Editing Paradise Lost (section)

===Eve===
[[File:William Blake - The Temptation and Fall of Eve (Illustration to Milton's "Paradise Lost") - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|[[William Blake]], ''The Temptation and Fall of Eve'', 1808 (illustration of Milton's ''Paradise Lost'').]]
[[Eve]] is the second human created by God. God takes one of Adam's ribs and shapes it into Eve. Whether Eve is actually inferior to Adam is a vexed point. She is often unwilling to be submissive. Eve may be the more intelligent of the two. When she first met Adam she turned away, more interested in herself. She had been looking at her reflection in a lake before being led invisibly to Adam. Recounting this to Adam she confesses that she found him less enticing than her reflection (4.477–480).

Eve delivers an autobiography in Book 4.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Loewenstein |first=David |chapter=The Milton Encyclopedia |date=2017|pages=273 |editor-last=Corns |editor-first=Thomas N. |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.12987/9780300183627-004/html |access-date=2024-01-27 |publisher=Yale University Press |doi=10.12987/9780300183627-004 |isbn=978-0-300-18362-7}}</ref>

In Book 9, Milton stages a domestic drama between Adam and Eve, which results in Eve convincing Adam to separate for a time to work in different parts of the Garden. This allows Satan to deceive her while she is alone. To tempt her to eat the forbidden fruit, Satan tells a story about how he ate it, using the language of Renaissance love poetry. He overcomes her reason; she eats the fruit.<ref name=":1" />