We’ve all heard about the classics and assume they’re

Cosmology and world picture

. Paradise Lost is an epic, and an impor-

tant feature of epic is that it portrays the whole cosmos as the author and 

his culture conceived it. The cosmology of Paradise Lost is the same as in 

the Bible. It assumes a three-tier universe consisting of Heaven, Earth, and 

Hell. These are both physical places and spiritual realities. Combining with 

this view of the cosmos was something called the great chain of being, 

which was an obsession for the Renaissance and for Milton. The great chain 

of being was a metaphor that expressed the following beliefs about the uni-

verse: (1) its unity; (2) its orderliness; (3) its hierarchy of value. Hierarchy 

depends on every link in the chain ruling over subordinates and submitting 

to superiors. Applied at a moral and psychological level, hierarchy depends 

on reason controlling one’s emotions and appetites.