Olympus, Nectar, Ambrosia: Iconoclasm and 'Hellenick Learning' in Milton’s Paradise Lost

In his Areopagitica, John Milton opposes the licensure of books and supports the liberty of reading any book of one’s choice; hence, he claims, there is no need for a Christian to avoid “Hellenick learning” (Wolf 2.509). Nonetheless, how does Milton, an active protestant and iconoclast, deal with the Classical sources that have potentials to undermine the authority of the Scripture and nurture idolatrous beliefs? Is there a conflict between Milton’s iconoclasm and defense for the freedom of print? Within the contexts of the Reformation, iconoclastic movements, and the circulation of Classical texts, poets like Homer could serve as both an inevitable authority for poetic creation and a source of religious conflicts at the same time. This paper investigates what it means for Milton to represent Homeric images of divinity in his epic Paradise Lost. Focusing on three images in Paradise Lost, Olympos, Nectar, and Ambrosia, I demonstrate how Milton embraces visual representations of divine beings as a benevolent kind of “mortal” knowledge, in which the association with Classical texts does not always indicate idolatry. In combination with the reading of Milton’s Areopagitica, Eikonoklastes, and De Doctrina Christiana, I further argue that there is not always an antagonistic relation between the iconoclast and verbal images. Milton’s iconoclasm pursues a reconciliation between the Christian belief and the freedom of human understanding, which by necessity requires a free access to printings that are potentially “idolatrous.”