#The Immortal Myth of Adam and Eve | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

duxwriter · 1 year

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Ahem, more Ava's Demon cause brain rot theories/information

I supported the Kickstarter, and pointed out by another user (@fanlovedlt) Wrathia gets covered in snakes (though in the same chapter she speaks through a snake as well)

This is during Ava's dream and mind meeting after committing her act of wrath (more on why that means something later)

Now, Wrathia is covered in snakes

Snakes have a meaning (as most animals do)

With a shedding of their skin through sloughing, they are symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, and healing, but also are known as a creative life force and fertility on their own.

Now, Wrathia here, very Satan-esqu

Titan is even god coded

Chapter fifteen (called the first sin)

The following chapters (sixteen and twenty) are called "Hellfire" and "Paradise lost"

(Fun fact! Paradise lost is an epic poem written about the fall of mankind by John Milton featuring a very different version of Satan compared to how he was depicted at the time in old art and literature as well as making god the antagonist)

Now, why might this be important to what I have to say?

Snakes in the daytime mean good things, but in dreams, it's very different

Snakes in dreams typically represent a person in the dreamer's life who exhibits low, dirty, toxic, or poisonous behavior.

But they can also mean health or healing!

It can mean a sense of healing, personal transformation, or that you are moving forward.

But it also deals with the context of Ava and Wrathia in these scene's

Now, Wrathia speaks through a snake

If you know the story of Adam and Eve (note, Adam and Eve were both naked before eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge, the snake is in a tree and both Wrathia and Ava appear "naked")

Ava even calls Wrathia a "snake"

Usually a term to call someone false, fake, etc.

(very fitting for Wrathia's character)

Now, Wrathia doesn't have typical Satan horns

But they are known as demon horns (goat/sheep like, especially with the eyes)

Wrathia is regal, a demigod (as explained by Odin's peoples thoughts on how the universe happened, again, a very bible/god related story)

(note, there are seven sins, and it took six (the seventh to rest) days to make the world, there are also seven sins and seven virtues)

Satan was "regal" and "royal" as he was depicted now and (sorta) then

Where does this all lead?

Ava commits an act of wrath (term used in lieu of acts of many different religions concept of gods acting against mortals for slights or divine retribution, take the story of Niobe from Greek myth, where she says she's better than Leto so Artemis and Apollo slay her children in an act of wrath against her)

Ava basically makes hell (on titans planet) for people, and herself (note, she thought it was a dream, many people who commit or have been committed against think it's a dream/wish it was a dream)

Where I'm going with this is, It's very bible coded (as well as Alice in wonderland with the rabbit hole Ava basically sent herself down)

It both shows Ava's growth, Wrathia's horrid personality

Wrathia and Ava talk about a high, which often is said how hubris feels (or an act of defiance or fight/flight response when you pick to fight)

(also little tidbit, snake Wrathia is in a tree, which looks like a fig tree, fig trees are symbols of wisdom and success in abundance, but Jesus also cursed a fig tree in the bible, as a warning for people not to be hypocritical. Basically "Jesus Christ warning Christians that they must bear fruits after their conversion worthy of repentance or risk being condemned to Hell." Is how it's interpreted to many churches, but it also has several different meanings in the bible (like hunger for true worship, as it bore no fruit)

(also, the fruit of knowledge was never described, many simply assume it's an apple from paintings and modern media, but, it's very possible it could be any fruit, like a fig)

(we see here the tree is snapped, as in, it's been cursed/destroyed, again, the bible says Jesus cursed the tree)

(I also need to say, Fig trees can represent happiness in dreams)

#avasdemon #ava's demon #avas demon #ava ire #wrathia bellarmina #snakes #satan #god #bible coded #i have religious truama?#wrathia is satan?#theory

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candieddemon · 3 months

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I watched Michael Knowles video on Hazbin Hotel so you don't have to.

I have sectioned off this post so you can just read the funny bits (in bold), there's a warning in the second paragraph, and some introductions to this in the beginning. I can't put subway surfer gameplay next to my blog but I hope this will do. I was shared a funny video about a highly religious YouTuber named Michael Knowles, which by the way no witch hunting it doesn't accomplish anything, and I found the video hilarious but I will give some warnings.

His content can be incredibly offensive. He's proud of this but despite having nearly 2 million subscribers his last videos, which he posted in the past 24 hours, all have under 60k views one of which only has 11k. Despite the whole point of being a content creator is to be likeable and make content people like I'm sure he'll complain about cancel culture being the reason he's failing any day now. That's what people like him say to justify people not liking them. I'm also making this post because, even if you're not worried about certain triggers, this dude will not get out of my recommendations. I'm legitimately considering getting a new Google account. He is completely unironic although it wasn't until I watched a couple other videos to know this. I'm not making the typical "haha I thought this was satire it's so bad" joke I mean I genuinely thought in all honesty he was satirical. His whole personality is about how he thinks he's right about everything. The first line in his YouTube bio is "Bask in the simple joys of being right". That and about leftists yada yada. He doesn't have beliefs of his own, he's just an echo. He looks and sounds like a discount Ben Shapiro and even I think that's too mean against Ben Shapiro. He has a cup with "leftists tears" on his desk. To make your whole personality about how you hate everything must be miserable. Extremely, miserable. The amount of effort this dude spends trying to claim his mentality doesn't make him miserable is incredibly telling and the cognitive dissonance to dedicate a channel to things that offend you and then to claim you do it because others get offended so easily is incredible, but back to the main subject. The video actually starts of interesting. Hazbin Hotel has inspirations from various myths and legends and this person knows a lot about them and shares some light on where Vivziepop probably got some of the plot points from (e.g. How Lilith is portrayed in Judaism). It is all down hill from here though. This is me trying to be, no pun intended, open minded and a devil's advocate.

Despite the show being rated 18+ he claims it is for children and then after he's made up in his head it's specifically made for children he gets angry because of that. He talks a bit about "hook up culture" and does not seem to understand that two people hooking up can be beneficial for both people involved. That sex between two people can be an equal exchange for them. I feel so sorry for his wife. He also goes into how demons can't love but Hazbin Hotel of course does a great job at questioning this subject. If Hell is forever it doesn't make sense. Do you humans lose free will the moment they enter heaven? They're immortal at this point eventually they'll sin so would they not go to hell or is it inevitable even if you make it into heaven you're eventually damned for eternity? Can angels do whatever an remain in the sky? In the bible Lucifer shows there's a limit to what you can do so it is possible. However, Michael Knowles usually only tackles dilemmas he has an answer to and even then they're not great answers. He talks about how Eve was considered an equal to Adam in the bible but then goes into how Eve completely submits to Adam which would not be equal. Do keep in mind he watches the opening season to episode one and that is it. The rest of the show could expose him to a few too many beliefs that he doesn't share and we can't have that. He goes into how the right is riled up, radicalism, and satanism. This was a roller coaster the first time I watched it because the first minute or two I'm like "Oh cool it's kind of educational" and then the rest I'm like "Is this some sort of dry humor I'm not picking up?". "Leftism from the beginning has been a rebellion against God".

