Devil in popular culture
The devil appears frequently as a character in works of literature and popular culture. In Christianity, the figure of the devil, Satan, or Lucifer personifies evil.[1]
Entertainment
Music
Classical Music
The musical interval of an augmented fourth (also called a diminished fifth or a tritone) was called the Devil's Chord (Latin: Diabolus in musica – the Devil in music) and was banned by the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages.[2] Composers avoided the interval, and although it is sometimes found in secular music of the time, it was used in religious music only in very specific circumstances until the existing system of keys came into use.
The Devil is featured as a character in many musical representations from the Middle Ages to modern times. Hildegard of Bingen's 11th-century Ordo Virtutum features him, as do several baroque oratorios by composers such as Carissimi and Alessandro Scarlatti. During the 19th century, Gounod's Faust, in which the Devil goes by the name Mephistopheles, was a staple of opera houses around the world.
Highly virtuosic violin music was sometimes associated with the Devil. Tartini's Devil's Trill sonata and Paganini's Devil's Laughter caprice are examples. The theme is taken up by Stravinsky in the "Devil's Dance" from The Soldier's Tale.
Other pieces that refer to the Devil are Franz Liszt's "Mephisto Walzer" and Joseph Hellmsberger II's "Teufelstanz", as well as Haydn's lost opera "Der krumme Teufel".
"Archangel of Light" (another name for Lucifer) is a title song of the classical music band with the same name, by the composer Carlos David López Grether
Popular music
- Jazz was often called the Devil's music by its critics in the 1920s.[3]
- The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" (1968) features Mick Jagger speaking as the Devil.
- "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" (1979) by the Charlie Daniels Band was the first modern popular song to feature a battle between the Devil and a musician. The theme of battling the Devil has been revisited several times in other songs.
- Black metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is commonly associated with the devil for its use of anti-Christian lyrics and symbols commonly associated with Satanism, such as the pentagram and inverted cross.
- "N.I.B." by Black Sabbath is a song about "the devil falling in love and totally changing becoming a good person." (Geezer Butler, 1992 documentary The Black Sabbath Story: Volume One) The song's chorus references Lucifer specifically: "..Look into my eyes, you will see who I am; My name is Lucifer, please take my hand."
- "Lucifer" is the name of a song by U.S. rapper Jay-Z from his 2003 album, The Black Album.
- The Moonspell song "Dreamless (Lilith and Lucifer)" is about a romantic relationship between Lucifer and the demoness Lilith.
- The Swedish death metal band Kaamos has an album called Lucifer Rising. There is also an album of the same name by doom metal band Candlemass.
- The band Inkubus Sukkubus has a song entitled "Lucifer Rising".
- The final song on the Behemoth album Evangelion is called "Lucifer".
- Though not directly named, Lucifer is referenced in many of the Horror punk/Deathrock Supergroup Son of Sam songs, particularly 'Michael' on Songs from the Earth.
- "The Princess of Lucifer" is the official English title song of the Vocaloid song "Daughter of Evil"; one of many songs, by the composer MOTHY, known as Story of Evil.
- Korean boyband SHINee released a song in 2010 called "Lucifer".
- Composer Mort Garson used the pseudonym Lucifer for his 1971 Black Mass album.
- Lucifer[4] and Lewis "Cypher"[5] are pseudonyms used since 1993 by Duncan Lewis Jowitt for solo releases, including the 10-minute orchestral "Symphony For The Devil"[6] (2014).
Film and television
When Satan is depicted in movies and television, he is often represented as a red-skinned man with horns or pointed ears on his head, hooves or bird-legs, a forked tail (or one with a stinger), and a pitchfork. When trying to blend in or deceive somebody, he is often represented as an ordinary human being, and sometimes only his voice is heard.
Film
Satan as a personification of evil provides many narrative opportunities. Struggles with Satan have been used to symbolize human weaknesses and temptations, as in the films Bedazzled (1967, remade 2000) and Oh, God! You Devil (1984). In horror and suspense films, Satan provides for a virtually all-powerful foe.
