan... Far into the Byzantine period Christians eyed their cities' old pagan statuary as a seat of the demons' presence. It was no longer beautiful; it was infested ^[34].

There were certain basic weaknesses at the heart of pagan religions that undoubtedly proved advantageous to the Christian cause. The pagans performed rites, but professed no creed or doctrine. They were neither committed to revealed belief in the strong Christian sense of the term, nor were they exhorted to faith. The Latin word religio could mean the awe from which any religious cult begins. It was antithetical to superstitio or “the excessive fear of the gods” ^[35], which was the adhering principle of the Moloch cults. They were particularly savage brands of religion, and the adherents were cringing slaves—entitled to propitiate the bloodlust of their gods, irrespective of their will ^[36]. Moreover, the pagans believed that their gods were subject to mortality like themselves. Several places in Greece and Egypt are popularly known as the final resting places of gods ^[37]. This bolstered the Euhemerist viewpoint, which the Christians readily accepted to be able to show pagan gods as mere deified mortals. Euhemerism became a favourite weapon of the Christian polemicists, which they used at every turn ^[38]. Milton’s denial of the divine origin of the Ionian gods is thus appropriate:

“…of Javans Issue held
Gods, yet confest later then Heav'n and Earth
Thir boasted Parents.”

While introducing the “horrid crew” of Satan, Milton reflects:

“Godlike shapes and forms…

Through Gods high sufferance for the tryal of man,
By falsities and lyes the greatest part
Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake
God…” According to Milton, the establishment of the pagan gods on earth was a test devised by God for man, to test their devotion to Him in the face of deception and disillusionment. But man seems to have failed ruefully in God’s test, even long after the pagan gods had become mere characters in classical literature. The stars had been named after the Hellenic Gods in Antiquity; they were well known in Europe through the planetary week and astrology. The stars, equivalent to the pagan gods, were believed to control human action. The Renaissance saw a pervasive fear of these planets, which were representatives of fate, and superseded human free will according to their own whim. They were seen as demonic antagonists to the benevolent, all-powerful Christian God. Yet, the Christians could not depend completely on Him to guide them, and a roaring trade in gems, talismans and ritual books flourished in Europe, for the propitiation of planets ^[39].

Shortly afterwards, Milton asserts that these pagan deities “with thir darkness durst affront his (God’s) light.” Darkness, if not a symbol of evil, may be seen as a distinguishing characteristic of the pagan gods, who were more or less related to earth, nature and fertility. This pagan “darkness” is antithetical to God, who is popularly represented as a source of ineffable light, Himself the creator of light, surrounded by fiery Seraphim; His essence being dazzling truth. This blinding, dazzling light is common to Beatrice, who was portrayed after God by Dante or the Petrarchan mistress of Spenser (“The light whereof hath kindled heavenly fire…”) ^[40]. On the other hand, darkness has subliminal connections with womb, tomb, earth, fertility, idols, night, moon and the goddess. They are related to the chthonic deities of yore, among whom, the most venerated was the Goddess—ancient and primeval; the first of deities; patroness of the Stone Age hunt and of the first sowers of seeds; She gave birth without the need of man; under whose guidance the herds were tamed, the healing herbs first discovered; in whose image the first works of art were created; who was the inspiration of song and poetry. The Goddess was first of all earth, the dark, nurturing mother who brought forth all life. She was the power of fertility and generations: the womb, and also the receptive tomb, the power of death. All proceeded from Her; all returned to Her ^[41]. This Goddess was instrumentally replaced over time by the male Christian God, and Milton’s verse seems to contain what may be read as an allusion to this rift.

