When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.
There are literally hundreds of allusions in Paradise Lost, many of them to the Bible. Rather than list every single possible allusion – which would probably take a few years – we've listed some of the more important ones below. If you're craving more, any decent edition of the poem will list many that we've left out. And of course, the entire poem is one gigantic allusion to the book of Genesis, from which the story of Adam and Eve is taken.
Biblical Allusions
- Jesus Christ (1.4)
- Moses (1.8; 1.338)
- Adam and Eve (1.29)
- Genesis 2:17 (1.32)
- Leviathan, from Isaiah 27:1 and Job 41:34 (1.201)
- Exodus 10:13-5 (1.338)
- 1 Kings 11:1-9 (1.383-91)
- 2 Samuel 12: 26-27 (1.396)
- 2 Chronicles 34:4-5 (1.418)
- Genesis 11:4 (1.694)
- Psalms 2:4 (2.191)
- 1 Kings 12:11 (2.701)
- Revelations 21:19 (2.1050)
- Genesis 6:4 (3.463; 11.573-627)
- Genesis 11:1-9 (3.466-7)
- Genesis 28.17 (3.510-5)
- Exodus 28:17-24 (3.597)
- Revelation 12:3-12 (4.1-5)
- 1 Corinthians 11:15 (4.308)
- Psalms 2:6-7 (5.603)
- 2 Timothy 4:7 (6.30)
- Genesis 2: 19 (6.76)
- 2 Kings 19:37 (6.365)
- Matthew 3:17, 17:5 (6.728)
- Mark 1:11 (6.728)
- Ezekiel 10: 9-10 (6.749-59)
- Proverbs 8: 25-30 (7.7-12)
- Genesis 2:19-20 (8.350).
- Genesis 2:18 (8.445)
- 1 Peter 3:7 (9.383)
- Song of Solomon 6:2 (9.442)
- Romans 2:14 (9.654)
- 1 Timothy 2:14 (9.916)
- Samson and Delilah (9.1059-60)
- Luke 10:18 (10.84)
- Isaiah 61:10 (10.222)
- Luke 1:28 (11.158)
- Genesis 32:1-2 (11.214)
- Ezekiel 40:2 (11.377)
Classical/Mythological Allusions
- Hesiod, Theogony 713 ff. (1.50; 197-200)
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.325-31 and 346-58 (1.197-200)
- Virgil, Aeneid 3.570-7 (1.230-7)
- Hesiod, Theogony 126-39 (1.510 ff.)
- Homer, Iliad 3.3-6 (1.576)
- Homer, Iliad 1.591-5 (1.740-6)
- Virgil, Aeneid 1.430-6 (1.768-70)
- Homer, Iliad 2.87-90 (1.768-70)
- Prometheus (2.181)
- Horace, Odes 1.2.2-3. (2.174)
- Hercules (2.542-6)
- Medusa (2.611)
- Tantalus (2.614)
- Scylla (2.660)
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 14 (2.660)
- Hecate (2.662)
- Homer, Iliad 8.15-24 (2.1005)
- Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2.552-611 (2.1017)
- Homer, Odyssey 12.234-259. (2.1019-20)
- Ovid Metamorphoses 10 (3.17)
- Homer Iliad 2.594 (3.35)
- Homer (3.35)
- Tiresias (3.36)
- Horace, Ars Poetica 464-7 (3.471)
- Cleombrotus (3.473)
- Hesperides (3.568; 4.250)
- Hermes (3.603)
- Virgil, Aeneid 1.164-5 (4.137-42)
- Ovid, Metamorphosis 5 (4.269 ff.)
- Daphne (4.273)
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.402-510 (4.461ff.)
- Pandora (4.714)
- Homer, Iliad 8.69-72 (4.997)
- Virgil, Aeneid 12.725-727 (4.997)
- Homer, Odyssey 10.275 (5.285 ff.)
- Pomona (5.378)
- Hesiod, Theogony 736-57 (6.1-10)
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.15 (6.521)
- Hesiod, Theogony 664-735 (6.871)
- Bellerophon (7.18)
- Bacchus (7.33)
- Orpheus (7.34)
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.151 (7.280)
- Dryad (9.387)
- Delia (Diana) (9.387)
- Pomona (9.394)
- Ceres (9.395)
- King Alcinous (9.441)
- Odysseus (9.441)
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.563-603 (9.505)
- Aesculapius (9.506)
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.669-74 (9.506)
- Delos (10.296)
- Herodotus Histories 7.35 (10.307-310)
Historical People and Places
- Galileo (1.288; 3.590; 5.261-2)
- Busiris, a.k.a. Ramses II of Egypt (1.307)
- The Black Sea (9.77)
- The Sea of Azov (9.78)
- The River Ob (9.78)
- Arctic Ocean (10.290)
Other References
- Dante, Inferno 3.9 (1.66)
- Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso 17.14 and 18.158 (1.583-4)
- Dante Inferno 33.93-117 (2.595 ff.)
- Edmund Spenser, Faerie Queene, 1.1.14 (2.651)
- Dante, Inferno 1.85 (2.864)
- Edmund Spenser, Faerie Queene 4.2.47 (2.960 ff.)
- Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso 34 (3.459)
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet 2.2.306-15. (8.15)
- Edmund Spenser, Faerie Queene 2.11.1 (8.15)
- Edmund Spenser, Faerie Queene 2.7.55 (9.648)