Film | Year | Actor | Character | Description | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A Deal with the Devil (Den mystiske fremmede) | 1914 | Alf Blütecher | The mysterious stranger / Mefisto | A medical student, who is dreaming of fame and wealth, makes a deal with the devil, allowing him to become an extraordinary success | |
The Devil and Daniel Webster | 1941 | Walter Huston | Mr. Scratch | In which poor downtrodden farmer Jabez Stone (James Craig) sells his soul to "Mr. Scratch" in return for seven years of luck and prosperity. | [7] |
The Devil with Hitler | 1942 | Alan Mowbray | Devil | A comedy short propaganda film in which the Devil tries to save his job by making Hitler perform a good deed. | [8] |
Inflation | 1942 | Edward Arnold | Devil | A wartime MGM short in which the Devil makes mischief with the U.S. economy. | |
Angel on My Shoulder | 1946 | Claude Rains | Devil | In which the Devil uses a person's desire for revenge to his own ends. | [9] |
The Story of Mankind | 1957 | Vincent Price | Mr. Scratch | The Devil, though not called that in the movie, goes by the name of Mr. Scratch and opposes the Spirit of Man at a trial to determine the fate of mankind and the planet Earth in front of the High Judge (God, though not called 'God' by name) when the potential of nuclear war with the H-Bomb becomes apparently inevitable to all in Heaven. | [10] |
Damn Yankees | 1958 | Ray Walston | Mr. Applegate | In this movie musical, "Mr. Applegate" bargains with an aged baseball fan to give him youth and prowess in baseball in exchange for his soul. | [11] |
Rosemary's Baby | 1968 | Devil | Rosemary Woodhouse is raped by the Devil and gives birth to the Antichrist. | [12] | |
Look What Happened to Rosemary's Baby | 1976 | Stephen McHattie | Antichrist | Sequel to Rosemary's Baby | [13] |
The Omen (film series) | 1976 | Various | Damien Thorn | In which Satan's son Damien Thorn is the Antichrist. | [14] |
Crossroads | 1986 | Scratch | The Devil is portrayed as a trickster who takes souls in exchange for unparalleled musical prowess, a la Faust. | [15] | |
Angel Heart | 1987 | Robert De Niro | Devil | In which the character "Louis Cypher", a play on the name "Lucifer," is revealed to be the Devil at the end of the film. | [16] |
We Are Not Angels | 1992 | Srđan Todorović | Devil | A comedy film in which the Devil fights the Angel (Played by Uroš Đurić) for the soul of the Belgrade playboy (Played by Nikola Kojo), who is unaware that he impregnated a high school student. | |
Needful Things | 1993 | Max von Sydow | Leland Gaunt | Based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, the film depicts the character of "Leland Gaunt" as the Devil himself, who opens a new antiques store in Castle Rock, Maine by the name of "Needful Things". | [17] |
The Prophecy | 1995 | Viggo Mortensen | Lucifer | Lucifer attempts to prevent Gabriel from triggering an angelic civil war that will create a new Hell to 'compete' with Lucifer's own. | [18] |
The Devil's Advocate | 1997 | Al Pacino | John Milton | John Milton — a reference to Paradise Lost — who is ultimately revealed to be Satan in human form, manipulates his son (Keanu Reeves), a criminal attorney who is ignorant of his true parentage, to accept his demonic heritage. | [19] |
The Ninth Gate | 1999 | A trio of 17th century books feature engravings supposedly created by Lucifer; legend states that the nine correct engravings, when brought together, reveal an inscription that will summon the Devil. | [20] | ||
End of Days | 1999 | Gabriel Byrne | Satan | Satan is the main villain in which he is portrayed as a malignant, invisible force that takes possession of a businessman in order to conceive the Antichrist before the turn of the millennium, only to find himself opposed by an atheist ex-cop-turned-private-security when he attempts to capture and rape the young woman chosen by prophecy as his bride. | [21] |
Little Nicky | 2000 | Rodney Dangerfield | Lucifer | Lucifer is the father of Satan and preparing to retire as ruler of Hell; he is presented as a sympathetic character more interested in maintaining balance than actually taking over the world. | [22] |
The Crow: Wicked Prayer | 2001 | David Boreanaz | Satan | Luc "Death" Crash (a Satanic cult leader), is possessed by Lucifer (here called Satan) and wishes to jumpstart the Apocalypse by impregnating Crash's fiancee Lola Byrne (who is also a part of the cult) with the Antichrist, but is distracted by Jimmy Cuervo. The sun rises before Lola can be impregnated and Jimmy impales Crash on a spike and slits his throat. Lucifer is sent back to hell following his host's death. | [23] |
The Passion of the Christ | 2004 | Rosalinda Celentano | Satan | Satan is portrayed by a woman with a more androgynous appearance than the traditional image of a red-skinned, horned satyr-like monster. She is implied to be the mastermind behind the Pharisee's plot to kill Jesus and also the one who influenced Judas' betrayal. She tries to distract Jesus while he prays at Gethsemane, watches sadistically as Jesus is whipped 39 times with the cat-o-nine-tails (while holding a demonic child) and follows Jesus through the crowd as the Christ walks to his death. She also sends several of her demons to torment Judas after the 12th disciple betrays Jesus, which leads to his suicide by hanging from the rope used to lead the donkey that carried Jesus to Jerusalem. After Jesus' death and the destruction of the Temple (as Jesus had prophesied), Lucifer returns to Hell and screams in anger at her defeat. | [24] |
