Religions around the world
are full of malevolent beings,
nightmares that made life hell for humans
and then there's:
Hello there, I'm Lucifer, Lucifer Morningstar.
Arguably history's most famous bad guy,
the Prince of Lies, the Fallen Angel,
quite literally the Goat.
No, no, no, no, no, this is where I draw the line.
Sure, you think he's the embodiment
of eternal evil, but his more devilish form
is actually not that old, maybe just from the middle ages
and the more you read, the more you realize
that Lucifer's character, doesn't just resemble
these older evils, it may have been shaped by some of them.
So sit down, relax, pour yourself something a little sinful,
as we tell you stories of the world's ancient dark Gods
and how if you look closely,
you can see parts of them in our favorite devil.
I like this one definition of Trickster Gods,
they're about opposites in one package,
tricksters flow across boundaries of morality and reality
in a way that you and I don't,
good to evil and back again, doesn't matter.
A Lord of Murders, solving murders
is most likely a trickster.
The Devil solving crime,
it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
And some say the biblical devil is one too.
In the book of Job, Satan is kind of the Lord's messenger,
scheming to destroy Job's life at God's behest
and maybe the most popular example in modern culture
is Loki, the Trickster of Norse Mythology.
But if you've just seen the movies,
you might not know how bizarre and bad he can get.
On the bizarre side, he shape shifts into a mare
to lure away a stallion that was causing his fellow Gods
to lose a bet, although he instigated the whole thing.
He ends up having a horse baby because of it,
so that's weird, but he's also incredibly devilish.
He successfully carries out a wicked plot to kill Balder,
the God of Light and Purity,
and then disguises himself again,
to act as a one man veto,
when Balder gets a chance to escape hell,
literally won't let someone escape hell,
this should be familiar.
What?
Finally, Loki and Satan,
both heavily factor into their respective ends of the world,
but that horse is all Loki.
Still, it's important to remember that not all tricksters
are satanic levels of bad,
Eshu is a popular God of the Yoruba people of West Africa,
although his worship has spread to the Americas as well,
like many tricksters, he's a cosmic messenger,
God of Crossroads, a prankster.
He does directly cause destruction,
but scholars see him more as an agent provocateur,
to be blunt, he stirs the shit.
One story goes like this,
once upon a time, two farmers came across Eshu on the road,
each looked at him and each saw him wearing
a different color hat, it's like that damn dress.
The farmers started violently arguing about the color,
which turned into such a fierce brawl
that they were brought before the King,
suddenly Eshu appeared and said essentially,
that's why you don't forget to sacrifice to Eshu.
It's a bit like how Lucifer goes to extraordinary lengths
to troll Dan.
Unfortunately, unenlightened Christian
missionaries in the 19th century called Eshu the devil.
And what's worse, they wrote that into dictionaries
that stuck with us.
It was actually only a few years ago that Google
stopped translating Eshu as Satan, he's far from it.
The devil may be part trickster,
but a trickster isn't always all bad.
In the fifth season of Lucifer,
Ella is constantly drawn to the bad boy.
Bad boy alert.
No surprise then that Ms. Lopez
gets along great with Lucifer too.
So, Ella would probably be really into mythology's bad boys,
the Celestial Rebels,
after all, Lucifer isn't just some wily prankster,
he's also an angelic Prince
who led a popular revolt against God.
Ooh, Saint Lucifer.
Suits me, don't you think?
It's in The Bible too,
here's the passage about Lucifer's deepest desires:
"For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God."
And the pantheons of earth
are full of such ambitious upstarts,
In Hawaii and other parts of the Pacific
there's Kanaloa or his equivalent,
he's God of the Sea, a close partner to Kāne.
They were so close they would finish
each other's godly duties, one would find fresh water,
the other would extract it.
In one version of the tale though,
Kanaloa grew angry that he wasn't allowed Awa,
a sacred drink, or he was bitter
that he couldn't replicate Kāne's creation of man,
so he marshaled a force to defeat Kāne
and the rest of the Gods,
he lost and was sentenced to rule the underworld.
Oh yeah, and did I mention,
he's a giant evil smelling squid sometimes?
