Milton wants to create the illusion that he's predicting, or that he's prophesying, the actions recounted in the poem, as if Milton were prophesying what of course we know to be already past.

弥尔顿想给我们一种他在预言，诗中所叙之事的感觉，似乎他是在预言这些我们都知道已经发生了的事情。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

The story of the first human pair in the Garden of Eden, which is in Genesis 2 and 3 has clear affinities with the Epic of Gilgamesh, that's a Babylonian and Assyrian epic in which a hero embarks on this exhausting search for immortality.

创世纪2至3，里，伊甸园亚当和夏娃的故事,与《吉尔迦美什史诗》有着密切的联系，《吉尔迦美什史诗》是巴比伦人和亚叙人的,一个英雄竭尽全力追求永生的故事。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选