Modern descriptions of demons often depict them as having the horns and hooves of a goat. When did this image of demons become popular, and where did it originate?
Demons are commonly illustrated with horns on their heads, hairy legs, and the hooves of a goat.
Azazel in Jewish Legend – (Image: THE LIBRARIANS)
Too Many “Conspiracy Theories”
“The appearance of demons is not described in the Bible,” asserts Marina Montesano, a professor of medieval history at the University of Messina in Italy, in an interview with the scientific news outlet National Geographic.
Demons were later identified with the serpent in the Garden of Eden, the one who convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. However, there is no mention of horns or hooves in the Bible.
The painting “Adam, Eve, and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden” by artist Wenzel Peter – (Image: VATICAN MUSEUM)
Goat-like descriptions also do not appear in medieval demon imagery or even Renaissance art.
In a sixth-century mosaic at the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy, the demon is depicted as a blue angel.
Mosaic in the Basilica of Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy – (Image: ART LOUNGE)
Later, demons were identified as “beasts” and depicted as dragons: a fifteenth-century painting of St. Augustine confronting a demon shows the demon as a dragon-like creature with bat wings.
St. Augustine confronting a demon – (Image: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS).
Is the Demon Pan?
Then Pan emerged. In Greek mythology, Pan is the wild god of shepherds and flocks. Pan is often depicted as a woodland deity with hind legs, hooves, and horns.
In an effort to persuade people to abandon polytheism in favor of the new religion, early Christian writers depicted Pan as a demon. Yet, portraying Pan as a demon does not explain why the most important demon – Satan – resembles a woodland god.
Some historians argue that the ancient association of goats with the demonic world accounts for the modern descriptions of demons with goat-like horns and hooves.
For example, the demon Azazel may be linked to the ritual imagery of the “scapegoat” in Jewish tradition. There, a goat bearing the sins of the Jewish people is sent into the wilderness on “Yom Kippur” (Day of Atonement).
In a 2013 study published in the journal Numen, historian Alexander Kulik at the Hebrew University (Jerusalem) argued that the depiction of demons with horns and hooves originated from early Jewish literature.
This content can be found in “The Greek Apocalypse of Baruch“, a novel written in Greek around 70 CE. The novel describes a race of demons with the hindquarters of a donkey.
Professor Kulik notes that the appearance of demons resembling “woodland gods” began to take shape in Jewish thought from that time.
However, Ronald Hutton, a historian at the University of Bristol in England, argues that depictions of horned demons originated much later, only two centuries ago, during a Neopagan revival in Europe aimed at challenging the prevailing Christian beliefs.
This movement included the literary work Cult of Pan, which equated the figure of Pan with demons, Hutton told Live Science.