#hazbin hotel #satanism #hazbin hotel lucifer

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beardedmrbean · 1 month

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Curious, do Jewish people have any special titles for Adam and Eve? Like calling them “the first ones” and such?

Also have we ever found the Kingdom of Nod? I’m surprised I haven’t heard any stories where Israel had to fight against their “cousin” kingdom. Unless it’s implied the Great Flood wash away Cain’s people.

I’m probably going to a animified beam (though I’m also using Command and Conquer lore of the Brotherhood of Nod as inspiration too) where the kingdom of nod is a moving city that many people think is a mirage or myth.

And in a twisted way, the immortal Cain stole Abel corpse and put it in his moving city. And now the body of the brother he murdered is the only connection to the past Cain have.

Also Seth was born after the murder of Abel right? I was thinking about a story where the reason we see the murder of Abel in a certain way because young Seth saw the murder in front of him.

Oh I going to show you the pic of how much cocaine ac lore writers were on in 2009

Also anyone notice in most historical drawings when Cain about to kill Abel. It look like Abel going “Brother no!”

Curious, do Jewish people have any special titles for Adam and Eve? Like calling them “the first ones” and such? Also have we ever found the Kingdom of Nod? I’m surprised I haven’t heard any stories where Israel had to fight against their “cousin” kingdom. Unless it’s implied the Great Flood wash away Cain’s people.

Not that I'm aware of, likely whatever the names translate to in Hebrew and what those names mean would be about it

Adam: Son of the red Earth

Eve: Full of life and mother of life.

As for Nod, few places named that now historically we have no clue. East of Eden is the only real hint so somewhere east of the fertile crescent. So Iran, India, China, Afghanistan. I'd guess Iran since that's Persia and would fit with the way Israel interacts with them later on, but I don't think anyone has anything more than guesses

Cains Moving Castle

And in a twisted way, the immortal Cain stole Abel corpse and put it in his moving city. And now the body of the brother he murdered is the only connection to the past Cain have.

I've heard weirder theories, The Wandering Jew, being one of them, it's actually a interesting read.

Also Seth was born after the murder of Abel right? I was thinking about a story where the reason we see the murder of Abel in a certain way because young Seth saw the murder in front of him.

Nothing in the Bible that says one way or the other, just he was appointed/anointed as the replacement for Abel.

Oh I going to show you the pic of how much cocaine ac lore writers were on in 2009

You send me that one already?

Also anyone notice in most historical drawings when Cain about to kill Abel. It look like Abel going “Brother no!”

There are a bunch of those like that ya, what do you expect though gotta add a bit more drama to the first murder.

#zoomer huey anon

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drsilverfish · 1 year

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Avatar: The Way of Water

Kids whose bioluminescent freckles mirror the stars, bonding with four-eyed whales via interspecies linguistics; this is the good Avatar: The Way of Water.

The transposition of US patriarchal family values, like flies in aspic, onto an alien world, in a narrative which is supposed to be a critique of colonialism; this is the bad Avatar: The Way of Water.

Unfortunately, they are one and the same.

Major spoilers under the cut for those who haven’t seen James Cameron’s Blue Pandora yet...

Come for the incredible xeno-biology, struggle with the sclerotic storytelling, but understand that this film is an ecological polemic, a deliberative morality tale and a call to arms for Mother Earth. Then, forgive, or don’t forgive, its cheesy and clunky moving parts on that basis.

Cameron’s Way of Water continues his paen to eco-primitivism on Pandora, where Darwinian Jumblie hunter-gatherers, the Na’vi (blue-green, strong, thin and beautiful, and this time at sea, but definitely not at sea in a sieve) live in ecological and spiritual harmony with their Edenic world.

Human Jake Sully, now permanently inhabiting his Na’vi avatar body, brings his US Marine consciousness with him into his new life. He insists his sons call him, “Sir”, and runs his inter-species family like an Earth military unit. His surname is “sully”, which means to damage the purity or integrity of something.

Yet again, the Na’vi are being invaded by rapacious Earthlings, this time not focussed on mining unobtamium ore. Turns out liquidised alien whale brain is even more valuable, because, as ambrosia for humans, it stops the ageing process. This amrita (Sanskrit for “immortality”) is the new goal for extractive, intergalactic, US-led militarised capitalism. And Earth is dying (or rather, plainly, has been murdered) so Pandora is now earmarked for permanent colonization.

There are pools of moral and intellectual curiosity waiting to be gazed upon, amidst the sound and fury of adrenaline-filled punch and peril.

What is the role of humanity’s scientists and scientific capabilities?

Sigorney Weaver’s xeno-botanist/ anthropologist, Dr. Grace Augustine, rebelled last time around and joined the Na’vi. Now, her child, Kiri (which means, skin of a tree or fruit, in Maori) has a special spiritual connection to Pandora’s flora and fauna. She was born of Grace’s comatose Na’vi avatar body, and it’s implied that her other parent is the Great Mother Spirit of Pandora herself, Eywa. Grace Augustine is itself a symbolic name, referencing Saint Augustine, who believed that human nature was altered by the prideful “original sin” of Adam and Eve in Eden, and required redemption by the grace of Christ. Pandora IS Eden, and it is here that humanity can (I am guessing) unexpectedly find redemption by learning from the Na’vi, as Grace did; “hope” being the last creature to be set free from the box of horrors that Pandora opens in Greek myth.

We see the other Na’vi-friendly scientists who stayed behind on Pandora with Grace tell Jake and Neytiri that Kiri (whom they have adopted) has epilepsy and should not be allowed to plug into Eywa again or her seizures could kill her. Here human science attempts to be life-saving, but applies a human lens to a Na’vi context and misreads Kiri by failing to understand her biological embodiment of the Pandoran Mother Spirit.

Finally, we have the scientists who are part of the whaling enterprise which hunts and kills the peaceful, sentient Tulkuns, for money, one of whom remarks that he’s drunk all the time because he doesn’t feel good about what he’s involved in.