Kanaloa is not always evil,
but aside from that squid twist,
angry over forbidden drinks sounds pretty familiar, right?
And families are indeed sometimes the genesis
of these heavenly rebellions,
like in the case of Set.
He was the dog face God of deserts,
darkness, chaos, storms and foreigners,
all of which Ancient Egyptians disliked.
He was also the brother of Osiris,
ruler of the Gods, protector of life and vegetation.
Set coveted Osiris's position and wanted revenge
after his shape-shifting wife got pregnant
with Osiris's baby.
Ooooh. So he lured him into a specially tailored coffin,
which Set then pushed into a river.
Unfortunately for team evil God everywhere,
Set never actually got the throne
because Osiris’ posthumously conceived son, Horus,
thwarted him at every turn.
But scholars think that Set's connection to the desert
and his affinity for the color red,
may have later shaped the stories
and the look of the Christian Devil.
In his long history, Set's not always evil either,
but what a rebel, I mean, at least he successfully killed
the ruler of the Gods.
Take that back.
When Lucifer wants revenge on Dan,
the first weapon he goes for is a snake.
I gotta think bigger, I mean, it's not even poisonous.
It's a smart choice
because scientists believe humans are hardwired
to just fear snakes, possibly explaining why both good
and bad serpents fill the world's ancient religions,
but it's also a fitting choice
because they also fill the Bible.
The Book of Revelations has been read
to suggest that Satan appears in the guise of a serpent,
both in the beginning and at the end of everything,
as if the serpent that was here before us
will outlast us all!
Sounds ominous.
And some see similarities
between the serpents and dragons and sea monsters
of The Bible and a bunch of near Eastern deities of chaos
and the ocean.
Tiamat was one of the Gods of saltwater
and despite being a chaos dragon, she wasn't exactly evil,
until her husband, Apsu, the God of fresh water,
grew tired of their noisy children,
like they were Suburban Knights whose kids had started
a heavy metal band in the garage.
But the kids caught wind of the budding plot
and attacked first.
This is hardly a fair fight.
Killing Apsu, so Tiamat went all out
in her revenge. She got herself a new man
and birthed an army of monstrous children
in her blood lust to get rid of her old ones.
Alas, Marduk, her son and the God of thunder,
finally killed her and then built heaven and earth
out of her oceanic carcass.
And sure enough, the original version
of the Book of Genesis speaks of Tehom The Deep,
which according to many has some linguistic connection
to Tiamat, and at the end of the world,
there are serpents like Jörmungandr,
Loki's child that destroyed the earth in climactic battles
with well, Thunder Gods.
So serpents can be a sign that something big's coming.
Just be thankful, Satan's terrifying reptilian form
only comes out once in a while.
As I get older, I can tell you
there's sometimes nothing worse than your own reflection,
which is how a lot of Gods must feel
because evil Gods are often shadowy reflections
of their divine counterparts.
The important 4th century Christian scholar,
Saint Augustine, had a great term for it,
he called the devil the ape of God,
which didn't mean he was a literal ape,
it meant he was a mimic, a dark mirror.
Theologians believe that the Devil has his own trinity,
he held his own twisted sabbath with witches
and conducted his own perverted baptism.
No joke, followers kissed his butt to seal the deal,
but you'd be amazed at how literal
the mirror motif could be.
Quetzalcoatl was a creator God of wind, rain,
agriculture and science that showed up
in an array of civilizations in Mesoamerica,
including the Aztec one.
While his story sometimes intertwines with human rulers,
he did have some special connection
to the semi mythical paradise of Tōllān,
but in the Aztec tradition,
Quetzalcoatl had a brother, Tezcatlipoca,
the God of Night and Sorcery, with whom he fought
throughout the ages.
They were alike, young, handsome, preferred princesses,
for some reason, the sources take time to report,
both were well endowed.
Well, it's not like he has a forked penis or anything.
Oh, he doesn't.
And one more thing reinforced
that whole mirror theme, in some tales,
Tezcatlipoca had a dark mirror as a foot,
it was made of obsidian, and it could see the thoughts
and deeds of humans.
