Religious motifs : Overview. Search. About religious motifs
See also Hell
Keywords:
Evil, hell, supernatural, underground
Evil personified. Hebrew "satan" means opponent. Greek "diabolos" is the word behind "devil". Originally Satan was a helper of Jahve or one of God's sons, but in the antique Judaism he became an independent opponent of God, and he is regarded that way in The New Testament.
One remarkable and amusing description of the devil is in the beginning of the Andersen tale "The Snow Queen".
Example :
Scarcely six years had passed before the baron left the mansion, a beggar, with bag and stick in hand; and the mansion itself was bought by a rich merchant. And the purchaser was the very peddler who had once been mocked at in the great hall and forced to drink beer from a stocking! Honesty and industry are good winds to speed a vessel, and now the peddler was the master of the mansion. But from that moment card-playing was not permitted there any more.
"That is bad reading," he said. "When the Devil saw a Bible for the first time, he wanted something to counteract it, and so he invented card playing."
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