So, we see that humanity’s scientific knowledge can be harnessed for ecological good when practised with spiritual reverence for life (Grace), can attempt to be benign but misapply itself by failing to understand cultural difference (the scientists’ diagnosis of Kiri) or can vilely prostitute itself in the service of rapacious capitalism (the xeno-biologist whalers).

Then we have Spider, the human child of reanimated antagonist Colonel Quaritch. He’s a Mowgli/ Tarzan figure (unfortunately, to a modern eye, that figure feels faintly ridiculous) who has “gone native” and runs around in blue tattoos, dreads and loincloth, spending as much of his time as possible with Jake and Neytiri’s Na’vi kids.

The Mowgli (Kipling)/ Tarzan (Rice Burroughs) reference isn’t an accident, just as the whale-hunt Moby Dick (Melville) reference isn’t either. These are 19th century (early 20th C in Rice Burroughs’ case) authors who write, in the context of European colonialism, of enchanted (both romanticised and primitivised) encounters with native “others”. Herein lies one of the difficulties of the Avatar saga. It is intent on critiquing colonialism, but it can’t seem to escape a colonialist narrative framework. Jake Sully was initially constructed as a Hollywood white saviour, someone who miraculously does “native” better than the “natives” themselves, rallying the forest Na’vi to combat victory against his own people, and becoming leader of the tribes as a Toruk Makto (rider of the winged pterydactyl-like apex predator Toruk).

Ideologically, Avatar: the Way of Water, attempts a bit of a course correct in that Jake steps down as leader and leaves Neytiri’s forest tribe, the Omaticaya, with his family, to try and keep them safe, once they learn Earth invaders have returned and have a bounty on Jake, specifically, as a traitor. However, Jake becomes instead a “natural” patriarchal leader of his family unit, drilling an, “us Sullies stick together against all” mentality into his kids. The gender politics of the Sullies are subtle, but regressive; we see Jake teaching his son (not his daughters) to hunt, Neytiri (not Jake) preparing family food, Jake telling his eldest son to look out for his siblings, Jake conforting a grieving Neytiri (whose emotions are “wilder” than his). On Pandora, Cameron’s Eden, men are warrior leaders, women are spiritual leaders, everyone is heterosexual, and no one is disabled (indeed in Avatar 2009, Jake “escapes” from his wheelchair-bound disability into his new Na’vi avatar body). This is the eco-primitivist fantasy, which has always had troubling eco-fascist tendencies; ones that go unexamined here.

On the other hand, we do see Jake and Neytiri’s mixed-race kids experience prejudice for their biological differences, from other Na’vi in the Metkayina (water-living) clan, and struggle for acceptance.

Moreover, Spider, whom Jake and his kids have semi-adopted (but whom, Jake tells us, Neytiri feels prejudiced towards, even knowing Jake once inhabited a human body too) also struggles with outsider status. Spider is another human character (like Jake and Grace before him) torn between two worlds, and his dilemma is clearly set up to carry great meaning for the next installments of the Avatar saga. He is othered and treated as a hostage by Neytiri against Quaritch Mark 2 (his Na’vi embodied father-clone) and conversely treated with affection by Quaritch 2 himself (on whom Neytiri’s father-blackmail works). Thus, Spider later saves Quaritch 2 (Jake’s main antagonist) from drowning, which he fails to mention that to his adoptive Na’vi family. Spider is thus a child both of two warring fathers, and two warring worlds.

The best elements of the film are clearly those focussed on the Tulkun alien-whales and their symbiotic relationship with the Metkayina. Throughout these, and other (over-long) action fight sequences, it is clear that humans remain the trouble in Pandora’s paradise.

Either Earth must adopt Pandora’s Edenic principles, or Pandora must perish at the hand of Earth’s rapacious ones. This is the choice Cameron seemingly presents us with.

But, cross-cultural pollination, via inter-breeding and ideas-exchange, have already occurred, and cannot be undone unless all human influence (including Jake, Neytiri and their kids) are erased from Pandora.

Can there be a third way, for children of both worlds, like Spider and Kiri, neither an eco-fascist Eden, nor an industrial-capitalist wasteland?

For all its (at times excruciating) flaws, I admire Cameron’s attempt to confront us with a global narrative about ecocide, and the corrective need for ecological consciousness, in these times when we are inexorably faced, as a species, with our responsibility for the seismic troubles of climate breakdown and mass extinction which bear down on us (and on our hybrid children, born of nature and technology) in the new century.

#Avatar: The Way of Water #Avatar 2 #Avatar review #Thinking through Cameron's ecological parable #With all its flaws #And valiant attempts #My Miscel Meta #Avatar meta

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meltedbingus · 10 months

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Christianity is just post-apocalyptic Norse mythology.

In the Norse myths, the death of Baldur, the Aesir God of Light and Peace, is the catalyst for Ragnarok. After Ragnarok, baldur returns from Hel, where he was sent after Loki killed him with the mistletoe arrow.

Baldur IS the Christian God, hence the "God is light" description.

Two humans, Lif and Lifthrasir, also survive ragnarok by hiding "in a wood". This can be interpreted as meaning Yggdrasil, the world tree, and are then "born" out of it after ragnarok. . Part of the Norse creation story is that the first humans were born out of trees, askr and embla, or ash and elm. It seems like there's some correlation to the Adam and Eve of Christianity.

The Norse gods kept their immortality by eating the apples of Idunn from Iduna's orchard, which sounds pretty similar to Eden, as in the garden of eden. Perhaps the apple of idunn and the fruit in the garden of eden are one and the same.

Loki was the trickster God of mischief. He is supposed to meet his end while fighting Heimdall during ragnarok. But what if he doesn't? He is the gid of mischief after all, he might slip away down to hel. He's a shapeshifter, perhaps he's the snake that tricks Lif/eve into eating the fruit.

There's also a theory that Freyr is Jesus, pretty much everything Jesus does is something Freyr could conceivably do, like it's in his domain as a god, but as far as I can tell, there's nothing even hinting that he survives ragnarok in the myths.

#mythology #norse mythology #norse gods #Christianity #christianity is just post-apocalyptic norse mythology #theory

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zenosanalytic · 4 months

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I know I complain about historical sources changing myths and making up new myths all the time, and also that, because the contemporary world is Like That, the impulse is to assume said sources were doing so for Agenda Purposes, but I think it's worth remembering that People Just Like a Good Story, and sometimes they make shit up cuz they think that makes an old story they know better.

