Paradise Regained is primarily focused on temptation and the overcoming of temptation.

Compare the temptations Satan offers in Paradise Regained to the temptations Odysseus faces in his return to Ithaca.

In Paradise Regained, the Son calmly resists all of the temptations that Satan offers him and thus triumphs, whereas Odysseus partly succumbs to temptation, but ultimately overcomes them to a degree that he succeeds in his mission. Treat the two figures as exemplifying the classical and the Christian understanding of heroism and contrast those two understandings of heroism.