Pandæmonium (Paradise Lost)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pandæmonium is the capital of Hell in epic poem Paradise Lost by the 17th century English poet John Milton.
"Pandæmonium" (American English "Pandemonium") is stemmed from Greek ("παν" meaning "all" or "every" + δαιμόνιον meaning "little spirit" or "little angel" or as Christians interpreted it, "little daemon," and later, "demon." The word roughly translates to All Demons), it is the name invented by John Milton for the capital of Hell, "the High Capital, of Satan and his Peers", built by the fallen angels at the suggestion of Mammon at the end of Book I, Paradise Lost (1667). Book II begins with the debate among the demons in the council-chamber of Pandemonium.
[edit] Modern Use
Since then, pandemonium has been extended to denote a center of vice and a tumultuous bedlam of extreme confusion and disorder, without entirely losing its connotations associated with hell and evil,[citation needed] which have been emphasised once more in the late 20th century occult-styled mass culture.[citation needed] On the other hand, the Pandemonium Fortress in the computer game Diablo II was the last holdout of good in Act IV - The Harrowing.