Constantine | 2005 | Peter Stormare | Lucifer | Lucifer makes an appearance after being summoned by John Constantine to prevent Mammon from entering the human world, stating that he prefers waiting for humanity to damn itself rather than Mammon's plan to condemn the world to Hell himself; he later removes the source of Constantine's lung cancer to give the redeemed Constantine another chance to prove that he belongs in Hell after Constantine sacrifices a chance to save his own life to ask Satan to release someone else from Hell. | [25] |
Ghost Rider | 2007 | Peter Fonda | Mephistopheles | Mephistopheles sets everything in the film into motion, making deals for souls. Desperate to get back one contract for 1000 souls before his son Blackheart does, he calls in the marker he has on daredevil Johnny Blaze in exchange for curing his father's cancer, turning him into his bounty hunter. | |
Drive Angry | 2011 | Satan | Satan only features as a behind-the-scenes figure in this film, dispatching the mysterious Accountant to stop John Milton after he escapes from Hell to save his baby granddaughter from being sacrificed by a ruthless cult. However, when he learns about the plan to sacrifice the baby, Satan has the Accountant give Milton the chance to stop the sacrifice, stating that Satan is more the warden of a very large prison rather than the personification of evil, and is actually against the sacrifice of innocents in his name. | ||
The Devil's Carnival | 2012 | Terrance Zdunich | Lucifer | Lucifer is the leader of a Carnival occupied by demons portrayed as Carnies, in which three sinners must go through; God is depicted as the enemy of Lucifer. | [26] |
This is the End | 2013 | Satan | Satan is portrayed as an enormous seven-headed creature with magma-like skin. | ||
Rosemary's Baby | 2014 | Devil | Mini-series remake of Rosemary's Baby |
Television
TV Show | Year | Actor | Character | Description | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Twilight Zone | 1963 | Burgess Meredith | Mr. Smith, The Devil | A desperate, failing newspaper editor in chief swears he would do anything to save his paper. The devil, disguised as Mr. Smith seems heaven sent as he bails him out financially, and offers himself as unpaid head reporter and lino type operator, With his otherworldly skill set he soon saves the paper. It turns out some of his impossibly fast scoops, such as a devastating fire at the rival newspaper, were in fact caused by Mr. Smith himself. | |
Highway to Heaven | 1985 | Michael Berryman | The Devil | After Mark is involved in a car-bicycle accident that seriously injures a 5-year-old boy, a despondent Mark is tricked into selling his soul. Jonathan risks his own soul by recruiting a con artist to help Mark get over his self-pity and get past what happened, but the Devil and his own earthly cohort have plans of their own to acquire Jonathan's wings. | |
Dallas | 1991 | Joel Grey | Adam | Joel Grey played the otherworldly being "Adam" in the series finale of Dallas on May 3, 1991, who shows J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) what the world would be like if he (J.R.) had never been born, revealing only in the show's final moments that he is a demon sent by Satan to make J.R. destroy himself through his own self-loathing. | |
Northern Exposure | 1991 | Devil | Northern Exposure season 3 episode 5 "Jules et Joel" features an adult male Halloween trick-or-treater dressed as the devil who demands Joel Fleishman give him a treat, which he denies. The man sprays Joel with silly string and runs off, being chased by Joel who doesn't make it past his porch before running into a support and getting knocked out. | ||
Star Trek: The Next Generation | 1991 | Satan | The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Devil's Due" includes a character pretending to be Satan with both the traditional image and the Klingon version. Throughout the episode, she appears in a default form of an attractive mischievous woman. She is eventually revealed to be a con artist attempting to exploit a planet's mythology to take control of it. | ||
Touched by an Angel | 1994 | Various | Satan | Touched by an Angel has Satan occasionally appear in the guise of a human being. Each time, he manipulates people around him in an attempt to thwart the angels Monica, Tess and Andrew in their efforts to work for God. John Schneider, Todd Rulapaugh and Mandy Patinkin each portrayed Satan in one episode, and David Ogden Stiers appeared as Satan in the two-episode series finale. | |
Stargate SG-1 | 1997 | Sokar | Stargate SG-1 has an alien character, Sokar, who adopts the persona of Satan, possessing a great army with which he wanted to take control of all other System Lords, and ultimately of the galaxy itself. He creates his own Hell on Ne'tu, the satellite of his homeworld, where he sends his enemies for torture and punishment. | ||
Brimstone | 1998 | John Glover | Lucifer | John Glover portrayed the fallen angel Lucifer in the short-lived series Brimstone. | |
Xena: Warrior Princess | 2000 | Lucifer | Xena: Warrior Princess season 6 episode "Heart of Darkness" shows Lucifer as a fallen archangel after Xena causes him to commit all seven deadly sins. After his transformation into Satan, she promptly shoves him into a portal to Hell, taking the place of the former leader of Hell, Mephistopheles, whom Xena had killed. | ||
The Collector | 2006 | the Devil | The Collector shows the devil as a major antagonist, that is portrayed by a different actor in each episode. To identify him (or her) to the viewer, his eyes appear to fill with fire at times. | ||