Like: I have a preferred version of The Garden of Eden. In this, God makes Adam and Eve, and is SO PROUD of them that God brings them to God's Most Special Place where God keeps all the Coolest Stuff: The Garden of Eden.

And after God gets them there God's so proud and excited to show them off God leaves them alone to rush off to the other gods and tell them and bring them, and God's daughter says "Dad that's so cool! Where are they?" and God says "I brought them to the Garden, come and see" and she says "Dad! Our Tree of Knowledge is in there! If they eat its fruit they'll know everything WE know." and God goes "Oh. Right.." And then she said "AND our Tree of LIFE is in there! If they eat ITS Fruit they'll become immortal! Then they'll be just as much gods as Us!" and God goes "Oh. Right.. I've gotta go!!!" and God ran off, and then Shenanigans

There's no ancient basis for this version that I know of. I just think it's funny to portray God as a slightly absent-minded Dad with a fundamentally good heart who, unfortunately, gets carried away by Enthusiasm and other emotions sometimes. For me, this version is a better version of the story than the ones we've got, and that's ok cuz it's a Story and Stories are meant to be enjoyed.

I just wish ancient sources would be as upfront with their preferences as I am unu unu

#Myths #Storytelling #zA Musings #zA Writes

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mr-crawleigh · 5 months

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since you seem to know a lot about Greek mythology, do you think there's some sort of connection between Pandora and Eve?

I’ve considered this one for a while, as it’s a very weighty question. Certainly there’s historical connections between the way that we think of Pandora in the Western world, and the way we think of Eve. Given the association of the Renaissance with the unearthing of Greek and Roman mythos and the rather misogynistic view of both the Greeks and the Catholic Church over the years, I would say that it’s folly to believe that there’s no connection. Eve and Pandora are both said to be the downfall of mankind, and specifically of mankind, because of their tendency towards curiosity.

And yet, do these myths stem from the same place?

Abrahamic mythology varies between religions, and even different interpretations of the same religion. Greek mythology varies vastly by historical period, and different poets have different understandings of what may have happened in different myths depending on the ideas that are prevalent in Greek culture at the time.

Eve, or Chaya, means “life” in Hebrew. Pandora means “all of the gifts.” But Eve was created to be a counterpart and helpmeet to Adam, the first man, whereas Pandora was created to be a punishment.

What, then, came before them?

The Midrash of Lilith is well-known, I should hope–Lilith, the first woman, was created as a full being alongside Adam, and thus refused to be placed lower than him on the social chain. Being incompatible, G-d then either punished or rewarded her by turning her into the Mother of Demons, who would take Adam’s seed and make herself demons from it. Eve was created to fill that gap in the world–Adam needed a mate. It may be argued that Eve’s nature was a punishment for Adam’s cruelty, but the fact is that her primary sin was not really curiosity, or else the serpent would be blameless; it was, rather, the tendency to listen to unwise council. Eve was in fact too obedient and did not use her own intelligence.

Pandora is likewise well-known as a punishment for accepting fire from the gods, a stark contrast to Adam, who was given the ability to name things and use words (there is little about the discovery of fire in the Abrahamic scriptures, but the discovery of various tools and technologies are often attributed to gifts from G-d or the angels).

What came before Pandora, though? Was it an age of Men Only, a boy’s club of immortals? Surely not, or we would not have goddesses. No, the old myth suggests that humans were created with two sides, one male and one female, who could reproduce with each other. This to me suggests a kind of hermaphroditic quality to the creature that we would consider Humanity and which the Greeks would consider Man-anity (because of the idea that women were merely inferior versions of men, rather than their own perfectly reasonable gender).

Adam, then, was created as merely a man, rather than a Man. And Eve was created to be his counterpart in reproduction, rather than a punishment. She was made to be too obedient rather than not obedient enough, incurious rather than too thoughtful. Some might say this was a mistake on the part of the Creator, but some others might say that free will can only come from a decision made freely.

Yes, the Renaissance drew parallels between Eve and Pandora, but I believe that the original Eve was not a punishment, but rather an ill-designed gift, a kind of apology for having created two creatures who were not suited to mate with each other. Pandora, on the other hand, served to separate Man from Woman, which created discord between the sexes that serves to separate us from the gods themselves.

The difference being, of course, that the Greeks viewed the gods as being forever petty and dictated by the natures of what they represented, and the Jews saw G-d as being something with the goal of creating a positive relationship between Nature and Humanity, something that could in fact learn and change.

(Arguably, no gods are exempt from learning and changing. But some choose to learn and change and grow, and some do not, and it is not always dependent on pantheon.)

#greek mythology #abrahamic mythology #pandora #eve

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brightgnosis · 2 years

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Yiddish texts from the 16th and 17th centuries written expressly for women interpreted the three “women’s commandments”, i.e. the dough tithe, menstrual purity laws, and lighting candles for the Sabbath (hallah, niddah, and haddlaqah [respectively]) [...] as necessary atonement for Eve’s transgression. Some of women’s bodily functions (like menstruation and pregnancy) are explained as punishment for Eve’s disobedience. Tekhines, on the other hand, stress women’s rewards for their present obedience, linking mitzvot with fertility rather than penance.

From 'The Immortal Myth of Adam and Eve’; Professor Shawna Dolansky via The Torah

#The Immortal Myth of Adam and Eve #Shawna Dolansky #The Torah Site #Quote #Jewish Studies

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alephskoteinos · 1 year

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Disgorging foliate heads as medieval symbols of Christianity

Here's something of a pagan PSA: The Green Man is probably not a pagan symbol or deity.

I probably should have dug into this when that coronation invite was doing the rounds last month, but I reckon now's as good a time as any, as long as it's on my mind.

Don't let the grass horns on that coronation Green Man or decades of modern pop cultural mythology fool you: there's not really anything "pagan" about the Green Man. The idea of the Green Man as a pagan deity or mythological figure has been prevalent in the popular imagination for almost a century now, first proposed by a woman named Lady Ragland in 1939, but while people have made all sorts of connections to various pre-Christian gods, there has never been any evidence of the Green Man as an actual figure of some pre-Christian religion. Instead, the Green Man as we know him was probably actually a figure of medieval Christianity. But even that's only scratching the surface, because even the name "Green Man" itself is just a modern name for a series of faces that appear on medieval churches all over England as well in other parts of Britain and Europe.

Historian Stephen Miller suggests that the more accurate name for this motif is the "disgorging foliate head motif". It's not as catchy or pleasant as "Green Man", I admit, but several church icons do literally look like that.

