Death in Its Various Phases

John Milton, in his "Paradise Lost", gives a vivid and terrifying description of death and its origin. According to the poem Satan is searching his way out of hell to seek out the created world in order to tempt man. He makes his way to the "gates of Hell" and there he finds: "On either side a formidable Shape; The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair, But ended foul in many a scaly fold, Voluminous and vast, a serpent armed With mortal sting: about her middle round A cry of...