John Milton, Paradise Lost
Hell in Paradise Lost
The fallen angels emerge from a burning lake onto ground that also burns. Flame, smoke and damaged terrain establish punishment as a place in which even apparent refuge remains painful. The realm’s gates are set in three layers of brass, iron and adamantine rock. Yet when Satan passes beyond them, the poem still makes his inward Hell inseparable from his own condition.
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In the sources
Principal account
LiteraryThe fallen angels emerge from a burning lake onto ground that also burns. Flame, smoke and damaged terrain establish punishment as a place in which even apparent refuge remains painful.
Further detail
LiteraryThe realm’s gates are set in three layers of brass, iron and adamantine rock. Yet when Satan passes beyond them, the poem still makes his inward Hell inseparable from his own condition.
Context & interpretation
The entry follows the physical realm in Milton’s opening books, with its relationship to the inward Hell stated elsewhere in the poem. It is not a general map of Hell across Christian teachings.
Original passages
Source 1
Paradise Lost: Illustrated by Gustave Doré
the lake with liquid, fireOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Milton, Paradise Lost, active reader leaf 19
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0115-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0115-E001-P0019
- Original scan leaf
- 20
- Recorded leaf number
- 20
- Current Reader position
- 15
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Paradise Lost: Illustrated by Gustave Doré
Three iron, three of adamantine rockOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Milton, Paradise Lost, active reader leaf 61
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0115-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0115-E001-P0061
- Original scan leaf
- 62
- Recorded leaf number
- 62
- Current Reader position
- 57
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Continue exploring
Satan in Paradise Lost
The rebel whose outward journey cannot free him from the Hell he carries within.
Shared source pageSin in Paradise Lost
The half-human, half-serpentine gatekeeper who recognises Satan as her originator.
Same subject and traditionPandemonium
The capital and council hall where the fallen host converts defeat into policy.