I know that back in the day, goats were said to whisper lewd things into the ears of priests (because goats are a naturally horny animal and often blabber to attract ladies). But whenever I see depictions of the devil or demons, they usually have cloven hooves or a goats head?
Does anyone know why this is or where it comes from?
In: Other
Have you ever met a male goat?
They’re modeled after the Greek/Roman god Pan and more generally the satyrs. The little goat legged guys. Those creatures in the earlier mythology were associated with things like debauchery and hedonism. In Roman mythology they’re kind of morally neutral but when the much more uptight Christians came along they took on a more negative connotation. Eventually their design just got co-opted for portrays of the devil and demons.
It also comes from the Pagan/Wiccan god who sometimes is known as The Horned God or Great Father. When Christianity came into power they basically vilified the god and used his imagery to depict their demons and devils.
To defame foreign gods.
The abrahamic religions are very insistent that there are no other gods and whatever you were praying to before they came along was at best a lifeless statue and at worst the devil.
There were many horned, or animalistic gods in the polytheistic past (Baal, Seth, Amun, Cyrene, Faunus, Moloch etc.)
Why the goat won out and not the bull or the jackal is anyones guess, I suppose it just captured medieval christian artists’ imagination better.
The goat depiction are not proper religious imagery, but part of the more non-canonical demonology traditions, which are as much inspired by folklore and art as they are by scripture.
Every answer so far is missing the fact that goats are ~~unclean animals in Jewish law, as opposed to sheep which are clean animals.~~ Jesus’ invokes this imagery directly in parables.
(Edited because I was wrong about everything except Jesus using goats as a negative image in a parable)
Pan is the god of nature and the wild, but the god of Moses (*Yahweh/Jehovah*) wants to do away with the Pagan gods of nature and get everyone to worship him instead:
> “*The LORD will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.*” – Zephaniah 2:11
There is also a story about Pan dying and since “*Pan*” also means “*all*” in Greek, apparently some christian apologists used this story to mean that “*all*” demons (*Pagan gods*) were defeated by Jesus coming into the world.
> “*Another source of this strange worship may be found in the fact that in the early days each nation had its own natural gods; hence* ***racial rivalry and hatred sometimes led one nation to regard the protecting divinities of its enemies as evil demons***. *In this way many who merely worshipped gods whom they themselves regarded as good beings would be called devil worshippers by men of other nations. Such may be the case with the Daeva-worshippers in the Avesta. In the same way the Greeks and Romans may have worshipped their divinities, fondly believing them to be good. But* ***the Christian Scriptures declare that all the gods of the Gentiles are demons***.” – Catholic Encyclopedia (*1913, entry on “Devil-Worshippers”*)
>Matthew 25:31-33 KJV
[31] When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: [32] and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: [33] and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
In addition to what others have said about the Christians co-opting the look of a pagan God, I would add that always thought the goat became vilified in Christian mythology, as Christians are notoriously scared of their own shadow, and goats have a very uncanny, weirdly human quality to their voice while also having these bizarre inhuman eyes. The combination sometimes gives you the feeling of an animal that’s trying to speak in a human voice, but that has a really bizarre inhuman gaze.
I’m getting downvoted by goat apologists? 😂
The Devil with horns and a tail, armed with a pitchfork is inspired by Pluto (roman version of Hades, god of the underworld in greek mythology) and Pan, a Greek god too.
If you only refer to the Bible, it is depicted as a great dragon, a roaring lion or an angel of light.
[removed]
Latest Answers