“Satan” means “adversary” in Hebrew.

From the Greek “eremia” (wilderness/desert).

Paradise Lost begins:

Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree […]

Milton was a fan of Galileo, and the telescope and microscope were among Milton’s favorite metaphors (and rhetorical tools) for “magnifying” God. In his political prose, Milton bragged about meeting the old Galileo while he was traveling the continent.

Now, however, he seems to be giving up ownership of the telescope as a godly tool, allowing Satan to use it too.

This image echoes one of flies who swarm to sheep’s milk in Homer’s Iliad.

Flies are gross and feed off waste, but sometimes insect-like swarming suggests productivity, as in Book 1, when Jesus says, “a multitude of thoughts at once / Awaken’d in me swarm”; highly productive people in the Renaissance liked comparing themselves to bees.

Mary, confined to the private sphere, can only hear secondhand what goes on concerning public pronouncements by Jesus' “Father.”

A lot of temporal confusion here: “at once,” “to begin,” “end” – it’s unclear how exactly this is supposed to work. This is an ongoing concern of Jesus. He’s the Son of God, he knows, but what the hell that means and what he’s supposed to do about it an unanswered question–for him and pretty much everyone else.

I like to picture Mary’s heart as a really well-stocked pantry:

She’s a pro at emotional compartmentalization.

King Herod, having heard that a “king” had been born in Bethlehem, ordered the death of all infant boys, so Joseph and Mary escaped with Jesus to Egypt until he died.