According to Miller, these heads became part of medieval British Christian iconography after having imported by occupying Normans who came from France. So, in a way, you can probably think of the Green Man as a relic of Norman occuption, originally a French motif brought in by the Normans who invaded and colonized England and Wales before eventually becoming part of British iconography.

As to its religious significance, Miller tells us that it represents a motif from the Quest of Seth (or Legend of the Rood), a set of medieval Christian legends about Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve. The basic legend goes that Adam, on his deathbed, sends Seth out to Paradise to find an elixir of immortality. There Seth meets an angel who refuses to give him the elixir, but the angel does instead give Seth a seed (or perhaps more than one seed) from the forbidden tree where Adam and Eve first ate the apple. When Seth returned, Adam had already died, and then Seth planted the seed(s) in Adam's mouth or beneath his tongue, and then buried him in the soil of Golgotha, the place where Jesus was crucified. Then a tree grows from Adam's corpse, which is then cut down and turned into the cross on which Jesus was crucified. In some versions of the legend it's not a tree, but rather a bunch of twigs and shoots, which would explain some of the motifs.

I suppose you can loosely derive the theme of rebirth in some context, but it would not be a pagan context. The "Green Man" was not meant to be understood as a pagan god. Instead, if anything the "Green Man" was probably a medieval representation of Adam, who in the Quest of Seth dies and is reborn into what becomes the cross at Golgotha. So the "rebirth" of the Green Man is a strictly Christian "rebirth": the resurrection of Jesus, which in the Quest of Seth is prefigured by "rebirth" of Adam. That is what Miller refers to as "new life to humankind" - the "new life" promised by Jesus.

So, although the "Green Man" has sort of become a fixture of British popular folk myth and culture, it was originally a Norman icon, a fixture of the Norman occupation of Britain, that also represented medieval legends about Seth and Adam. The disgorging foliate head, which we now call "Green Man", was never really a "pagan" symbol, though it does sort of resemble many similar symbols from various ancient cultures (such as the Kirtimukha in India). The motif we know today and call "Green Man" was probably always a Christian symbol, not a pagan one. I suppose if you want to keep brandishing it, that's your business, but don't refer to it as a pagan symbol or the image of a pagan god, because it just isn't.

#green man #paganism #christianity #medieval literature #british mythology #disgorging foliate heads #medieval legends #the quest of seth

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kuroyurishion · 2 years

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Let's talk about red fruits. ONEUS released a new image with them holding red fruits. What these fruits are, who is holding them, and what they symbolize may be clues to the monarch lore.

We start by determining what each fruit is. There are a lot of red fruits in the world, but not all of them belong to the clade Rosids.

1. Leedo is holding an apple. Apples, as previously discussed, are the forbidden fruit. Eve ate the apple and therefore betrayed God, committing the first sin, tempted to her by the serpent. Knowing what Malus means, Leedo's malus, which can also be read as the word malice, might have something to do with temptation. He did mention the serpent in No Diggity, rapping, "You're the serpent in our Eden, spreading bad vibes in our garden" and once again in Intro: Window, "You're like a serpent. Walk straight with a blindfold on".

2. Seoho is holding a pomegranate. Pomegranates are famously depicted in the myth of Persephone and Hades, Hades falls in love with Persephone and took into the underworld to be his wife. Persephone eats six pomegranate seeds and stays with Hades for one half of the year and with her mother Demeter for the other half. Knowing that, Seoho's malus might have something to do with love. In TBONTB, Seoho sings, "The end of the obvious break up. Even though I live, it's not really living" and "In my life, being with you was (Dead/Alive) the most regretful but the happiest moment".

3. Hwanwoong's fruit was a lot harder to identify. Contenders for this mysterious fruit include plums, peaches, passion fruit, and apricots, all of which are part of the clade Rosids. In Chinese mythology, plums were eaten by immortals to enhance strength, and are a symbol of perseverance and hope. Also in Chinese mythology peaches, known as "Peaches of Immortality", where those who eat them are bestowed immortality. Passion fruits symbolize the crucifixion of Christ. Apricots were believed to be golden apples in Greek mythology, and these apples were a wedding gift from Gaia to Hera and were guarded by a serpent.

All good interpretations, but here's another contender: the red pear. Pears were a favorite fruit of the Greek goddess Hera, and in Christianity the pear symbolizes two things. First, pears represent the love Christ has for mankind. Second, pears symbolic of the Virgin and the Child. Knowing all the contenders, Hwanwoong's malus might have something to do with the connections between people and the self. In TBONTB, Hwanwoong sings, "Just as morning comes after night passes, our relationship was a given" and "Why did I ignore the truth". In Come Back Home, he sings, "Out of fear I cover my eyes. Without you I am just a child. Please stop my blackened heart. I still hate myself, blame oneself".

4. Ravn is picking at a bowl of raspberries. Raspberries are seen in a Greek story about baby Zeus. The nymph Ida calms baby Zeus's sorrow by picking a raspberry, which were white at the time. However, she accidentally pricked herself near her heart (although some accounts say finger), staining the white berries red. Knowing that, Ravn's malus might have something to do with the heart. In No Diggity he's seen with a heart in a bear trap, and in Intro: Window, he raps, "I'm having the window of my heart opened in case she comes. I hope I still bloom in your heart" and "Would you acknowledge my heart? That would refresh my frustration".

5. Keonhee is holding a fig. Figs are interesting since they're technically not fruits, but rather a cluster of flowers inside a bulb. Figs, and by association fig trees, are seen in Christianity. After Adam and Eve ate the apple, they clothed themselves in fig leaves after realizing that they do not have clothes on. And in Greek mythology, Gaia turned her son Syceus into a fig tree to protect him from Zeus. Knowing this, Keonhee's malus could be related to loss. In Come Back Home, he sings, "Please come back home. To our familiar path, come back" and "I'm up all night waiting. Just walk few steps closer"; and once again in Luna, "Like one night's dream that disappeared all of a sudden. I won't go far following the stars".

6. Xion is holding a cherry. Cherries are also interesting because in ancient mythology, the fruit from the cherry tree was believed to have contained an elixir that gave gods their immortality. Symbolically, cherries are also seen as symbols of self-sacrifice because to get to the pit, or the soul in this analogy, you have to remove the outside, the body. Knowing this, Xion's malus might be about immortality or sacrifice, a choice. In TBONTB, he sings, "Dead or Alive" and "I'm standing at the crossroad", and in Come Back Home, "My miserable state I'm worried it will continue".

What does this all mean? The monarchs might be regretting the deal they made. With who? I’m not sure. But their story continues, for better or for worse.

