How the Devil Got His Hooves and Horns: The Origin of the Motif and the Implied Demonology of 3 Baruch

What is it about?

This paper reexamines the problem of the origins of a popular medieval and modern image of the devil as an anthropomorphic creature with hooves and horns and seeks to reconstruct the analogous ancient image of a satyr-like devil as it could be wit- nessed in diverse sources, including Hellenistic mythology, rabbinic legends, and early Christian texts. It seems that, not belonging completely to any of these worlds, this therianthropic motif emerges from a complicated literary history wherein Greco- Roman Pan, Jewish seirim, and other mythological figures graft themselves and their imagery around the forces of the demonic. The main argument of the paper as a whole centers around the place of 3 Baruch in this complicated history. This composition may contain the only physical description and detailed treatment of demonic seirim-satyrs in early Jewish literature and the earliest notion of satyr-like demons available to us.

Featured Image