# What are history's absolute most influential texts?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 30, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095 "2010-06-30T18:10:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![bramma23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@bramma23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bramma23)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/61 "2010-07-03T02:18:15Z")

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> [@Satchmo](#):
>
> For influence, how about _Paradise Lost_? Isn’t that the source of the whole idea of Lucifer/Satan as fallen angel? Also many of our ideas of Heaven and Hell?

Milton composed Paradise Lost about 350 years after Dante wrote The Divine Comedy. Additionally, Milton’s hell and Satan are different than most modern, cultural representations of hell or Satan.

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