How a GREEK GOD Became the DEVIL in Christianity – Mythology Explained

Today’s we’re going to discuss how the modern conceptualization of the devil in christianity was inspired both in appellation and in appearance by greek gods first we’re going to look at how the greek god iospherus became the inspiration for one of the devil’s most infamous epithets.

second we’re going to cover how the greek god pan inspired the devil’s horned cloven hoofed appearance and lastly we’re going to wrap up the video by diving into how the devil became the incarnation of evil in the world let’s get into it known as aurora to the romans eos was the goddess of the dawn she was the daughter of the first generation titans hyperion a solar deity and their whose sphere of influence included sight and blue sky and thus was herself a second generation titan helios the sun was her brother and seleni the moon was her sister many mortals caught her eye and she wasn’t above abducting them taking a page out of zeus’s book on several occasions one was orion the giant incredibly handsome master hunter who was set in the sky as a constellation after his death another tethnus greek mythology’s version of methuselah the longest lived man in the bible was cursed with the torturous combination of immortality without agelessness eos’s first consort was estrellas the titan god of stars planets and astrology and together they produced a multitude of children including the wind.

Gods notice god of the south wind boreas god of the north wind and zephyr god of the west wind and all of the stars of heaven one of these stars was phosphorus also called heospherus or iospherous he was the personification of the morning star which was the planet venus as it sparkled in the sky before sunrise the latin name for phosphorus was lucifer the name the morning star was known by to the romans and this of course begs the question how did the roman name for the morning star become one of the devil’s names and not just any name but one of the most popular throughout the middle ages in the book of isaiah one of the books of the old testament there’s a passage that reads as follows how you have fallen from heaven o morning star son of the dawn you have been cast down to the earth you who once laid low the nations you said in your heart i will ascend to heaven i will raise my throne above the stars of god i will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain i will ascend above the tops of the clouds i will make myself like the most high but you are brought down to the grave to the depths of the pit out of context this passage sounds like it’s addressing the devil but it’s actually part of a long taunt directed at the king of babylon in 382 a.d saint jerome as commissioned by pope damasus translated the hebrew scriptures into latin at the time there was a proliferation of old latin versions in circulation so the reason for saint jerome’s translation was to create an official version that would supersede the multitude of old latin versions and to this end the endeavor was a success as saint jerome’s translation became the standard for the western latin speaking church because the romans used the name lucifer when referring to the planet venus the morning star saint jerome also used the name lucifer in his translation which i believe is how the name lucifer first entered the lexicon of christianity becoming a perennial piece of vernacular that would eventually become known by everyone in the western world with the appellation portion of this covered .

let’s move on to how the god pan was an early inspiration for a beastial version of the devil’s appearance pan was the god of shepherds in their flocks he made his home in the wilds particularly the wilds of arcadia in which its pastures forests and mountains were his favorite haunts his parentage was ambiguous either the son of hermes and dreopy or of zeus and penelope the wife of odysseus unlike most other greek gods pan’s appearance wasn’t strictly human he was a hybrid with the upper body of a man and to the lower body of a goat also depending on the version he either had the head of a goat or the head of a man with goat-ish qualities he mostly kept company with other hybrid creatures like satyrs and nymphs and because of this and his appearance he became a revered member of the entourage of dionysus .

It should also be said that pan’s relationship with the nymph community was less than copacetic as they went to great lengths to evade his dogged and lustful pursuits in one instance a nymph by the name of syrinx transformed herself into reeds to keep him from getting his hands on her pan then used those reeds to fashion the very first reed pipe his personality was jovial and affable and he was quick to smile and full of mirth his favorite instrument was the reed pipe and in one story pan challenged apollo to a music contest king midas sat in judgment and had his own ears replaced with those of an ass for his trouble he chose pan as the winner so he was punished by apollo for his poor taste pan had three characteristics his horns his cloven hoofs and his large phallus that became absorbed into the devil’s own appearance contributing to his first iconic portraits prodigious endowment became synonymous with the devil.

At first he and his astounding appendage were drawn black but later were drawn red to symbolize hellfire this also ties into metaphorical interpretations of eve’s seduction by the serpent in the garden of eden in retrospect that aspects of two greek gods were subsumed into the devil’s own characterization seems rather fitting everything pagan really anything that pertains to god that wasn’t in line with orthodox beliefs became the domain of the devil and thus evil an interesting prism to look at this through is that though the devil ended up being the personification of evil it could be he didn’t begin that way scholars posit that the devil conceptualized as a being of pure evil and as the wellspring of all evil is conspicuously missing from the old testament and that it wasn’t until the acme of the persian akiminid empire when jewish people were under the yoke of persian rule that the notion of satan as the antithesis of god began to permeate judaism zoroastrianism a monotheistic religion had superseded.

The previous polytheistic infrastructure of the persian religion it was defined by a dichotomy ahura mazda an all-powerful god of absolute good and angra my new the great adversary a being of absolute evil king cyrus allowed the jews to return to jerusalem in 539 bce and through them elements of zoroastrianism were exported such as the notion of attributing all evil to a single entity of absolute evil .