LUCIFER

The Devil at centre, with three faces and three pairs of wings, standing in a pool and devouring a damned soul, against dark background.
Titled in top centre: "LVCIFER".
Lettered extensively around image with excerpts of Dante's Divina Comedia.

Engraving made by Cornelis Galle I, After Lodovico Cigoli, Belgium, 1591-1650.

► The name Lucifer originally denotes the planet Venus, emphasizing its brilliance. The Vulgate employs the word also for "the light of the morning" (Job 11:17), "the signs of the zodiac" (Job 38:32), and "the aurora" (Psalm 109:3). Metaphorically, the word is applied to the King of Babylon (Isaiah 14:12) as preeminent among the princes of his time; to the high priest Simon son of Onias (Ecclesiasticus 50:6), for his surpassing virtue, to the glory of heaven (Apocalypse 2:28), by reason of its excellency; finally to Jesus Christ himself (2 Peter 1:19; Apocalypse 22:16; the "Exultet" of Holy Saturday) the true light of our spiritual life.

► The Syriac version and the version of Aquila derive the Hebrew noun helel from the verb yalal, "to lament"; St. Jerome agrees with them (In Isaiah 1.14), and makes Lucifer the name of the principal fallen angel who must lament the loss of his original glory bright as the morning star. In Christian tradition this meaning of Lucifer has prevailed; the Fathers maintain that Lucifer is not the proper name of the devil, but denotes only the state from which he has fallen (Petavius, De Angelis, III, iii, 4).

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Comments and faves

  1. ★

    Arnau Sala, B E L Ä T E N, I Woke Up Dreaming, Pascal T, and 152 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  2. torakana54 (42 months ago | reply)

    It always astonishes me how male Lucifer has become in the Western tradition when Venus and Ishtar and Inanna and her predecessors were so decidedly female for such a long time before that. Even in the Bible Ashtoreth gets a good denouncing as a female baddie! How'd that sex change happen?

  3. tadeusz deręgowski (42 months ago | reply)

    What a splendid image! Thanks for posting it.

  4. giuseppe.marchi (42 months ago | reply)

    wonderful image

  5. brend∆n (42 months ago | reply)

    I have also heard Lucifer is used to mean " Bearer of Light ". Interesting about the female aspect, though. In most cosmologies, the Female comes first, followed by the Male aspect, which is generally an affect of the first . I like the Saturn face, very scary!

  6. Wladislaw Draculesti (42 months ago | reply)

    The name Lucifer comes from hebrew and the devil's angelic name: 'Luzbel' which means 'The God's brilliancy'.

    God put this name to the angel that wanted to be like he.

  7. LarsPowderdry (42 months ago | reply)

    very interesting...so often i dont consider the multiple variations of meaning a name or word has had...thanks for the illumination

  8. alisha.wessler (42 months ago | reply)

    The details are incredible - thank you for sharing.

  9. virtue_fern (41 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Words and Art, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  10. wiggiewormdog (37 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called hades, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  11. chanttojah (36 months ago | reply)

    Actually
    This was done by Balthasar Caymox

  12. K. [El.Panda.de.la.Muerte] (30 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Satanical, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  13. Berje (17 months ago | reply)

    Fucking shit!

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