Words and characteristics change with time, and with the evolving — or “progressing” — of societies. And Satan too, changes. A young-ish Italian guy with a funny red hat meets an older poet in a forest, soon, a series of trials and philosophical questioning and answering bring him upon the unspeakable: Satan. Though he does describe him. He describes him as:
Satan is portrayed as a giant demon, frozen mid-breast in ice at the center of Hell. Satan has three faces and a pair of bat-like wings affixed under each chin. — -The wonderful world of Wikipedia
Physically, Satan too changes, depending on the person describing him (her?) and which form Lucifer takes possession of. Taken with gender studies, I would like to use the idea that like the construct of what a woman changes with time, so does that of the devil, or more broadly, evil.
Flesh-eating, darkness-bearing, soul-caring, soul torturing, promoting sex, promoting unprotected sex, whispering in women’s ears, tempting us, now maybe a promoter of hate, envy, anger. A new world order? Jeff Bezos?
But what about, a Prometheus? Someone who challenges set authorities? A promoter of freedom. Freedom, of course, being a much more complex subject in and of itself… but why, why can’t the snake tempting Eve simply be a suggestion to break free from the role ascribed to her? Interestingly, this idea grew in me watching — now some years ago, as I stopped at season 2 — The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. What did the Christian god do better anyway? Being able to do all, good and evil… telling people what their set roles were, even at the cost of unhappiness, promoting hate against misbelievers, gaslighting men into killing their children and little lambs in his name, and even being in a somewhat toxic “prove your worth to me” relationship? Then again, the concept of God evolved too. The Christian one that is. With time, God has taken the form of an entity of love, a light waiting for you with kindness and forgiveness. The man under the name of Jesus teaches us that the poorest and unluckiest of us are those who will be put first in the higher kingdom. And then of course, with Lucifer, there is the unresolved problem of hell, which in all effects it is challenging to spin nicely.
The point is, in my humblest of mortal opinions, that whether you believe the Devil to be real, or — like me — a figment of humans’ creativity in search for meaning, we can easily see how the concept of the Devil is very much a social construct that usually evolves according to what we deem “bad” at the time of discussing him…her? They? Like seriously, are demons gendered?
More of interest for Francisco Goya was instead the relationship of his wider community with the concept of God, the Devil, religion, and superstition.
Adorned in an oak leaves garland, the goat-devil serves as a priest for the coven: children are offered for initiation, or as food, the witches hand by the goat’s lips — so to speak; and the night sky is gloriously dark, with a moon shining on the coven, reflecting on the dead bodies of infants, and fighting against the rise of the new day. I’ve always liked this painting, the aesthetic game is strong, the symbolism is direct, and it serves well as a conversation starter. In fact, here we are.
As mentioned, Goya was fascinated, if not totally repulsed by the fondness he observed society have for superstition and religion. Likely, Spanish society was not particularly fond of Satanism, but I can imagine Goya thinking: what is the difference between venerating God or Devil? Not to mention the irony of believing in superstition and the occult, which was after all not very well seen from the eye of the church.
But Satan, like Hell, is no more than a catchphrase. It used to lead us away from immoral sex, away from rebelling against authority, and maybe even to give us solace. Solace? Well, as we now know, people seek coherence to stories and will do anything to fight the fear of the unknown. What happens after we die? Maybe, it is better to know that torment waits for us than think there may be nothing, or that we have no clue about what to expect. Though I can think of a possible logical fallacy here. Why use the devil to scare off people from the idea that not following God leads to hell? After all, wouldn’t Satan reward us in hell, if we followed him in life? Is it in fact more palpable to view God as a jealous man who will abandon us and lead us to torment if he does not get worshipped? Or maybe, the Devil is just a trickster.
Then again, the idea of heaven, God, hell, and Satan have also changed drastically over time. The way in which they interfere with daily lives (from leading us, to merely observing us), to their role in our afterlife, much like the idea of the afterlife itself (from physical spaces of peace or torment, to “a feeling”).
But why a beast, if not to work on our fears of ourselves? Losing ourselves from humanity, becoming feral, leading a life of grunts of violence, and indiscriminate sex? Why an animal, if not the irrationality we fear? The paganism of nature. And well ok, the horizontal lines of goats’ eyes might give a person or two nightmares.
I wonder if the goat is H.P. Lovecraft's Shub-Niggurath, "the black goat with a thousand young"?