John Milton created an epic poem unlike any other. He created the poem while he had gone blind and recited it in its entirety, after becoming completely blind, for his daughters to record. Paradise Lost is undoubtedly the greatest epic poem ever written, although not the best known. It's so beautiful because it's so modern. Other epic poems, such as The Iliad or The Odyssey written by Homer, are poems of the past. They incorporate a religion that is no longer followed and today they are something out of science fiction. Milton's Paradise Lost is based on Christian theology and contains, as many believe, a hero who should not be considered a hero at all. Milton places Satan as the epic hero in his epic poem. Satan is the main character, and the reader understands much of the story of Paradise Lost through Satan's eyes. Satan is a peculiar character, as he constantly displays mixed emotions about being forced into Hell; his motivations in the poem give him some qualities, as seen in lines 242-270 of Book 1, that traditional epic heroes have, but there are also characteristics that make Sat...