Per His Other Name example essay topic

I had always been under the impression that John Milton's "Paradise Lost" was a poem about the fall of man (Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge in Paradise and are consequently expelled). Having always imagined this to be a grimly theological poem, I was surprised, on actually sampling it, to find out just how many references there were in it to sex. Sample one: - Per his other name, when he enticed Israel in Sit tim on their march from Nile To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged Even to that hill of scandal, by the Grove Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate; Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell. With these came they, who from the bordering flood Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names Of Baalim and Ashtaroth, those male, These feminine.

For spirits when they please Can either sex assume, or both; so soft And uncompounded is their essence pure, Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, Can execute their airy purposes, And works of love or enmity fulfill. Sample two: - Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind, Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured The Syrian damsels to lament his fate In amorous ditties all a summers day, While smooth Adonis from his native rock Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale Infected Sions daughters with like heat, Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch Ezekiel saw, when by the vision led His eye surveyed the dark idolatries Of alienated Judah. Sample three (sex, horror and rape combined): - I pleased, and with attractive graces won The most averse, thee chiefly, who full oft Thy self in me thy perfect image viewing Be cam " st enamoured, and such joy thou took " st With me in secret, that my womb conceived A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose, And fields were fought in Heaven; wherein remained (For what could else) to our Almighty Foe Clear victory, to our part loss and rout Through all the Empyrean: down they fell Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down Into this Deep, and in the general fall I also; at which time this powerful key Into my hand was given, with charge to keep These gates forever shut, which none can pass Without my opening. Pensive here I sat Alone, but long I sat not, till my womb Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes.

At last this odious offspring whom thou seest Thine own begotten, breaking violent way Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew Transformed: but he my inbred enemy Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart Made to destroy: I fled, and cried out Death; Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed From all her caves, and back resounded Death. I fled, but he pursued (though more, it seems, Inflamed with lust than rage) and swifter far, Me overtook his mother all dismayed, And in embraces forcible and foul Ingendering with me, of that rape begot These yelling monsters that with ceaseless cry Surround me, as thou saws t, hourly conceived And hourly born, with sorrow infinite To me, for when they list into the womb That bred them they return, and howl and gnaw My bowels, their repast; then bursting forth Afresh with conscious terrors vex me round, That rest or intermission none I find. Before mine eyes in opposition sits Grim Death my Son and foe, who sets them on, And me his parent would full soon devour For want of other prey, but that he knows His end with mine involved; and knows that Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane, When ever that shall be; so Fate pronounced.