On Milton's Rewriting of Women's Positioning as the Other in Homeric Epic Tradition——A case study of The Iliad and Paradise Lost
Homer,in The Iliad which is considered as"the most ancient western epic",positions the women characters as the Other,hence igniting the exploration of the Self in western epics.In the western epic history,as the epic develops from the Primary Epic to the Literary Epic,its women images evolve gradually from the Other towards the Self.The present essay,based on an analysis of Homeric epic tradition of positioning women as the Other in The Iliad,the representative of the former,expounds that in Paradise Lost,the crown of the latter,Milton rewrites the woman image of the Other.Firstly,the epic hero,though seemingly designated by Milton on the totality of Adam and Eve,turns out to be Eve to a large extent,who is essentially the only woman in the epic,and Milton locks his fo-cus on Eve in the whole process of characterizing the epic hero.Secondly,all through the epic,Milton tends to highlight Eve's Self,unveiling not only the process of Eve's degeneration because of her narcissus and self-pride in her Original Self,but also the proce-dures during which she reconstructs her Self as the Ecological Self and retains her spiritual regeneration by undergoing self-reflection,self-identification and self-salvation.Rewriting the woman image in the epic constitutes one of Milton's important contributions to the epic tradition.
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