In literature thumb|Illustration of the interior of the temple of Moloch from Gustav Flaubert's Salammbô by Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse (c. 1900). Moloch appears as a child-eating fallen angel in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). He is described as "horrid king besmeared with blood / Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears" (1:392–393) and leads the procession of rebel angels. Later, Moloch is the first speaker at the council of hell and advocates for open war against heaven. Milton's description of Moloch is one of the most influential for modern conceptions of this demon or deity. Milton also mentions Moloch in his poem "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity", where he flees from his grisly altars. Similar portrayals of Moloch as in Paradise Lost can be found in Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock's epic poem Messias (1748–1773), and in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem The Dawn, where Moloch represents the barbarism of past ages.
In literature thumb|Illustration of the interior of the temple of Moloch from Gustav Flaubert's Salammbô by Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse (c. 1900). Moloch appears as a child-eating fallen angel in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). He is described as "horrid king besmeared with blood / Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears" (1:392–393) and leads the procession of rebel angels. Later, Moloch is the first speaker at the council of hell and advocate.s for open war against heaven. Milton's description of Moloch is one of the most influential for modern conceptions of this demon or deity. Milton also mentions Moloch in his poem "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity", where he flees from his grisly altars. Similar portrayals of Moloch as in Paradise Lost can be found in Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock's epic poem Messias (1748–1773), and in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem The Dawn, where Moloch represents the barbarism of past ages.