That uxorious king,
whose heart, though large,
Beguil'd by fair idolatresses,
Beguil'd by fair idolatresses,
fell to idols foul.
I had never heard of the word, "uxorious," before and had to look it up. That is one of the joys of reading. I love new words and this one is a good one.
ux·o·ri·ous
/əkˈsôrēəs,ˌəɡˈzôrēəs/
adjective
having or showing an excessive or submissive fondness for one's wife
Milton uses the word to refer to Solomon who in doting on and showing excessive interest in his wives was led astray into their idolatry. Milton is in one sense saying that Solomon was already committing idolatry in his wives before he entered into the idolatry of his wives. He was idolizing his wives by being submissive to them even before he submitted himself to the idols they submitted to.
Adam plunged world into sin by the same kind of concession. His inability to say, "No," to his wife led him to lead the world into sin through his unwillingness to lead her. Since he was her head, he could not help but lead, but since he insisted on following her lead, he lead the whole world into sin, something Eve did not possess the authority to pull off even if she had desired to.
So abdication is the essence of the very first sin. By setting aside his assignment to lead, he still led, but led poorly and into devastation. Man is the head, there is no way around it. When he cuts his head off by refusing to lead, he does not escape leadership, he merely leads the rest of the body into death.
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