But unlike his brother, Tezcatlipoca was an evil schemer,
he got the King of Tōllān drunk on pulque,
seduced his daughter and rested control of the city
from the good Quetzalcoatl.
From there, he actually instituted the dark practice
of human sacrifice.
So, very literal mirror aside,
you can see hints of Tezcatlipoca reflected
in the devil's twinning,
but not all fights between good and evil mirrors
are on such a small scale.
Zoroastrianism, an ancient religion
developed in what was Persia, is thought to be the precursor
for the great monotheistic religions,
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
There are different sects but I'm going with the story
of the Zorvanist variety.
An impartial androgynous and all powerful God of time,
Zorvan, prayed for a family,
when it didn't happen he doubted,
thus the evil twin Ahriman was conceived,
Zorvan calmed and regained his faith,
which created the twin of goodness, Ormuzd.
The trouble started when Zorvan promised
he'd give the earth to the first born,
naturally, evil Ahriman cut himself out of the womb,
but there was a catch,
Zorvan term limited Ahriman's evil rule to 9,000 years,
at which point Ormuzd would overthrow him.
So, technically we're still under Ahriman's rule
and he's known for breeding demons and disease.
It really helps explain 2020.
You are now in your very own hell loop. So,
welcome to hell.
A stern, all powerful father,
good and evil twins, battleground earth,
yep, you can definitely see that coming through in Lucifer.
Oh, okay.
It's time we talked about
the more carnal aspects of demonology.
I mean, carnal, really?
Must everything be about sex?
Yes.
See, dark Gods don't just play tricks,
they appeal to our most primal instincts
using promises of knowledge and power and money
to lure humans from the righteous path.
The tragic Dr. Faust lost his soul for worldly pleasures,
which might not bode well for the random dude
in season five, who just wants to be a professional dancer.
Of course, there are also temptations of the flesh,
some see sexual undertones in the Garden of Eden
when the serpent temps Eve,
but some demons outdo the others in the sex department,
like Lilith who shows up in a few episodes this season,
we know that she probably began in Babylon,
but then spread throughout neighboring mythologies.
Originally, she seemed more like several species of monster
rather than a demon Goddess.
The Lilitu were bird-like creatures of ruins and wastes,
deadly to young men and pregnant women
and for infants, forget about it,
poison flowed from their breasts.
But Lilith's story became infinitely more complex
in certain Hebrew texts of the middle ages.
She was suddenly Adam's first wife,
who left after being refused equal treatment.
To punish her, God cursed her progeny to die
and in revenge, Lilith vowed to kill Adam's children
and fill the world with her own demon babies.
I gave you an army.
An army I never asked for.
She was a beautiful seductress
who could impersonate husband or wife,
but she was also known to be so deadly to newborn children
that parents sought amulets like these for protection.
She's a real tough cookie all right
and who knows, maybe even a temptation
for the tempter himself.
Right.
Some tempters on the other hand,
are known for going all in on one big temptation,
that's kind of the case for Satan's temptation
of Jesus Christ in the desert.
I'm so good at flipping men, they call me the skillet.
Oh, wow.
But it's also largely how the evil God,
Mara, is remembered, as the one who attempts
to corrupt the Buddha.
Spoilers, it doesn't go well.
Outside of his cinematic showdown with the enlightened one,
Mara is sometimes called the Lord of the Senses,
who harshly rules over part of the desire realm
and tries to keep his subjects in place.
Enlightenment was a no-no, which is why he descended
upon the enlightenment seeking Siddhartha,
as he meditated under the bow tree.
From the art, it seems pretty wild.
Mara sent his three demon daughters to seduce the Buddha,
that didn't work, so he summoned a demon army,
but Buddha turned it into flowers and perfume.
Finally, Mara just called Buddha out.
What right did some human have to enlightenment?
Buddha reached down and touched the earth,
which vouched for him, and by the way,
it's why you see this hand gesture a lot in Buddhism.
Three attempts, no temptation,
both Mara and Satan proved that evil tempters
don't always win their biggest bets.
