John Milton’s Satan appears to be endowed with many of the characteristics of a typical hero. Strip Milton’s distain from the character of Satan, transport him to Scandinavia in around the 9th century, and viola, Satan is Beowulf. Both Satan and Beowulf are endowed with a stature that far surpasses that of their peers. Satan, like Beowulf, possesses boundless optimism in the face of adversity and willingly undertakes seemingly impossible tasks in order to alleviate the suffering of his allies.
With good reason do Satan’s comrades look upon their leader with the upmost esteem. Lucifer encourages his fellows to seek autonomy in Heaven, rather than miserably acquiesce to the tyrannical rule of God, and, as Satan, refuses to relinquish his party’s right to self-governance even when chained to a lake of fire as punishment for his transgression. As when Beowulf faces Grendel’s Mother, Satan alone rises to the task of journeying across the abyss, in search of “deliverance for all.” The princes of hell, like Beowulf’s men, agonize over the absence of their commander, trying in vain to “find truce to [their] restless thoughts, and entertain the irksome hours, till [their] great chief return.”
Both Satan and Beowulf know that, as leaders, they must not charge a member of their cohort with a task that they would not do themselves. As Satan posits before embarking on his quest: “Wherefore do I assume these royalties, and not refuse to reign, refusing to accept as great a share of hazard as of honour, do alike to him who reigns, and so much to him due of hazard more, as he above the rest high honoured sits?”
It appears that it is not so bad to be “of the Devil’s party.”