How Paradise Lost drew on The Odyssey
A documented line of influence: John Milton demonstrably engaged Homer’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Odyssey
Homer · c. 725 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
Paradise Lost
John Milton · 1667
RenaissanceRelevance
6/10
On Paradise Lost’s page
- Paradise Lost opens the way Homer's epics do — invoking the Muse — and runs on conventions the Odyssey helped establish: the elevated style, the perilous voyage, the hero who wanders
- Satan's journey carries the shape of an Odyssean voyage; Milton drew his imagery deliberately from Homer
- Reading the Odyssey first reveals the pagan epic frame Milton is filling with a Christian cosmos
On The Odyssey’s page
- Alongside the Iliad, the Odyssey handed Milton the epic blueprint — the invocation of the Muse that opens the poem, the elevated style, the wandering quest
- Satan's long journey through Chaos echoes the Odyssean voyage; Milton draws his imagery openly from both Homeric epics
- Homer's pagan machinery, repurposed for a Christian story