Devil/Satan/Lucifer

Andrew Mason · 11 Dec 2010, 18:46 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com (Andrew Mason)
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2010 18:46:04 +0000
Subject: (urth) Devil/Satan/Lucifer
Message-ID: <AANLkTi=pdAHHZ6NxOg-cO8tR0E3aW3C82bp3+-Ut8qkr at mail.gmail.com>

As this thread is, as Jonas would say, flying off in all directions,
I'm taking the liberty of renaming some bits. (I notice from the
archives that in the early days of this list,it seems to have been de
rigueur to rename threads all the time, thus making them almost
imposible to follow. Now it has swung the other way and we keep the
same titles even when all contact with the original subject has been
lost.)

I am a bit confused about all this talk of distinctions between
various diabolic figures. David says that the Devil and Lucifer are
different literary figures, one from American folklore and one from
_Paradise Lost_. But the Devil/Satan/Lucifer - all names of the same
being - was a figure of Christian thought long before either American
folklore or Milton (who, in any case, mostly calls his character
Satan) existed.

Antonio said they are different philosophically, but I'd like more
explanation of that - I'm not sure what philosophical traditions we
are talking about here. Perhaps this links up with another thing David
said, that Satan is an eternal source of evil while Lucifer is a
fallen angel. In that case I think we can say quite firmly that any
diabolic figure in Wolfe (I'm not convinced there are any, but any
there might be) would have to be a fallen angel (or, an in some way
corrupt angelic sort of being) - Christian orthodoxy doesn't allow
eternal sources of eveil, and I'm pretty sure Wolfe goes along with
that.

(I wonder if Inire might be Crowley - 'an angel who didn't so much
fall as saunter vaguely downwards'.)

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