ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the way in which the poem's imbrications of the somatic and the theological manifests the rigid structural requirements Milton sets out to emulate in his poem's preface. One of the more interesting developments in the critical history of Samson Agonistes has been the burgeoning of these non-orthodox readings of the poem. Contrary to Aristotle's injunction in The Poetics, Milton's deployment of time in Samson Agonistes readily combines the concepts of mythos and ethos. In a similar fashion, the term zeal, plays such a critical role in Samson Agonistes, is equally freighted in the Restoration period especially with complex significations. The melancholy tradition that Milton adopts for his poem, then, is one loaded with a network of both classical and contemporary significations. The catastrophe of the poem and Samson's moment of passion confirm his prophetic moments as he agrees finally to attend the Philistine festival.
