Two very powerful female figures are introduced in Error of The Faerie Queene and Sin of Paradise Lost. These two characters are quite similar in description, Milton pays a clear tribute to Spencer's work. Both characters have the same monstrous qualities and both possess allegorical names and qualities. The mistake is by far the most disgustingly described of the two monsters. In Book 1, Canto 1, she is the first obstacle to meeting the knight and his party. It represents the consequences of that night's recklessness and overconfidence. Seeking shelter from a storm while lost in the woods, the knight and his party come across a cave. He is warned by Una not to enter the dark and ominous cave: "Oft the fire is without smoke, / And danger without show: so thy blow / Lord knight, hold, until further tests be made. (103) " Even the dwarf warns that "this is no place for living men".(117)" But the knight, "full of fire and greedy ardor (118)", enters "the dark hole".(120)"After being upon entering, his "shimmering" armor reflects some light into the dark cave, allowing him to see the beast-woman clearly. Reacting to the light, his "thousand" disfigured children crawl into the sanctity of his miserable mouth. These young people are imitated by Milton in his descriptions of Satan's daughter in Paradise Lost. The first link... half of the article... hint, Milton offers simple comparisons: perhaps a more effective comparison would be to Error itself. Works cited and consulted: Elledge, Scott, ed. Paradise Lost: an authoritative text, backgrounds and sources, criticism. New York: Norton, 1975.Milton, John. Paradise lost. Ed. Roy Flannagan. New York: Macmillan, 1993.Spenser. Ed. Annabel Patterson. New York: Longman, 1998.Spenser, Edmund. The Fairy Queen. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. MH Abrams. Webber, Joan Malory. "The Politics of Poetry: Feminism and Paradise Lost." Milton Studies. vol. 14. Ed. James D. Simmonds. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh P, 1980. 3-24.