s head, and this fact also represents the way sin emerges from the mind of the sinner, making the sinner responsible for his or her own crime rather than seeing them as seduced by an external force. Satan may instigate sin, but human beings have a choice over whether to sin or not. The choice they have made in the Garden is to sin, and so the human race is subject to Death. Milton probably derives the image from classical literature, for Athena sprang full-blown from the head of her father, Zeus, in Greek mythology. The allegorical nature of the Greek myths is adopted by Milton and extended with the rape and the birth of Death, showing in personification the interplay of the different dark forces set loose because of Satan's own transgressions and his punishment when cast out of Heaven.
The task given Sin and Death, to guard the gates of hell, is given to the
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