By the Gods!

Satan

Buckle up, kids–-we’re in for a big one! Satan, the big baddie, is a character that most people throughout the world are at least marginally familiar with. He wears quite a few different hats, however, and his role has changed a great deal over the 2,300-odd years he’s been around. 

His first appearance was in the book of Job, where he speaks to the god of the Israelites (Yahweh) about the nature of humanity’s faith. He is named as Satan, which means “the Adversary.” All Satan did was ask the big questions: he observed that those mortals who led rich and happy lives had no problem worshipping God, but how would they feel if they had it all taken away? God saw the point, and picked poor Job, a rich farmin’ man, to prove himself correct. He killed Job’s family, took all of his money, land, and cattle, and covered him with boils. Through it all, Job continued to worship, and God got to whip out the satisfying “told you so!” to Satan. 

Satan, you see, was just another divine dude up in heaven with God. Ipso facto, he was an angel. After the Job story, the Hebrews began to see ol’ Satan as an evil force, and eventually the source of all evil. This suggests the influence of Persian thinking: a battle between good and evil, going forever. After all, the Israelites came from Persia before the whole Egypt/Exodus debacle, and it only makes sense that some mythological and cultural diffusion can be seen there. They created a hierarchy of demons for him to control, to oppose God and his angelic hierarchy, and eventually he had his own origin story put together: the tale, as far as ancient Jewish lore is concerned, had Satan rebelling against God and was hurled by an angel (probably Michael, if you’re curious) into the abyss. 

Now, the Christians really ran with the Satan-stuff. “The Devil” can be traced back to the Latin diabolus, which is the source of “diabolical,” and became synonymous with Satan back in the day. In the Apocryphal book of John the Evangelist, Jesus describes Satan’s transformation into an handsome fellow with a tail and cloven hoofs. After that, more and more of the world’s wicked side became attributed to Satan.

Dante Alighieri’s The Inferno (a part of his Divine Comedy) had Satan at the innermost ring of hell as a great three-faced beast, half-frozen in ice, eternally devouring Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius (Dante was a 14-th century Italian, and not a fan of the whole Julius Caesar-murder-thing). Note: no fire and brimstone. Milton, who expanded on the rebellion motif, put together Paradise Lost in the 17th century, which told the tale of Satan (aka Lucifer) and his rebellion in heaven. In the poem Satan sets himself up as the defeated rebels’ leader, and founds hell on the platform of  poisoning God’s favourite thing: mankind. “Lucifer” translates to the title “Morning Star” or “Light-bearer,” which was how Satan was known before he was cast out of heaven. Back then, he was a powerful angel, according to Christian lore, and was either a Cherubim or Power in the Angelic Hierarchy.

Dagan

A god of corn and fertility who was worshipped in both Canaan and Mesopotamia, Dagan was often regarded as the father of Baal (or, depending on your definition, the Baal known as Hadad). Several kings of Akkad and Babylonia declared themselves to be “sons of Dagan,” giving us some early examples of self-deification, which we will discuss in more detail soon.

In the Old Testament (that good ol’ testament) a god called Dagon is described as the chief deity of the Philistines (those good ol’ Philistines). The mighty Samson destroyed his temple by pulling down the support pillars with his incredible strength, scoring big points for the Israelites in that ongoing struggle. This Philistine Dagon may have been a sea god, as he was represented with the tail of a fish, but there is still some dispute as to whether Dagan and Dagon are one and the same deity. 

Baal

Baal was the name given by many Canaanite tribes to their chief god. Now, Baal wasn’t the name of any one deity, per se, but it meant “Lord” or “Owner in the Canaanite language. Think of it more as a title, the chief god of any one Canaanite group being a “Baal.” The term was even applied to men in positions of power all around the Levant. The word is more commonly seen as an Israelite term for a “false god.” In biblical writings, any mention of Baal is in reference to any idol or deity other than Yahweh, seen as an evil, false, alien god. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Yahweh was a jealous guy. Suffer no rival. You’ve heard it all before. Okay. Movin’ on.

The most renowned Baal of Canaanite mythology was the god of fertility, rain and thunder known as Hadad. This god is sometimes named Baal, sometimes named Hadad, depending on the source and the translation. This particular Baal was closely associated with lightning, and is often depicted wielding a thunderbolt. He was also associated with the ideas of death and rebirth, dying and rising, as a story tells how he defeated Yam, the god of the sea, to become king of the gods, before being tricked into eating mud by Mot, the god of death, and himself dying. Mot was in turn killed by Baal’s mourning wife, which brought the mud-filled Baal back to life. Besides eating mud, (and being a bit of a weirdo) Baal seems like a pretty capable deity. 

Golems. 

Golems originate from Judaism, and are men made from clay and mud (just as the first men were). They have glowing eyes and the hebrew word “emet”, meaning truth, enscribed on their foreheads.

Rabbis made golems by walking around the golem several times, reading from the torah, writing “emet” upon their foreheads and speaking the true name of god. These golems were used for common errands.

The most famous golem is known as “The Golem of Prague”, and was created by Rabbi Judah Loew to protect the jewish community of Prague and prevent a blood libel. Legends say that the golem of prague still stands in the attic of a synagogue and that it miraculously escaped being destroyed by the Nazis.