Rewind book: Paradise Lost, by John Milton
Throughout history, snakes have been portrayed in literature - from Kipling's Jungle Book to Saint-Exupery's Le Petit Prince to Rowling's Harry Potter - as creatures of power, but most powerfully as Satan incarnate.
Paradise Lost (1667)
by John Milton
Samuel Simmons
Throughout history, snakes have been portrayed in literature - from Kipling's Jungle Book to Saint-Exupery's Le Petit Prince to Rowling's Harry Potter - as creatures of power, but most powerfully as Satan incarnate. "The Serpent suttl'st Beast of all the field, Of huge extent somtimes, with brazen Eyes," is how the snake appears in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost.
Coming in the wake of the publication of the King James Bible in 1611, Paradise Lost takes a scriptural tale and expands it into a masterpiece. Written in blank verse, originally in 10 books (but later expanded to 12) and following the epic tradition of starting in media res (in the midst of things), Milton's opus depicts the fall of man, and the serpent as the devil in disguise.
The snake epitomises deception and trickery. Satan takes its form to persuade Eve to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, as expressly forbidden by God. Eve, in awe of a creature able to speak and reason as the serpent does, willingly eats in defiance of the Creator.
It is Satan's rhetorical skill and persuasive powers, then, which influence Eve, leading to "that fould revolt". When Adam follows suit, God punishes the pair by casting them out of Paradise. Satan as "th'infernal Serpent" is a power even God seemingly can't contend with.