Before John Milton wrote Paradise Lost, the ranks of Modern English language literature lacked an epic poem to rank with the Old English epic Beowulf or the works of ancient Greek authors such as Homer and Virgil. Indeed, the ever-ambitious Milton deliberately set out to write an epic that would be spoken of in the same breath as The Odyssey, The Iliad, and The Aeneid.

Although the subject matter of the poem is based in Christian theology, Milton consciously chose not to write Paradise Lost in Latin, which at that time was the language of learning.

This is because Milton set out to create a specifically English epic that would celebrate English culture and enhance the reputation of English letters. There is little doubt that Milton succeeded admirably in his aim.

The continuing importance of Paradise Lost also lies in the fact that it gave a number of new words to the English language, which are still in use to this day. The most obvious example is “pandaemonium”, which in Milton's epic is the capital of Hell, but which in everyday language has come to mean “chaos”.

Then we have Milton's using the word “space” to mean “outer space”, which has been widely used ever since. We also have Milton to thank for the word “unoriginal”, which in Paradise Lost means “without origin” and refers to the character of Night, an allegorical figure, who along with Chaos represents the vast gulf separating Heaven from Hell.