Milton's Morality: Fallen Man and the Fallen Stature of 'Paradise Lost'
Milton&#x27;s depiction of Satan is really against the established western tradition in many ways...<p>For instance, in Homer&#x27;s <i>The Odyssey</i>, someone as great as Achilles would say,<p><pre><code>  By god, I’d rather slave on earth for another man
  some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive
  than rule down here over all the breathless dead.
</code></pre>
But in a similar situation in <i>Paradise Lost</i>, Satan says,<p><pre><code>  we shall be free; the Almighty hath not built
  Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: 
  Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
  to reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
  Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
</code></pre>
If resolution, perseverance and a heart for liberty are some of the most herioc characters desired in our human world, then in that, Milton&#x27;s Satan is even more heroic than Achilles...<p>[update: edited the line form for Milton&#x27;s poem]