Doctor Who | 2006 | The Beast | The two-part Doctor Who story "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" features a version of the Devil called "the Beast", who claims to have served as a subconscious basis for devil-like entities in religions throughout the universe. This depiction places more emphasis on the monstrous appearance of the Devil, depicting him as a gargantuan, red-skinned beast with horns and a skeletal face. | ||
Fallen | 2006 | Lucifer | Fallen, the ABC Family trilogy, shows Lucifer as a major character. | ||
Reaper | 2007 | Ray Wise | Satan | Reaper portrays Satan (played by Ray Wise) as a smooth-talking gentleman, often with a jocular manner, making contact with Sam Oliver to inform Sam of his missions as Satan's bounty hunter due to a deal his parents made prior to his conception. | |
Supernatural | 2007 | Mark Pellegrino[27] Jared Padalecki[28] | Lucifer | Lucifer is stated to be the god of the demons in the season 3 episode "Sin City", later stories revealing that he created the first demon by taking a human soul and corrupting it into a demon as part of his rebellion against God. He is presented as less evil and more of a tragic villain, claiming that he was condemned to Hell because he defied God's commandment to love humanity over him and claiming that their actions since he fell have merely proven him correct in his disdain of them. The Archangel Gabriel and Death both dispute this, saying that humans replaced Lucifer as God's favorite and describe his rebellion as nothing more than a temper tantrum of the former favourite child complaining that 'Daddy' (God) preferred 'the new baby' (Humanity) more. | |
Torchwood | 2007 | Abaddon | Torchwood episode "End of Days" features a gigantic demonic being named Abaddon, called the "Son of the Great Beast" (a reference to the aforementioned Doctor Who episodes). Abaddon kills people by casting his shadow over them to absorb their life energy, which becomes his downfall when he absorbs the immortal Captain Jack Harkness and chokes to death on him. | ||
Ashes to Ashes | 2008 | Daniel Mays | Jim Keats | The third series of Ashes to Ashes introduces the character Jim Keats (played by Daniel Mays), a Discipline and Complaints officer sent to audit the Fenchurch East police station. Fenchurch East is revealed as a purgatory for police officers, Gene Hunt as an "archangel" saving souls and sending them to Heaven, and Keats as the Devil taking souls to Hell. | |
Being Human | 2013 | Phil Davis | Devil | The fifth season of BBC supernatural drama Being Human reveals that the Devil was trapped in a human form in 1918 as part of a plan to kill him- the Devil having apparently triggered the First World War as part of a plan to provoke a vampire/werewolf conflict so that he could feed on the resulting energy-, only for the ritual that was being used to be disrupted so that the Devil would be bound but not completely weakened or killed. Surviving into the present day, the Devil attempts to manipulate Hal Yorke (the vampire who originally participated in the ritual to bind him) and Tom McNair (a werewolf who now shares a house with Hal) into conflict with each other so that he can feed on the energy they create. Although he eventually gains enough power to manifest his full powers, he is killed in the series finale when Hal, Tom and their ghost friend Alex Millar perform the binding ritual once more, the Devil's death apparently restoring them to humanity. | |
The Messengers | 2015 | The Man | The Messengers shows the devil as a major antagonist, which is portrayed by Diogo Morgado. | ||
Lucifer | 2015 | Tom Ellis | Lucifer Morningstar | In this show, Lucifer has abdicated his duties as ruler of Hell to run a Los Angeles night club called "Lux," and after a woman is killed in front of him, he teams up with the LAPD to hunt criminals. |
Anime and cartoons
In anime and cartoons, when a character is unsure what to do, a devil version and an angel version of the character may appear, representing the two sets of motives.
- Demon Lord Dante (魔王ダンテ, Maō Dante), Demon Lord Satan helps Dante in his battle against God and his angels
- Digimon, known as Lucemon and one of the franchise's Seven Great Demon Lords, is based upon Lucifer; this character's backstory is notably similar to Lucifer's fall from grace. This Digimon possesses numerous forms of increasing power, including his Chaos/Falldown Mode, Shadow Lord/Satan mode, and Larva Mode.
- Metalocalypse episode "Dethreligion" has William Murderface joins the Church of Satan after nearly dying in a drunk driving accident. During a mass, one of the priests tries to summon Lucifer, along with Belial, Beelzebub, and Mephistophiles, by shouting out their names in an obnoxious, loud tone. He later appears along with the other three demon lords (with only his arm visible) to murder the church members and its inhabitants.
Satan has been featured as an occasional character in many other series, including Cow and Chicken, Family Guy, Futurama (as the "Robot Devil" who runs Robot Hell), Powerpuff Girls, Robot Chicken, Saturday Night Live, South Park, and The Simpsons.
- This Simpsons: The devil usually appears as Ned Flanders but with the lower body depicted as one would usually view the character but with the upper 2/3's of the body being Ned himself. The Character made its first appearance in Treehouse of Horror IV when Homer sold his soul for a donut.
