From First to Second Eve, or, Tiresias without Semele

Abstract

abstract:This article argues that Milton's rewriting of the Ovidian story of Narcissus in Paradise Lost and his brief mention of Tiresias should be understood alongside his conspicuous avoidance of the story of Semele. Milton only partly resembles Tiresias as he reorients the fate of Eve-as-Narcissus because he disavows knowledge of female sexual enjoyment. Such knowledge would trouble Milton's theological imagination by raising difficult questions about the contact between God and the second Eve, Mary.