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Satan and Briareos in Vida's Christiad and Milton's Paradise Lost.(Essays)(Marco Girolamo Vida, John Milton)(Critical essay)

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From: ANQ
Date: 20070322
Author:Butler, George F.

In Paradise Lost (1667 and 1674), Milton describes the fallen Satan as being

 
                        in bulk as huge 
   As whom the Fables name of monstrous size, 
   Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr'd on Jove, 
 
   Briareos or Typhon, whom the Den 
   By ancient Tarsus held, or that Sea-beast 
   Leviathan, which God of all his works 
   Created hugest that swim th' Ocean stream (PL 1.196-202, emphasis 
      in original). (1) 

While Milton's epic simile has elicited considerable critical attention, his commentators have apparently disregarded Marco Girolamo Vida's ...

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