Satanic Scholar Christopher J.C. discusses his site (TheSatanicScholar.com) and explores its aim of preserving the Miltonic-Romantic legacy of Lucifer.
Part Two of this three-part documentary covers the centrality of Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost and its unparalleled portrayal of Satan to the tradition of Romantic Satanism. By the turn of the nineteenth century, Milton’s Satan was seen as the true hero of Paradise Lost, his rebellion against Almighty God deemed virtuous and just. While this radical vision of a Promethean Lucifer is often considered either a misguided assessment or a mischievous misinterpretation on the part of the Romantic Satanists, Milton’s sympathetic Satan—curiously given pride of place in Paradise Lost—truly lends himself to the Romantic reading of the poem.
Perhaps the most significant example of the Satan-as-hero reading’s validity is the Romantic iconography inspired by Paradise Lost, which brought the Miltonic Lucifer to life as a humanized and heroicized figure. The dazzling depictions of Milton’s Devil as a handsome classical hero by artists such as Stothard, Barry, Westall, Corbould, Lawrence, Fuseli, Blake, Martin, and Doré accurately rendered the sublime Satan described by Milton. The Satanic Scholar takes the position that the Romantic reading of Milton’s Satan as the noble hero of Paradise Lost is no less valid than these visual triumphs.
(Excerpts from the Romantic Satanists read by Gavin Baddeley, English journalist and author of Lucifer Rising.)