Epic Similes of Greek Mythology in The Faerie Queen and Paradise Lost

            Greek mythology consists of numerous stories about man’s feats and battles between the gods.  Edmund Spenser had extensive education and prolific knowledge on Greek mythology, as was John Milton.  Spencer wrote The Faerie Queen in 1590, and Milton wrote Paradise Lost in 1674.  Both of these authors utilized numerous epic similes within these works, and both of them turned to Greek mythology for inspiration.

            In these lines of Paradise Lost, John Milton creates an epic simile as a comparison between Satan and the other fallen angels and the Greek myth of Zeus and other Greek gods overthrowing the Titans:

Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate

With head uplift above the wave, and eyes

That sparkling blazed, his other parts besides

Prone on the flood, extended long and large

Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge

As whom the fables name of monstrous size,

Titanian, or Earth-born, that warred on Jove,

Briareos of Typhon, whom the den

By ancient Tarsus held  (lines, Book 1, 192-200)

Milton illustrates the immense size of Satan by describing his huge bulk which was “extended long and large.”  The “monstrous size” of Satan is comparable to the massive size of the Titans (Buxton, 29).  Also, the Titans were overthrown by the high-god Zeus and the other gods lower in the Greek pantheon, just as Satan was cast down to hell by the Almighty God.  However, in Greek myth, Zeus not only defeated the Titans, he actually swallowed them up into his being and then cast them down to earth (Buxton, 30), while God cast the fallen angels down to hell.  This is intriguing since God created the angels, but Zeus had not created the Titans.  Also, God created the earth, and Zeus did not (Buxton, 28).  This simile is also interesting since Milton mentions Tarsus which is where some of the Titans were, and the myths of them probably originated with the ancient Babylonians or Hittites who are considered pagans in the Bible.

            In these lines of Spenser’s The Faerie Queen, an epic simile is drawn between the knight, Redcrosse, and Hercules, a Greek hero:

Not that great Champion of the antique world,

Whom famous Poetes verse so much doth vaunt,

And hath for twelve huge labours extold,

So many furies and sharpe fits did haunt,

When him the poisoned garment did enchaunt

With Centaures bloud, and bloudie verses charmed,

As did this knight twelve thousand dolours daunt,

Whom fyrie steele now burnt, that earst him armed,

That erst him goodly armed, now most of all him harmed. (lines, Book 1, Canto 11, 235-243)

In Greek myth, Hercules had to complete twelve labors including the daunting task of claiming Hippolyte’s poison girdle. Hercules also had to deal with constant meddling from the Furies who would punish anyone who swore a false oath (Buxton, 158).  Hercules did not swear a false oath and completed his tasks, just as Redcrosse swore an oath and he did not fail to keep it.  Redcrosse also had to overcome great labors on his journey with Una.

            Both Milton and Spenser utilize Greek myth to forge epic similes as comparisons for the characters in their narratives.