#my brain hurts #all the research i did #watch me be an entire clown #and be wrong #kpop #oneus #oneus theory #long post #mine

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cassioppenny · 1 year

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dont feel too bad abt not talking/posting much! dw i get it u_u BUT!!! if youd like id like to hear anything u have to say abt milesverse galar.....OR. if theres any interesting milesverse legendary/mythical lore thatd be mega cool too!!! :0

thank you neela!! that means a lot to me

in milesverse galar the main character is gloria and she travels around with her older brother victor (he's 15 and she's 13), hop, and eventually marnie. victor went on a journey when he was 13 but gave up before the first gym. this caused gloria to be extremely disappointed in him and they basically hate eachother now. gloria thinks victor is a failure and victor thinks gloria is an annoying self absorbed brat.

gloria looks up to leon a lot and thinks of him as her real older brother and wants to one day surpass him and become a new unbeatable champion. she's kinda egotistical and thinks she's the coolest guy in the universe. she names her pokemon more and more elaborate and batshit insane things that everyone else either just call it by it's species or shortens the names. she of course have to say their full title out loud no matter what. for example her sobble's name is THE GREAT BLADE OF LEGEND EXCALIBUR THE THIRD but literally everyone just calls him excalibur, exal, or just sobble. no one knows where excalibur the second is. also exal isn't even a sword.

victor is forced to go with gloria by their mom and is basically the brock of the group if brock was actually the biggest hater on the planet. he cooks a lot though it's his special interest.

as for the plot i kinda want to figure out a way to make rose's plan not as fucking stupid as it is in canon but im not sure how rn. maybe make the power thing a more urgent emergency or have it so the energy might run out at any moment or something

as for legendaries i would like to think up entire origin myths for all of them (except for like the aliens and the man made horrors) but that'd be like a very long post so im just going to keep to the arceus family for the most part. i think imaging what pokemythology is like is cool

so basically the legendaries that arceus made are dialga and palkia, then the lake trio, then mew, and then finally giritina because i think giritina being the youngest child is funny as hell.

mew is basically the adam/eve of pokemythology but after giving birth to mortal life they decide being a little shit is way funnier and is now basically a trickster god who causes problems on purpose like giving volo immortality.

another example mew got bored during rgby and started rping as a human basically and becomes the indigo champion. fucks with the kanto trio and probably made their friendship divorce even worse, stole the masterball, stole a truck, had green capture mewtwo for them, takes mewtwo and then fucks off.

giritina isn't like actually evil. they're basically just an angsty lonely teenager with anger issues if they were also worm satan. they get easily attached to any human that's nice to them (volo and dawn) and can communicate to them through their thoughts which have the unfortunate side effect of fucking them up mentally a bit. volo had it worse since giritina was more pissed back then compared to dppt.

arceus is the most out of touch dad who tries to be supportive but always makes everything worse somehow ever. they overhear lucas having an argument with dawn over how lucas feels like he's not as good as his friends since he's not a hero like them and arceus thinks "this lad will definitely be the perfect candidate to become the new hisuian hero" and shoved him back in time. they also gave him amnesia since the last guy (alder) kept whining that he had a wife and kids at home. then after lucas did what arceus told him to arceus thinks that giving him a portion of his power by letting him use an arceus avatar in battle instead of taking him home was a good idea.

dialga, palkia, mew, and giritina all don't like them. dialga and palkia are kinda awkward about it like "haha yeah sure dad" whenever arceus says something insanely stupid. mew thinks they're a weenie and the world would probably be better without them but doesn't try overthrowing them by themselves they just give one eyed weirdos immortality to do it for them. giritina is giritina.

the lake trio are chill they just hang out in their caves for the most part.

#milesverse #woe arceus family lore be opon ye #also galar lore i guess #i think arceus being an absolutely clueless dad (gender neutral) is funny as hell

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ancientcosmicsecrets · 8 days

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The Annunaki Gods

I believe that the Annunaki were visitors from another planet. My belief is based on the ancient Sumerian records that speak of these powerful beings. The Sumerians, one of the earliest civilizations, inscribed their history and myths on clay tablets, leaving a legacy that has intrigued scholars and enthusiasts alike for centuries.

According to these records, the Annunaki were deities with profound influence over the earth and humanity. Their home, Nibiru, is described as a distant planet orbiting far beyond the visible planets in our solar system. Sumerian texts, such as the Enuma Elish, depict Nibiru as a place of crossing, a pivotal point in the heavens associated with the god Marduk.

Another fascinating aspect of Sumerian lore is the creation of humanity. Adapa, considered the first man, was created by the god Ea, also known as Enki. The myth of Adapa reveals a being endowed with wisdom but not immortality, a tale-bearing resemblance to the biblical story of Adam and Eve. This parallel extends to the concept of the Garden of Eden, which in Sumerian mythology is called a divine paradise, a garden of the gods.

The Sumerian tablets offer a rich and complex narrative, intertwining the mundane with the divine. They speak of the Annunaki's role in shaping human destiny, their technological prowess, and their search for gold, which some interpret as a metaphor for seeking resources or knowledge. While mainstream archaeology and history may not support the notion of the Annunaki as extraterrestrial visitors, the allure of the Sumerian tablets lies in their mystery and the possibility of interpreting them through various lenses.

Whether one sees them as myths or historical records, they provide a captivating glimpse into the minds and beliefs of an ancient civilization that has profoundly impacted human culture. The debate about the Annunaki's true nature and their place in our history is ongoing, but what remains undeniable is their enduring fascination. The Sumerian records have laid the groundwork for a narrative that continues to inspire and provoke thought, challenging us to explore the boundaries between myth and reality.

Ancient Cosmic Secrets | Secret Knowledge | Patreon

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live4evil · 9 days

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Note to reader .. ** this is a detailed look at how Satan's character has transgressed throughout time. It's a long article but very interesting.

Satan, or the Devil, is one of the best-known characters in the Western traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Surprisingly, this entity was a late-comer in the ancient world. Satan, as a totally evil being, is nowhere to be found in the Jewish Bible. He evolved during the height of the Persian Achaemenid Empire (beginning c. 550 BCE) and was adopted by Jews living under Persian rule at the time. His formal name, Satan, derives from the Hebrew 'ha-Satan'. 'Ha' means 'the' and 'Satan' means 'opposer' or 'adversary'. The name described his eventual function as the opposer of God’s creation. Greek 'diabolos', English 'devil', meant 'accuser', and 'slanderer', again describing his role. The concept of Satan emerged over time and in phases.

