Today marks the copyright anniversary of English poet John Milton’s 17th-century epic Paradise Lost. We can’t imagine a contemporary work more comparable than HBO’s similarly sprawling Game of Thrones. Both epics are packed with tales of sex, greed, war, and revenge. They also spend a significant amount of time contemplating the state of their characters through various social and political hierarchies. Of course, the latter is a chief complaint from Thrones detractors hungry for by-the-numbers action and countless students who have pegged Milton’s masterpiece as an utter bore. We’re celebrating both works by reflecting on Milton’s verse through Game of Throne’s characters, whose lives mirror the dramas of Milton’s good versus evil tale surprisingly well. Oh, and because it’s the Internet, and more than 10,000 lines of anything is tough to focus on, we’re doing it meme-style.
