Eve as seductress is a cliche. That would make more sense if it were actually in the story about her. People realizing they are naked does not = having sex like bunnies. Sorry guys (and we do mean guys), but there is no sex in the Genesis story. In this episode, we’ll tell you about John Milton, mid-to-late 17th century biblical scholar, who wrote a landmark narrative poem, PARADISE LOST (1667). It’s mostly about Satan falling from grace, but in Satan’s many adventures, he squeezes in a stop by the Garden of Eden to stir up trouble. Milton takes some ideas from other (male) biblical scholars and spins some sexy ideas of his own in this massively (x1000) influential work of English literature. And one of those ideas is that after eating the fruit, Eve and Adam lay right down and have the first sex ever. Fan fiction, anyone? What you might find, after hearing this episode, is that some of the ideas you have associated with Eve come from THIS poem, NOT the Bible. That’s how powerful stories work: they infiltrate, and at some point, we’re not even sure how they infiltrated our sense of reality–but they have. Along the way, Sonja susses out some birthing metaphors, and Vanessa gives Paradise Lost an environmentalist read. REFERENCES:Feel brave? Check out Paradise Lost for yourself. Eve’s story is in Book 9.If you want to look at a footnoted text, this link will take you right to Book 9 at the John Milton Reading Room at Dartmouth site.Here is a link to John Milton’s Sonnet 19 that starts, “When I consider how my light is spent.”

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related