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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2006
The controversy about Milton's Satan provides an opportunity to inspect the relationship between a literary text and critical reaction to it. This is instructive because it shows how literature works (or has worked), and how it should not be expected to work.
A word, first, about the generation of Milton's Satan. There is very little in the Bible about Satan. In Christian Doctrine Milton collects all the available biblical evidence in a few sentences. It amounts to little more than that Satan is the author of all evil and has various titles (YP 6: 349-50). As Kastor has shown, it was not until about AD 200 that official Judaism began to absorb popular concepts of Satan. From then on appearances of Satan in literature, sub-literature, and theology multiplied. Scores of literary Satans evolved, and some of them - notably those created by Du Bartas, Andreini, Grotius, and Vondel - possibly influenced Milton. However, no convincing single source for Milton's Satan has been found.
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