Paradise Lost
In Book IV, the realm of Ethiopia is framed as near the terrestrial paradise and the headwaters of the Nile:
In Book XI, Milton's Adam describes the dissemination of his descendents across the world:Nor, where Abassin kings their issue guard,
Mount Amara (though this by some suppos'd
True Paradise) under the Ethiop line
By Nilus' head, enclos'd with shining rock,
A whole day's journey high, but wide remote
From this Assyrian garden where the
Fiend Saw undelighted all delight, all kind
Of living creatures, new to sight and strange.
Nor did his eyes not ken
Th'empire of Negus, to his utmost port,
Ercoco, and the less maritime kings,
Mombaza and Quiloa and Melind
This mention of the Ethiopian negus betrays a larger debt Milton paid to Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, argues James H. Sims.
