Fri 17 Feb 2006
Horace Jeffery Hodges and Milton’s Paradise Lost (Satan 10)
Posted by Phil Harland. Categories: History of Satan , Religion and popular culture[7] Comments
I had planned to wait until we got into the early modern period to refer to Horace Jeffery Hodges’ blog, the Gypsy Scholar, but several of his recent hellish posts have made it impossible to wait. At his site you will find a number of interesting articles regarding John Milton’s Paradise Lost, including one article that focusses on Satan specifically: Economy of Damnation: Satan’s Fall in Paradise Lost. Another more specialized article also considers Satan within the context of other matters: “Free-Will Theodicy, Middle-Knowledge Theology, Ramist Linguistics, and Satanic Psychology in Paradise Lost“.
He has also just now put up an entertaining post, with medieval illustration, on some “hits from hell”: Das Wetter ist hell!. In the hope of decreasing visitors to his site, previously he had posted a poem of his own entitled “Ozark Spring Storm” which features Mephisto (alias Satan). Other of his posts relating to Satan can be accessed here.
Think of the ironic, hellish punishment of sending more visitors, albeit few from here.


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February 17th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
What a surprise!
This certainly won’t help me to decrease my readership. I’ll just have to keep working on that.
I also hadn’t realized that I’m so obsessed with The Adversary. I’d better be more careful.
By the way, note my name’s unusual spelling: “Jeffery.”
Jeffery Hodges
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February 17th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
UPDATE:
I’ve just uploaded an article specifically on Satan in Paradise Lost:
Economy of Damnation: Satan’s Fall in Paradise Lost (pdf).
If this link doesn’t work, then just go to my blog and find it linked near the top of my blogroll.
Jeffery Hodges
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February 22nd, 2006 at 11:04 pm
[...] Another provocative, downright devilish series of posts that span the field of biblical studies as well as popular culture is Phil Harland’s History of Satan series. These posts at Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean deal with the development of the character of Satan throughout literary history. While the series was introduced in late 2005 with his first post (Satan 1), subsequent posts were in January and may be accessed here. [...]
February 24th, 2006 at 11:00 am
I can’t believe you are leaving! All of the good teachers in the religion department are leaving at the end of the year. That’s too bad.
February 25th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
I’m glad you categorize me among the good teachers. I’ll miss the students at Concordia. Phil
February 26th, 2006 at 4:33 am
[...] Last but not least, Phil Harland’s fascinating and enjoyable History of Satan is yet another excellent series of posts on his very, very useful, and highly informative blog. He covers various forerunners/contributors to the depiction of the character Satan throughout literary history, with the glaring, yet understandable, ommission of my 7th grade physical education teacher…. [...]
February 28th, 2006 at 4:18 am
Someday, I’d like to see a course on the changing architectonics of hell, a sort of history of hell with an eye to the structure of the place as it is transformed over time.
Any plans…?
Jeffery Hodges
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