Lust, violence and death in John Milton's Paradise LostImages and allusions to sex and death are mixed throughout John Milton's Paradise Lost. The character of Satan serves not only as the embodiment of death and sin, but also as insatiable sexual lust. The combination of sex and lust has significant philosophical implications, especially in relation to themes of creation, destruction, and the nature of existence. Milton, in Paradise Lost, establishes that with sex, as with religion, there is no particular hierarchical institution. However, Milton does not want to be confused with the Puritan stereotype. Milton the poet seems to celebrate the ideal of sex; however, he deplores lust and warns against the evils of lust, insisting that lust leads to sin, violence, and death. There is no reason to apply modern theories to Milton if we don't care whether Milton stays alive. However, if we want it to be more than just a historical artifact, we must do more than simply study it in the context of its time. We must reinterpret it in light of the relevant thinking of our age. James DriscollImages and allusions to sex and death intermingle throughout John Milton's Paradise Lost. The character of Satan serves not only as the embodiment of death and sin, but also as insatiable sexual lust. The combination of sex and lust has significant philosophical implications, especially in relation to themes of creation, destruction, and the nature of existence. Milton, in Paradise Lost, establishes that with sex, as with religion, there is no particular hierarchical institution. However, Milton does not want to be confused with the Puritan stereotype. Milton the poet seems to celebrate the ideal of sex; however, he deplores lust and warns against the evils of lust, insisting that lust leads to sin, violence, and death. From the beginning, Satan, like fallen humanity, not only blames others; but he also provides comical and grandiose reasons for his evil behavior. Yet despite his reasoning to seek revenge against God, “his true motivation for escaping hell and perverting heaven is, at least in part, something more basic: Satan needs sex” (Daniel 26). In the poem's opening books, Satan is thrown into a fiery hell that is not only miserable, but is sexless. As Satan describes when he flees to Eden, to hell: "near joy nor love, but longing, / Among our other torments not least, / Still unsatisfied with the pain of the yearning pine" (Book IV, 509-11).