- South Park: The character first appeared in the episode Damien though his most famous appearance is the Movie and is generally the traditional view except he is depicted as a sensitive and emotionally vulnerable person who has suffered from dependence on relationships. In the movie and various episodes, that relationship is with Saddam Hussein.
Cartoons featuring Satan have also been a recurring theme in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts, including:
- "Satan's Waitin'," from 1954, where Sylvester the Cat is goaded by a satanic bulldog into chasing his prey, Tweety, into a number of violent situations, hoping to acquire each of the cat's "nine lives."
- "The Hole Idea," from 1955. Satan makes a bit appearance in the ending gag, where the short's main protagonist uses a hole to cause his domineering wife to fall to Hell. Satan then appears shortly thereafter, throwing her back and saying, "Isn't it bad enough down here (in Hell) without her?" In a departure from common portrayals as a dark, sinister being, he is portrayed as henpecked and beleaguered, equally frustrated and annoyed by the woman's nagging ways.
- "Devil's Feud Cake," from 1962 and starring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. This cartoon was a compilation of several previous shorts, framed around Sam meeting with Satan in Hell and being promised that, if he were to bring Bugs to him, he would be set free. The story is told out through excerpts from "Hare Lift," "Roman Legion-Hare" and "Sahara Hare."
Radio
The BBC Radio 4 comedy show Old Harry's Game features Andy Hamilton in the leading role as Satan; in the first episode of Series Six, Satan states that he's gone by many names over the centuries including Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, Old Nick, Old Harry and Simon Cowell (one of his Satanic guises),
Literature
Many writers have incorporated the character of Satan into their works. Among them are, in chronological order:
- Dante Alighieri's Inferno (1321)
- Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (1604)
- Joost van den Vondel's Lucifer (1654)
- John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667)
- Alain-René Lesage's The Devil on Two Sticks (1707) [29]
- Jacques Cazotte's The Devil in Love (Le Diable amoureux) (1772) [29]
- William Beckford's Vathek [30]
- William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793)
- Matthew Lewis The Monk (1796)
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Faust (Part 1, 1808; Part 2, 1832)
- James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)
- Alexander Pushkin's A scene from Faust (1830)
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Asmodeus At Large (1833)[29]
- Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown (1835)
- Mikhail Lermontov's The Devil (1842)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850)
- Charles Baudelaire's Litanies of Satan (1857)
- Imre Madách's The Tragedy of Man (1862)
- Jules Michelet's Satanism and Witchcraft (1862)
- Giosuè Carducci's Hymn to Satan (1865)
- Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt (1867)
- Gustave Flaubert's The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1874)
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
- Robert Louis Stevenson's Markheim (1885)
- Leo Tolstoy's How Much Land Does a Man Need? (1886)
- Mark Twain's A Pen Warmed Up in Hell (1889)
- Joris-Karl Huysmans's Là-bas (1891)
- Marie Corelli's The Sorrows of Satan (1896)
- Robert Buchanan's The Devil's Case (1896)
- George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple (1901)
- George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman (1903)
- Ferenc Molnár's The Devil (play) (1907) [29]
- Mark Twain's Letters from the Earth (1909)
- Aleister Crowley's Hymn to Satan (1913)
- Anatole France's The Revolt of the Angels (1914)
- Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger (1916)
- James Branch Cabell's Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (1919) [31]
- Aleister Crowley's Hymn to Lucifer (1919)
- Aleister Crowley's Liber Samekh
- E. Hoffmann Price's "The Stranger From Kurdistan (1925) [31]
- Frederic Arnold Kummer's Ladies in Hades (1928) [31]
- Carl Heinrich's Orphan of Eternity (1929) [29]
- Theodora Du Bois' The Devil's Spoon (1930) [32]
- Sherard Vines' Return, Belphegor! (1932) [29]
- William Gerhardie' Memoirs of Satan (1932, reprint edition by Faber and Faber, 2011. ISBN 978-0-5712-4719-6) [29]
- John Collier's The Devil and All (1934) [31]
- "Murray Constantine's" (Katharine Burdekin) The Devil, Poor Devil! (1934) [29]
- Stephen Vincent Benét's The Devil and Daniel Webster (1937)
- C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters (1942)
- Alfred Bester's "Hell is Forever" (1942) [33]
- Lord Dunsany's, "A Deal With the Devil" (1946) [31]
- Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus (1947)
- James Branch Cabell's The Devil's Own Dear Son (1949) [31]
- David H. Keller's The Devil and the Doctor (1949) [31]
- George Ivanovich Gurdjieff's An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man or Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson: volume one of the All and Everything trilogy (1950)
- Robert Nathan's The Innocent Eve 1951 [29]
- William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954)