The Devil

The Problem of the Existence of Evil

Evil has always existed. Humans encountered natural disasters (earthquakes, floods), wars with pillage and rape, disease, plagues, and infant mortality, man-made evil such as murders and theft, and of course, death. As the ancients constructed their religious systems, the existence of evil had to be explained and rationalized. Creation myths often designated a high god or a king of the gods, who controlled everything including the other gods as well as nature. In this capacity, they were responsible for both good and evil. The term to describe this ability is omnipotence (all-powerful). In Deuteronomy 28, God declares that he controls both prosperity and suffering. Many creation myths addressed how and why evil arose.

THE NARRATIVE FUNCTION OF THE STORY OF ADAM & EVE WAS TO DEMONSTRATE THAT EVIL BEGAN THROUGH THE FAULT OF HUMANS, NOT GOD.

Genesis may be understood as a polemic against their neighbours, the ancient Mesopotamians. In the Mesopotamian creation myth, the Enuma Elish, the gods themselves are responsible for evil. They are capricious and chaotic and created humans simply as slaves to offer them sacrifices. The God of Israel is shown as the opposite; he is never capricious, there is a divine plan, and everything he created is deemed good. The narrative function of the 'fall' in the Garden of Eden, the story of Adam and Eve, was to demonstrate that evil began through the fault of humans, not God. Their disobedience led to man’s struggles to produce food and woman’s pain in childbirth. But the most severe punishment was the loss of their immortality. The sin of Adam and Eve brought on the greatest evil, death. As their descendants, we are all doomed to this fate.

Being human, people projected their own experiences upon the gods. Kings had courts of nobles and advisers. As on earth, so in the heavens. Like any court, there were higher and lower officials. The higher ones were the angels in Judaism. The lower deities, daemons (in Greek), were originally neutral but over time were blamed for evil.

In Genesis, God speaks to his court, "the sons of God", the angels, as he proceeds to create the earth. At the end of creation, we have a strange passage in Genesis 6. We read that "the sons of God" had intercourse with human women, producing the "Nephilim", ancient giants. The purpose of this narrative is to explain why God sent the flood (evil on the earth). Many pantheons had gods who mated with women, particularly Zeus in Greek mythology. Israelite tradition, however, rejected this behaviour as this mixing could lead to the great sin of idolatry.

Ha-Satan & The Book of Job

The Book of Job (c. 600 BCE) is the earliest text to address the problem of theodicy, which is a modern term for the problem "If God is good, why does he permit evil and suffering to exist?" The book opens with the angels apparently reporting to God. Among them is the angel ha-Satan, whose function was to travel the world placing 'obstacles' (the meaning of his name) in front of humans, requiring them to make a choice (good or evil). In this role, we can say that he acts as God’s prosecuting attorney. Reporting back to God, he mentioned God’s servant Job, who had prospered. But, of course, he says, it is because God granted Job so much favour.

The bet is on. God tells ha-Satan to destroy all of Job’s prosperity, everything except his life. God is sure that Job will not turn away from him. Job’s children are killed, his crops and herds destroyed, and he suffers horrible diseases. Job’s friends all come to comfort him and convince him that he must have sinned because God is a god of justice. Throughout, Job insists that he never sinned; God has unfairly punished him. Frustrated, Job calls on God to explain, and a voice from the whirlwind admonishes him: "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?" (Job 38:4) In other words: 'How dare you (a mere mortal) question me?' Job is humbled and concedes the prerogatives and power of God.

Temptation & Expulsion from Paradise, Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo

Ha-Satan appears rarely in the Jewish scriptures. In the few references to ha-Satan, he opposes humans, not God. In Eden, the serpent serves this function, offering a choice to Adam and Eve. Throughout most of the books of the Prophets, evil is blamed on the people’s sin of idolatry. God is still in control punishing Israel.

Persian Rule & Zoroastrianism

When Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire (587 BCE), some Jews were taken into captivity in Babylon. Cyrus the Great then conquered the Babylonians in 550 BCE and established the Persian Empire. The state cult of Persia was Zoroastrianism, founded by the prophet Zoroaster. Evil was seen as the polar opposite of good. A pure, good being, Ahura Mazda ('Wise Lord') was the source of everything, and at the polar end was druj, chaos. Druj became personified as Angra Mainyu ('false', 'deception'), also known as Ahriman. The heavens, the earth, and all humans fall within this polar range.

Cyrus permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem (539 BCE), although some stayed. They took many elements of ancient Persian religion with them, and they merged the personification of chaos with earlier views of ha-Satan. Now he was just Satan or, in Greek, diabolos, the Devil, and the Jews began assigning all evil to Satan instead of God.

Dead Sea Scrolls

In the writings of the Jewish sect of Essenes who settled at Qumran (c. 150 BCE), we have our first literature that created a method known as the personification of evil. The sectarian literature equated Satan not only with evil but specifically with anyone or any group not in agreement with their own views, including other Jews. According to their texts, God had created two spirits in humans: the way of light and the way of darkness. The demons were now under the control of Satan; he sent them to possess those in darkness to commit evil. The Essenes applied symbolic names to Satan and his agents; Belial (Hebrew for 'worthless') who will lead the "sons of darkness" against those of light in the final battle (The War Scroll). As with the angels and archangels in heaven, we now have a hierarchy and different functions in Satan’s court. Beelzebub was one of the seven princes of Hell and derived from an ancient Canaanite god who was known for getting rid of flies (carriers of disease). Thus, Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies.

GOD’S OMNIPOTENCE REMAINS INTACT; SATAN COULD NOT DO HIS WORK WITHOUT GOD’S PERMISSION.

Various apocalyptic texts were among the scrolls at Qumran. The Books of Enoch fill in more details about the "sons of God". They were condemned for teaching humans metallurgy and magic and were punished by being tossed out of heaven and chained in the abyss (the Jewish concept of Sheol, the land of the dead) for eternity.

In another text, Jubilees, more Devil lore was added. Satan’s name here is Mastema (which means 'hated' or 'hostility'). We learn that Mastema wanted to be higher than God and rebelled. He and his fellow angels were tossed down into the bottomless pit. Satan became the fallen angel. God wanted to destroy all the demons after the flood, but Mastema asked God to let him have a tenth of them to continue to plague men because "the evil of the sons of men is great" (10:8). With God’s permission, Mastema became the tempter who was written back into earlier stories. In Jubilees, it was Mastema who was permitted to test Abraham with the binding of Isaac. In other words, God’s omnipotence remains intact; Satan could not do his work without God’s permission.

