n Gods--death to be wished,
Though threatened, which no worse than this can bring!
And what are Gods, that Man may not become
As they, participating godlike food?
The Gods are first, and that advantage use
On our belief, that all from them proceeds.
I question it; for this fair Earth I see,
Warmed by the Sun, producing every kind;
Them nothing. If they all things, who enclosed
Knowledge of good and evil in this tree,
That whoso eats thereof forthwith attains
Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies
Th' offence, that Man should thus attain to know?
What can your knowledge hurt him, or this tree
Impart against his will, if all be his?
Satan's argument gives divine attributes to the Sun and
Earth as creative demigods that seem even more creative than gods inasmuch as Sun and Earth produce living things, whereas gods seem to produce nothing. And if they cause Sun and Earth to produce, then so much the more do Eve and Adam deserve to have dominion over them. The argument hinges on Eve's acceptance of the idea of a proportioned universe, with God at the top, angels and lesser gods beneath, man further beneath, and animals still further beneath. Yet Satan, so he says, has risen to the status of Man by eating the fruit; so might Man reach the status of God.
In order to make his promise of divine stature alluring to Eve, Satan suggests what she is missing by as it were wasting her time being the companion of just one man and a host of animals. Rather, says Satan, careful to drive home the idea that she is already like God in almost every respect, she should be the center of attention in the whole universe:
"Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair,
In this enclosure wild, these beasts among,
Beholders rude, and shallow to discern
Half what in thee is fair, one man except
Who sees thee (and what is one?) who shouldst be seen
A Goddess among Gods, adored and served
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