After reading a classmate's post, I was struck with the epiphany that Milton's genius is not necessarily through use of his own decriptions, but the use of characters that have already been described. Moloch, Chemos, Thammuz, Osiris, Isis, and Orus just to name a few, were all gods of the polytheistic nations written about in the Old Testament of the Bible. By visualizing statues or paintings of these pagan gods or even associating their voices and demeanors with what has been written about them in literature, we are able to make a complete picture of who hell's minion's were: Large, powerful figures who one would be suprised to see lying in defeat.

Although the descriptions of these characters could be construed as flattering, that imagery does not lend itself to sympathizing with the fallen gods (although with the quality of the speeches given in hell, it's easy to see how they could have been coersed into rebelling against their own desires) but rather, I felt that such powerful beings should have known better than to fight an unwinnable battle. It seems as if God punishes these lesser deities on a case-by-case basis, in Paradise Lost they have been deposed to hell, but in the Bible they are treated with lesser punishments (the plagues and subsequent drowning of the Egyptian Army [Exodus:14] or the embarrasment and then slaughter of the prophets of Baal [1 Kings:18]) that seem to be brought upon the individual gods for their disobedience to god on Earth.

It seems as if Milton is trying to make a direct statement. Just like us, he seems to imply, these gods had free will, and when they messed up they were punished just as the Bible claims man has been and will continue to be. If this is taken as a direct religious text, would it comfort us to know that we are higher in God's favor than former angels or would it scare us to know that not only has God sent one of his three lietenants and a squadron of former trusted angels to hell, but now they're out to seduce us into suffering their fate?