One question that Lucifer raises is whether hell
is any fun at all for those running it,
perhaps it's not surprising that sadist demon, Mazikeen,
expresses fondness for the many tortures of hell.
This is so hot.
It's like you're punishing yourself.
But Lucifer, hell's ruler when forced,
is far more ambivalent, if not hostile.
It was a job, detective.
Something I was forced to do.
And that attitude
comes partly from the literature.
In Paradise Lost, Satan famously embraces hell on one hand,
but not always.
"While they adore me on the throne of hell,
with diadem and scepter high advanced,
the lower still I fall only supreme in misery,"
But are other wardens of hell similarly conflicted?
Emma-ō is the God of Hell
in the Japanese Buddhist tradition,
although he shares a lot with Yama,
who's found elsewhere in the Buddhist world.
According to The Encyclopedia of Hell,
a very real book, which we read,
he wasn't such a bad guy,
he just happened to be the first man to die.
It's a crazy way to get the hell gig,
which might explain why he's sort of a bureaucrat
in many tales.
See, the dead had a hellish journey through desolate plains
and past crones and monsters,
but at the end, Emma-ō just checked his files,
consulted with his staff and had the dead look
into a soul-revealing mirror
before sending them to the appropriate
section of hell for purging.
Professional, but in later tales, he's so into it.
He turns red faced and devilish
and moves into the worst part of hell,
just so he can torture sinners better,
throwing them into lakes of fire,
force-feeding them hot coals,
flattening them into soba noodles, that's a great one.
So, wardens of hell can be very professional
and extremely enthusiastic.
Perhaps Lucifer should look into outsourcing.
Our last kind of dark God doesn't need intellect,
they don't bother with temptation.
They're true horrors.
See humans have this instinctual and understandable fear
of being torn apart by animals.
We also have a built in need to classify our chaotic world.
Hey, we're even doing it with demons in this video.
Some evil Gods play on that, they're vicious beasts
that can't quite be put into a category,
they're built to frighten us.
We've already seen how Lucifer has taken on
different beastial forms over the ages.
Bat, reptile, goat. Cowardly lion?
But his scariest may be his final ones.
In addition to the dragon, the multi-headed beasts
signal the end of the world in Christianity,
they're really scary, but the greatest horror I felt
while researching this piece, was with the God of Canaan,
roughly present day Israel,
whose worship spread to Carthage and beyond,
it's Moloch.
It's partly because we don't know a lot about him,
Moloch might actually be a title,
King of something, rather than his actual name.
Scholars think he may have been another God
at some point in his life,
but the thing we do know was that Moloch
was the God of child sacrifice.
His likeness on earth was a disturbing mishmash of parts,
a giant man, a bull and essentially an oven for a torso.
Drums beating, his followers would place children
into his red hot arms and they'd either burn to death there,
or roll into the furnace below like a demonic slide.
It's still unclear to me what anyone got from this
and that's part of why it's so scary.
You get the feeling that the ancients
could put up with a lot of stuff,
but child sacrifice wasn't going to fly.
The Old Testament specifically calls Moloch out
in several places, the Romans do too.
Luckily, some horrors just become memories.
Maybe the slightly nicer devils are the ones that last.
Well, now that you've seen tricksters and tempters
and rebels and devils and all the ways humanity
has imagined evil, you probably need another drink.
Go ahead, have one.
In the character of Lucifer,
you can see a lot of those older spirits,
whether it's a direct connection or just humanity's tendency
to tell and retell the same stories.
Right. Story time's over.
But of course, he's also one of a kind.
Stay away.
He's the Devil!
Singing is a big part of Lucifer's shtick,
and for a long time, dancing has also been
the devil's domain.
In the middle ages, when it was officially frowned upon,
churchmen warned that the masked devil would infiltrate
dance circles and dance his partners down to hell.
But this might go back to the Ancient Gods.
The friendly, popular Egyptian God, Bes,
had a strange portfolio, war on one hand,
music, dance, sexuality and childbirth on the other.
And scholars think Bes' forked tail
and association with serpents,
shape the visual identity of Satan.
So, maybe Satan got his dance moves too?