The Horseless Epic

Abstract

The precise epic to which my title refers is Paradise Lost, although one could arguably apply the title phrase in loose fashion to all of Milton's late work. In this essay, I want to argue the following interrelated propositions: first, that Milton's epic poetry (represented here, for economy's sake, by Paradise Lost) is distinguished by an almost complete absence of the equestrian imagery and references to be found in its most important classical antecedents; second, that this virtual absence provides insight into the thematic and formal qualities that differentiate Miltonic epic from its Homeric and Virgilian forebears; and third, that in the very few cases, when equestrian references do appear in Milton's late poetry, they function consistently as invidious discriminators, associated with fallen experience, corrupt notions of sociopolitical order, and debased language and literature. Most broadly, I think, Milton's treatment of horses in Paradise Lost does not simply effect a strategic violation of epic decorum; it seeks in the process to mark off a space of Pegasean inspiration for the poem itself, and to present that space, paradoxically, as a function of the poem's pedestrian thematics. In presenting this case, I shall start by tracing some broad comparisons between Milton and his classical models and then proceed to a close reading of Milton's own equestrian references. Finally, I shall conclude with some general remarks on the literary-historical significance of Milton's approach to equine representation in his late verse.