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?
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No idea if that’s true or if this was said before or after satan was associated with goats but I heard that some people believe goats are satan’s attempt at creating sheeps because sheeps are associated with god
I think that goats were also pretty importent to norse practice. There is very little written about them, but there is yule goats and stuff like that.
When I was a young kid, and I come from a rural and backwater part of scandinavia, one of the christmas games had a person dress up like a goat, but blinded. Then he would try to catch people, while the rest kind of poked him with their fingers until he gave up and “died”.
Thinking back on it, that costume looked a lot like a classic christian devil”.
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For people from the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christian, Islam) there is a strange (to us) part of the Old Testament In Leviticus 17:7 (NASB)
> And they shall no longer offer their sacrifices to the **goat demons** with which they play the prostitute. This shall be a permanent statute to them throughout their generations.”’
In the [original language, Leviticus 17](https://biblehub.com/interlinear/leviticus/17.htm) uses the word sa’iyr ( שָׂעִיר ) which is sometimes translated “goat demon”, or “hairy man” or “male goat” [look here](https://biblehub.com/hebrew/8163.htm)
Stolen from the pagan religions that came before them, most likely to associate those ideas and symbols with “bad” Satyrs are goat like faeries full of mischief and trouble.
depending on history, either to demomise other religions or simply adding beastlike features onto a person.
In basque country, the goat also looks like a divine animal of the sorceress / witches. Their beliefs are pre-indo-european, so very very old…
And also if ever had to know goats behaviour, these are the most evil (😈) animal ever.
Christianity especially has a long history of coopting other iconography and special dates of other religions and making them heretical or evil from the lens of Christianity.
See also that Christmas and Easter have a bunch of traditions that have nothing whatsoever to do with the religious part of the holiday.
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