in his great depiction of hell in Books One and Two) to avoid the standard epic scenes of the torture of the damned, for example, with which we're familiar if we've read Homer or Virgil or, of course, Dante much later.

在他第一和第二册书对地狱的精彩描述）,去避免提及传统史诗中关于恶者被折磨的场景，例如我们所熟悉的那些场景,如果我们读过荷马的，维吉尔的，当然还有但丁的作品。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

In fact, the work is a kind of philosophical odyssey that both imitates Homer, but also anticipates other great odysseys of the human mind, works by those like Cervantes or Joyce.

事实上，这部作品多少像是哲学的探索过程,双双仿效荷马，但也为其它的人性探索过程,预做了准备，作品可参见塞万提斯及乔依斯的著作。

耶鲁公开课 - 政治哲学导论课程节选