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Milton's Ganymede: Negotiations of Homoerotic Tradition in Paradise Regained

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Gregory W. Bredbeck
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Abstract

The presentation of the banquet temptation in Paradise Regained unfolds a complex system of allusions that allows us, first, to ascertain the place of male sexual difference in Milton's canon and, second, to reassess how we interpret Milton's genders and their relation to the sexual epistemology of the later Renaissance. The sylvan setting invokes a tradition of increasing specification of homoeroticism in Renaissance receptions of classical pastoral, and the presence of Ganymede and Hylas recalls vernacular idioms of sodomy and sexual transgression. These associations place male sexual difference within the Miltonic canon in a way that has seldom been recognized, but a further survey of exegetical manipulations of homoeroticism demonstrates that Milton's use of this motif serves the larger project of rewriting “common glosses.”

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 106 , Issue 2 , March 1991 , pp. 262 - 276
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1991

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