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What's in a Word: Unraveling the Chaotic Origins of 'Pandemonium'

What s in a Word: Unraveling the Chaotic Origins of Pandemonium

pan•de•mo•ni•um n. Anarchy unleashed.

Pandemonium makes its first appearance in the opening chapter of John Miltonís 1667 opus Paradise Lost. Milton coined the term, which is a pastiche of ancient Greek and Latin: Pan-demon-ium is the all-demon abode, the unholy Stygian palace of Satan and his lackeys. Paradise Lost concerns the twinned tales of two falls: the first, of Satan and his fellow renegadesí descent from Heaven to Hell; the second, of Adam and Eve's eviction from the Garden of Eden, as orchestrated by Satan. Although a godly Christian poem, Satan is by far Milton's most compelling, and most human, character. Upon his banishment from Heaven, you can fairly feel the wayward archangelís snarl:

Farewel happy Fields
Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrours, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be changíd by Place or Time. The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.

Having whipped his fellow fallen angels into a frenzy, Satan ends his speech with the greatest rock 'n' roll rallying cry of all time: Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.

This entry is excerpted from Toponymity: An Atlas of Words, by John Bemelmans Marciano, and is reprinted here with permission.


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