The New Testament

In the letters of Paul and the gospels, we have the view that Satan is now the ruler of this world. This is expressed in a letter written by one of Paul’s disciples:

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the Devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:11-12).

Paul often referred to the demons as the agents of Satan who interfered with his mission. Writing from prison, Paul explained that he could not visit his community "because Satan hindered us" (1 Thessalonians 2:17-18). Paul’s inner struggles were expressed in what can be understood as a form of possession: "And to keep me from being too elated ... a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me ..." (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). Paul saw this as God’s ability to control Satan to test him. His familiar phrase, that believers now live in Christ, referred to Christ’s protection against the influence of Satan’s demons in the universe.

Temptation of Jesus

The Devil also looms large in the first gospel, Mark (c. 70 CE). Mark utilized a common stereotype to describe the ministry of Jesus, that of a charismatic exorcist who both preached and performed miracles throughout the Roman Empire. 'Charismatic' (Greek, 'gifts') is the claim that their abilities were a “gift from the gods.” An exorcist was someone who drove out demons. By the first century, physical and mental disabilities and diseases were understood as possession by demons. Mark emphasized the ministry as a battle between Jesus and the current rule of the Devil on earth.

At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. (Mark 1:12-13).

Interestingly, Mark did not have to explain the character of Satan; he assumed his readers knew. Both Matthew and Luke expanded this scene (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). Satan, in his role as the tempter, presented Jesus with three temptations, but Jesus always knew the correct response from scripture. Significantly, Jesus does not dispute Satan’s claim to control the kingdoms of this world.

While Mark’s disciples are often confused over the identity of Jesus, all the demons know him and recognize his superiority. In Mark 5:1-13, the collective name of the demons being driven out by Jesus is "Legion", which may be Mark’snot-too-subtlee view of the Roman army. Mark and the others presented the opponents of Jesus as under the influence of Satan. In Luke and John, Satan "entered into Judas" to betray Jesus (Luke 22:3). The culmination of blame for the death of Jesus reached its heights in John 8:40. In John’s gospel, the Jews can never achieve salvation because they are children of their "true father, the Devil".

LUCIFER BECAME THE MOST POPULAR NAME IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

The Book of Revelation (c. 90-100 CE) by John of Patmos is an apocalyptic vision of when God would intervene in human affairs in the final days and punish Rome for its persecution of Christians. He included the claim that Satan was chained in the pits of Hell so that he relied upon his agents for his work. The principal-agent is referred to as 'the beast' and the 'deceiver'; the term 'anti-Christ' is not in Revelation but in the three Johannine letters. The deceiver will appear as someone good and gather a world following. You will know his followers by the sign of '666' that they carry.

In one of John’s visions, he referenced Isaiah 14, a polemic against the king of Babylon. Isaiah castigated the king who titled himself "day-star" for his hubris of thinking he was divine: "How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!" When Jerome translated the Hebrew scriptures into Latin in the 4th century CE, he knew that the Romans named their morning star - the planet Venus - Lucifer and translated the passage as such. Lucifer became the most popular name in the Middle Ages.

Throughout most of the book of Revelation, Satan remains chained in the pit. At the end of Christ’s 1000-year reign on earth, Satan is released for the final battle. The irony is found in the image of Christ "as a lamb" who nevertheless defeats this monster. He is tossed into the "lake of fire", the Dead Sea (Rev. 20:1-5).

The “Harrowing of Hell”

In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke claimed that Hades (Sheol) could not hold the crucified Christ (2:27). In 1 Peter 3, Jesus "made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits who disobeyed long ago" and 4:6 "the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead." By the 2nd century CE, details were added to the story of Jesus’ death to elucidate two details:

What was Jesus doing in the interim between Good Friday and Easter Sunday?

The Harrowing of Hell

While his body was in the grave, Jesus’ soul travelled to Hell where he battled Satan for the souls of the righteous. When the stone was rolled back, these righteous souls came with him (Adam, Noah, Moses, Plato, and Aristotle). The idea that Christ "descended into Hell [and] on the third day, he arose again" became embedded in the 4th-century CE Nicene Creed. By the early Middle Ages, the story was known as the Harrowing of Hell. The word, 'to harry' meant a raid or incursion, such as the Viking raids.

Characteristics of Satan & the Personification of Evil

THE FIRST ICONIC PORTRAITS OF SATAN CAME FROM THE GRECO-ROMAN FERTILITY DEITY, PAN WHO WAS HALF-MAN, HALF-GOAT.

Christian leaders in the 2nd century CE adopted the method of the personification of evil against Jews, women, heretics, and all things pagan. The native cults believed that the gods resided in their temples, but these were agents of Satan. The first iconic portraits of Satan came from the Greco-Roman fertility deity, Pan, who was half-man, half-goat. This is how Satan got his hooves and horns. Pan was represented with and was famous for a huge, erect phallus. This appendage became common in describing Satan. At first, drawn black, red became the standard colour in his association with hellfire.

It was also in the 2nd century CE that both Christians and Jews - the early Rabbis - applied new understandings to the story of the fall. This is when the serpent became fully identified as the Devil in disguise and Eve took on more significance as the primary sinner in Eden. With misogynistic views of all women, Eve was understood to have been seduced by the serpent (because of that huge phallus), and then she seduced Adam. In the Rabbinic treatise, Genesis Rabbah, Eve’s sexual shame is why women remain veiled, and that menstruation was the punishment for shedding the blood of Adam. Tertullian, a 2nd-century CE Church Father, claimed that through Eve all women were the "Devil's gateway" and because of Eve "even the son of God had to die" (On the Apparel of Women, I).

The religious traditions of Europe (the Celts, Druidism, and Teutons) added other characteristics. The Celts had a horned god of the west, Cernunnos, similar to Pan. The daughter of Loki had a dual role in fertility as well as rule over the dead, and her name became incorporated into the place 'Hel' or Hell.

With animal characteristics, Lucifer and his demons could change shape, so a constant watch was necessary. One could trick Lucifer and repel him with signs of the cross, holy water, the rosary, and communion wafers. Based upon feudal relationships, the concept of a pact arose in selling your soul to Lucifer in return for prosperity (the famous story of Faust). Only the intervention of Mary, the mother of Christ, could break the pact. This is when exorcism rituals were developed that are still taught to certain Catholic priests.

Dante Alighieri’s (1265-1321 CE) Inferno depicted Satan as a three-faced monster in the lowest section of Hell (ice, the furthest from the light), with giant bat wings. For Dante, the greatest sin was betrayal, and Satan consumed Brutus, Cassius, and, of course, Judas

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