- Douglass Wallop's The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant (1954) -- source of the musical and film Damn Yankees
- Alfred Noyes' The Devil Takes a Holiday (1955)
- Basil Davenport, Deals With the Devil (anthology) (1958)
- Robert Bloch's That Hell-Bound Train (1959)
- Arthur Calder-Marshall's The Fair to Middling (1959) [29]
- Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (1966)
- William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist (1971)
- Harlan Ellison's The Deathbird (1974)
- Natalie Babbitt's The Devil's Storybook (1974) [29]
- Michael Moorcock's The War Hound and the World's Pain (1981)
- Jeremy Leven's Satan (1982) [29]
- Margit Sandemo's The Legend of the Ice People series (1982-1989)
- Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series (1983–1990)
- Robert A. Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice (1984)
- Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian (1985)
- Isaac Asimov’s Magical Worlds of Fantasy #8: Devils, an anthology of 18 fantasy short stories edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin Greenburg, and Charles Waugh (1987)
- Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens (1990)
- Stephen King's "The Man in the Black Suit" (1994)
- Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials (1995)
- Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins's Left Behind series (1995–present)
- Anne Rice's Memnoch the Devil (1996)
- Michael Swanwick's Jack Faust (1997) [31]
- Andrew W. Marlowe's The End of Days (1999)
- Steven Brust's To Reign in Hell: A Novel (2000)
- Eoin Colfer's The Wish List (2000)
- Jeri Smith-Ready's Requiem for the Devil (2001)
- David Weber and John Ringo's Empire of Man (2001–2005)
- John A. De Vito's The Devil's Apocrypha (2002)
- Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series (2002–present)
- Anne Bishop's The Black Jewels (2003)
- Glen Duncan's I, Lucifer (2003)
- Catherine Webb's Waywalkers (2003) [29]
- Thomas E. Sniegoski's The Fallen (2003-2004)
- Bryan Davis' Dragons In Our Midst (2004-2005)
- Bryan Davis' Oracles of Fire (2006-2009)
- Melissa De La Cruz's Blue Bloods series (2006-2013)
- Sean Vincent Lehosit's Lucifer and Lacious (2007)
- Jeff Rovin's Conversations with the Devil (2007)
- Robert Seger's The Father of All Lies (2009)
- Lauren Kate's Fallen series (2009-2012)
- Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim (2009) and the sequel Kill the Dead (2010)
- Joe Hill's Horns (2010)
- Aiden Truss's Gape (2013)
- Kat Daemon's "Taming Darkness" (2014)
- Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels (2015)
Comics
In DC and Vertigo comics, the Devil is represented by Lucifer Morningstar, the fallen angel, former ruler of hell, and leader of the Unholy Trinity - although other figures, such as Neron and the First of the Fallen, sometimes portray the Devil. In Underworld Unleashed, Neron gives powers to numerous villains. Darkseid is also associated with the Devil in the forms of Lucifer, Hades, the Greek God of the underworld, and the Hindu goddess Kali.
In some Marvel Comics publications, a "Lucifer" has been mentioned as being a hell lord with the same "fallen from Heaven" backstory. In the Ghost Rider series, Johnny Blaze faces a demon who claims to be Lucifer. In other Marvel plotlines, several high-level demons, such as Mephisto, Azazel, Marduk Kurios, and Satannish, have claimed to be the biblical Satan. In Marvel Comics, the Norse trickster-god Loki is shown as the main adversary of his adopted brother Thor and a common enemy of both Earth and Asgard. Although Loki has conjured up somewhat demonic magic, he is not a demon, but a misshapen frost giant. Among the characters related to Norse mythology, the fire giant Surtur is more reminiscent of a demon. The Egyptian demon-god Seth and the Japanese demon-god Amatsu-Mikaboshi have Satan-like roles in Marvel Comics.
Satan is a main character in the manga Devilman by Go Nagai.
Jio Freed, the main character from the manga, O-Parts Hunter, contains Satan,[34] the most powerful demon in the series.
In the manga series Bastard‼: Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy by Kazushi Hagiwara, Satan appears as a large monster that has destroyed the Milky Way Galaxy by flying across it. Satan also helps Dark Schneider by telling him that he is a major part of the end times prophecy, who will lead demons and mankind to war against God and his army.
In the Image Comics comic book series Spawn, Satan is depicted as the twin brother of God. Both God and Satan are depicted as having squandered their powers as creator gods in endless fighting and were punished for it by the Mother of Creation.
The title character of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is sent to hell and has an extensive conversation with Señor Diablo (Spanish for Mr Devil). In the spinoff series Squee!, the Devil is married to a Christian woman and has a son, Pepito the Antichrist, who befriends the unwilling Squee. Squee is invited to Satan's house for dinner, where Satan and Pepito both try to get Squee to join them, but he refuses and leaves after finishing dinner.
Satan is the main character in Normal Bob Smith's satirical Satan's Salvation.
In the manga series Blue Exorcist by Kazue Kato, the main character, Rin Okumura, is Satan's son and emits blue flames, a sign of Satan. His twin, Yukio, is also a son of Satan, but does not bear the flames.