On an ending note, I would like to express my surprise that Milton framed the Ionian gods as apostate angels turned demons so readily. The Semitic and Egyptian religions may have been guilty of atrocious rituals and sorcery respectively, but the Ionian pantheon, to this day, are representatives of the Classical Antiquity—the fountainhead of European cultural heritage. Milton’s personal classical learning was immense, and he made classical allusions in his poetry at the slightest opportunity, which always rendered his work richer. As a Puritan poet, he may have been adhering to Christian diabolization of pagan gods, but he was, no how, an orthodox Christian. He rejected the Trinity, infant baptism and most of the traditional ceremonies including church marriage; he queried monogamy and believed that the soul died with the body ^[42]. His heretical thought, if revealed completely in his time, would have had him imprisoned, burned and damned several times over. So, if he showed a little more reverence to the Ionian deities by not condemning them as demons in his magnum opus, and using more commonly known devils in their stead, I do not feel that it would have been a burden on his conscience.

References:

[1] “Moloch”, Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch>

[2] “Chemosh”, Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemosh>

[3] "Numbers 25 - ESVBible.org" Gnpcb.org. Retrieved 20124-08-14.

[4] “Baal”, Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal>

[5] “The Goddess”, Hecate’s Cauldron< http://www.hecatescauldron.org/The%20Goddess.htm>

[6] “The Myth of Adonis” in The Golden Bough (New York: Macmillan, 1922) p.423.

[7] “Dagon”, Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagon>

[8] “Rimmon”, Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimmon>

[9] “The Myth of Osiris” in The Golden Bough (New York: Macmillan, 1922) p.470.

[10] “Baal”, Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal>

[11] “The Myth of Adonis” in The Golden Bough, p.423.

[12] “Baal”, Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal>

[13] “Chemosh”, Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemosh>

[14] “Dagon”, Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagon>

[15] “The Myth of Adonis” in The Golden Bough, p.427.

[16] “The Myth of Osiris” in The Golden Bough, p.470.

[17] “Isis” in The Golden Bough, p.492.

[18] “The Burning of Men and Animals in the Fire” in The Golden Bough (New York: Macmillan, 1922) p.831.

[19] “The Fire Festivals of Europe” in The Golden Bough, p.759.

[20] “The Influence of the Sexes on Vegetation” in The Golden Bough, p.185.

[21] “The Sacred Marriage” in The Golden Bough, p.189.

[22] “Adonis in Cyprus” in The Golden Bough, p.437.

[23] “Adonis in Cyprus” in The Golden Bough, p.438.

[24] “Diana as a Goddess of Fertility” in The Golden Bough, p.195.

[25] “Dionysus, the Goat and the Bull” in The Golden Bough, p.597.

[26] “The Demonization of Pan”, <http://www.mesacc.edu/~thoqh49081/StudentPapers/pan.html>

[27] “Moloch”, Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch>

[28] “Baal”, Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal>

[29] “Chemosh”, Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemosh>

[30] “Rimmon”, Wikipedia < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimmon>

[31] “The Myth of Adonis” in The Golden Bough, p.423.

[32] “Heroes and Saints” in New Heroes in Antiquity (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010) p.86.

[33] “The Demonization of Pan”, <http://www.mesacc.edu/~thoqh49081/StudentPapers/pan.html>

[34] “The Spread of Christianity” in Pagans and Christians (London: Penguin Books, 2006) p.306.

[35] “Pagans and their Cities” in Pagans and Christians, p.45.

[36] “A Free Man’s Worship” in Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (London: Routledge, 1910) p.50.

[37] “The Mortality of the Gods” in The Golden Bough, p.349.

[38] “The Historical Tradition” in Survival of the Pagan Gods (New York: Harper Torchbooks/ The Bollingen Library, 1953) p.13.

[39] “The Historical Tradition” in Survival of the Pagan Gods, pp.43-48.

[40] Amoretti, Sonnet III.

[41] “The Goddess”, Hecate’s Cauldron< http://www.hecatescauldron.org/The%20Goddess.htm>

[42] Milton and the English Revolution (London: Faber and Faber, 1959)

Further Reading:

Fox, Robin Lane. Pagans and Christians. London: Penguin Books, 2006.

Frazer, Sir James. The Golden Bough. New York: Macmillan, 1922.

Jones, Christopher P. New Heroes in Antiquity: From Achilles to Antinoos. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010.

Seznec, Jean. Survival of the Pagan Gods. New York: Harper Torchbooks/ The Bollingen Library, 1953.