PARADISE LOST BY JOHN MILTON

Nine times the space that measures day and night
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf,
Confounded though immortal.

Nine times the space .......... though immortal.

REFERENCE
(i) Poem: Paradise Lost
(ii) Poet: John Milton
CONTEXT
(i) Occurrence: Book I (Lines 50-53/798)
(ii) Content: Satan lies dazed in a lake of fire that is totally dark. Next to him is Beelzebub, Satan's second-in-command. Satan speaks to him and laments their current state. Satan suggests that they should leave the burning lake and find shelter on a distant shore. Beelzebub asks Satan to summon his armies. Satan takes up his armor and calls to his legions to join him on land. He addresses his legions and commits himself to continue his fight against God. With their supernatural powers, the devils construct a massive temple, Pandemonium, for meetings.
EXPLANATION
     In these lines the poet portrays the scene of the fiery lake of Hell where Satan and his cohorts lay unconscious for nine days. Satan and other rebel angles, after their revolt against God, were thrown from Heaven to Hell. In Hesiod's Theogony, the Titans take a similar fall at the hands of Zeus. Interestingly, though Milton alludes to the fall of the Titans here, he likens their nine-day fall, not to the fall of the rebel angels, but to the time they spend in the flaming lake of Hell after their fall. "Horrid crew" means the dreadful and hideous followers of Satan. The word "horrid" permeates the whole poem; "horrid Vale", "horrid silence", "horrid Kings", "horrid crew" and so forth. Satan and his "horrid crew" lay defeated thoroughly in the flaming waves of the lake of Hell. They lay unconscious, rolling like dismasted hulks. However, they were dammed "immortal". They did not die and remained alive. In short, God Almighty put Satan and other rebel angels into a state of dormancy in the flaming lake of Hell for nine days. 

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