Lucifer appears in the Saint Seiya anime and manga series.
Video games
- Satan is a green-haired demon that serves as the comical villain in the Puyo Puyo series.
- Satan is the main antagonist and final boss in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. He appears as a long-haired, nearly naked man.
- Satan returns as the main antagonist in the sequel Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2.
- Satan is the name of one of the Seven Sisters of Purgatory in the series Umineko: When They Cry.
- Satan is a bird-like creature that serves as an assist character for Pekomaru in Daemon Bride. Another version of this character, named Holy Demon Lucifer, serves as an assist character for Reizei's angel counterpart, Shining Rebellion.
- In the Shin Megami Tensei series, Satan appears as a neutral character that works as either support or opposition. He also appears in the form of a human named Louis Cyphere in his child, adult, and elderly forms throughout the games. He is shown as an enemy of Satan and Yahweh. He also appears in the Devil Survivor spin-off, as one of the most powerful monsters in the game. In Shin Megami Tensei IV, Lucifer is one of the Final Bosses, being the Chaos Extremist.[35]
- The Persona video game series depicts a seraphim version of Lucifer known as Helel and a demonic version that keeps the original Lucifer name. Many players have considered him to be one of the most powerful personae in the games due to his Armageddon fusion spell consisting of Lucifer and Satan as well as having the most powerful multi-hit spell known as Morning Star.
- The Ghosts 'n Goblins series have a recurring motif thorough the series in which main characters in each game uses a name given to the biblical Satan, although they are all different characters. In Ghouls 'n Ghosts, the character is named Lucifer. The character was renamed Loki in the international versions of the Sega Genesis port and Rushifell (a misromanization of Lucifer) in Gargoyle's Quest.
- In El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, Lucifer (referred to as Lucifel) assists Enoch in his battle against the fallen angels. Lucifel is portrayed as a wisecracking trickster like character who shares a comical, friendly relationship with God.
- In Dante's Inferno, Lucifer appears as shadowy spirit at the start before Dante Allighieri faces him in his physical form, only to be revealed as a shell-like imprisonment that holds the real Lucifer: A malformed angel with his wings ripped off, having been banished from Paradise after his failed rebellion against the Creator. It is revealed that he needs Dante to free him so he can have his revenge on God, but ultimately fails, and is sealed back into his icy prison by the holy power of Dante's cross, combined with every single soul that Dante absolved in Hell.
- Devil May Cry 4 features a demonic weapon known as Lucifer that Dante obtains after he kills Berial. The weapon is depicted as a skull holding a rose in its mouth. The weapon is capable of firing infinite explosive mini-swords.
- In Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Lucifer (under the alias of Lou) is shown as a manager for the player's band. It is later revealed that the band inadvertently sold their souls to him.
- In Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, the character Roberto Frois uses gauntlets featuring the names of several archangels of Abrahamic myth with the Lucifer Gauntlets being his strongest darkness based weapon.
- In Mega Man X8, the character Lumine is based on Lucifer, and includes a final attack called Paradise Lost.
- He makes an appearance as the King of Dem in the video game series Demikids.
- Lucifer appears in the Painkiller video game series, where he is shown as a classical red demon.
- Lucifer also appears as a secret boss in Final Fantasy II in the palace of Arubboth.
- The Devil is the final boss in Tekken 2.
- Lucifer is an assist character in Daemon Bride that serves as a partner to Reizei Abane.
- Lucifer, or alternatively, "Doom Bringer," is a playable character in Defense of the Ancients.
- In Monster Retsuden Oreca Battle, there is a card called Fallen Angel Lucifer, as well as her false form Lucif.
- Many forms of the Devil appear in the mobile game Puzzle & Dragons, as Satan,[36] who can be obtained only in its Descended-tier Dungeon "Lord of Hell - Mythical",[37] and can evolve into Satan, King of the Underworld,[38] and then "Ultimate Evolve" into King of Hell, Satan.[39] Lucifer is available in the Archangel and Fallen Angel flavors.[40][41] Also Mephistopheles has recently been added to the game.
Role-playing games
- Lucifer appears in the White Wolf role-playing game Demon: The Fallen and less extensively in Vampire: The Masquerade. In it, he rebelled against God to save humans from Oblivion by enlightening them.
Devil's Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary gives a satirical view of Satan as "one of the Creator's lamentable mistakes". When expelled from Heaven, he asks that mankind be allowed to make its own laws, and the request is granted.
U.S. Justice
In 1971, Gerald Mayo brought a civil rights action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against Satan and his servants, who allegedly placed deliberate obstacles in Mayo's path. In its written opinion, the Court did not deny Satan's existence, but asserted that it was unlikely that Satan was ever present in the Western District of Pennsylvania, stating, "We question whether plaintiff may obtain personal jurisdiction over the defendant in this judicial district."
In a jocular reference to The Devil and Daniel Webster, the court implied that Satan might live in New Hampshire, stating, "While the official reports disclose no case where this defendant has appeared as defendant there is an unofficial account of a trial in New Hampshire where this defendant filed an action of mortgage foreclosure as plaintiff." This appears to be the only published legal case in the U.S. concerning Satan, and the present U.S. official position seems to be that Satan may exist and, if so, might be found in New Hampshire.
See also
- I Am The Beast etc. v. Michigan State Police
- List of fictional demons
- Satan (disambiguation)
- Works based on Faust
References
- ↑ Kurtz, Lester R., 2007, Gods in the Global Village: The World's Religions in Sociological Perspective, Pine Forge Press, ISBN 1-4129-2715-3, p. 153.
- ↑ Brian Allen (July 2006). "The Devil's Chord". Fortean Times. Dennis Publishing Limited. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
- ↑ María Agui Carter; Calvin A. Lindsay, Jr. "Culture Shock: The TV Series & Beyond—The Devil's Music: 1920s Jazz". PBS. WGBH. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
- ↑ "Lucifer Discography".
- ↑ "Lewis "Cypher" Discography".
- ↑ "Symphony For The Devil Amazon".
- ↑ Dieterle, William (Director) (1941). The Devil and Daniel Webster (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Douglas, Gordon M. (Director) (1942). The Devil with Hitler (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Mayo, Archie (Director) (1946). Angel on My Shoulder (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Allen, Irwin (Director) (1957). The Story of Mankind (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Abbott, George and Stanley Donen (Directors) (1958). Damn Yankees (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Polanski, Roman (Director) (1968). Rosemary's Baby (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ O'Steen, Sam (Director) (1976). Look What Happened to Rosemary's Baby (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Donner, Richard (Director) (1976). The Omen (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Hill, Walter (Director) (1986). Crossroads (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Parker, Alan (Director) (1987). Angel Heart (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Willman, Chris (27 August 1993). "Von Sydow: Maxing at the Extremes : Movies: Swedish actor is the first on record to play both God and Satan in major studio films. His latest role is the Adversary in 'Needful Things.'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- ↑ Widen, Gregory (Director) (1995). The Prophecy (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Hackford, Taylor (Director) (1997). The Devil's Advocate (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Polanski, Roman (Director) (1999). The Ninth Gate (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Hyams, Peter (Director) (1999). End of Days (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Brill, Steven (Director) (2000). Little Nicky (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Mungia, Lance (Director) (2001). The Crow: Wicked Prayer (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Gibson, Mel (Director) (2004). The Passion of the Christ (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Lawrence, Francis (Director) (2005). Constantine (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ Bousman, Darren Lynn (Director) (2012). The Devil's Carnival (Motion picture). Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ↑ "IMDb".
- ↑ "IMDb".
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Brian Stableford, The A to Z of Fantasy Literature, Scarecrow Press,Plymouth. 2005. ISBN 0-8108-6829-6 (109-110)
- ↑ Les Daniels (1975). Living in Fear: A History of Horror in the Mass Media. Da Capo Press, (P. 17). ISBN 0306801930 .
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Darrell Schweitzer, "The Devil" in S. T. Joshi, ed., Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: an Encyclopedia of our Worst Nightmares (Greenwood, 2007), (p. 161-186) ISBN 0313337810
- ↑ Eric Leif Davin. Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965. Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-7391-1267-0. (p. 380)
- ↑ E. F. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, Kent State University Press, 1983, ISBN 0-87338-228-9 (p.38).
- ↑ Kishimoto, Seishi (2001). "Chapter 1". 666 Satan, Volume 1. Square Enix. ISBN 4-7575-0597-3.
- ↑ Shin Megami Tensei IV. [Nintendo 3DS game]. Irvine, CA:Atlus
- ↑ http://puzzledragonx.com/en/monster.asp?n=646
- ↑ http://puzzledragonx.com/en/mission.asp?m=441
- ↑ http://puzzledragonx.com/en/monster.asp?n=647
- ↑ http://puzzledragonx.com/en/monster.asp?n=1646
- ↑ http://puzzledragonx.com/en/monster.asp?n=628
- ↑ http://puzzledragonx.com/en/monster.asp?n=638
Further reading
- The Comics Go to Hell: A Visual History of the Devil in Comics (by Fredrik Stromberg, 360 pages, Fantagraphics Books, 2005, ISBN 1-56097-616-0)
- The Lure of the Dark Side: Satan & Western Demonology in Popular Culture (by Eric S. Christianson and Christopher Patridge, 256 pages, Equinox Publishing Ltd, SW11, 2008, ISBN 1-84553-310-0)
- The Satanic Screen: An Illustrated Guide to the Devil in Cinema (by Nikolas Schreck, 256 pages, Creation Books, 2001, ISBN 1-84068-043-1)
External links
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