Lucifer

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This article is about the star or fallen angel. For other uses, see Lucifer (disambiguation).
Lucifer, as depicted in Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal (1863).
Lucifer, as depicted in Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal (1863).

In modern and late Medieval Christian thought, Lucifer is usually a fallen angel commonly associated with Satan, the embodiment of evil and enemy of God. Lucifer is generally considered, based on the influence of Christian literature and legend, to have been a prominent archangel in heaven (although some contexts say he was a cherub or a seraph), prior to having been motivated by pride to rebel against God. When the angel failed, Lucifer was cast out of heaven, along with a third of the heavenly host, and came to reside on the world.

Lucifer is a Latin word meaning "light-bearer" (from lux, lucis, "light", and ferre, "to bear, bring"), a Roman astrological term for the "Morning Star", the planet Venus. The word Lucifer was the direct translation of the Greek eosphorus ("dawn-bearer"; cf. Greek phosphorus, "light-bearer") used by Jerome in the Vulgate, having mythologically the same meaning as Prometheus who brought fire to humanity. In that passage, Isaiah 14:12, it referred to one of the popular honorific titles of a Babylonian king; however, later interpretations of the text, and the influence of embellishments in works such as Dante's The Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost, led to the common idea in Christian mythology and folklore that Lucifer was a poetic appellation of Satan.

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[edit] Roman poetic appellation

A 2nd-century sculpture of the moon goddess Selene accompanied by Hesperus and Phosphorus: the Morning star was later Latinized as "Lucifer".
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A 2nd-century sculpture of the moon goddess Selene accompanied by Hesperus and Phosphorus: the Morning star was later Latinized as "Lucifer".

Lucifer is a poetic name for the "morning star", a close translation of the Greek eosphoros, the "dawn-bringer", which appears in the Odyssey and in Hesiod's Theogony.

A classic Roman use of "Lucifer" appears in Virgil's Georgics (III, 324-5):

Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura
carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent"
"Let us hasten, when first the Morning Star appears,
To the cool pastures, while the day is new, while the grass is dewy"

And similarly, in Ovid's Metamorphoses:

"Aurora, watchful in the reddening dawn, threw wide her crimson doors and rose-filled halls; the Stars took flight, in marshalled order set by Lucifer, who left his station last."

A more effusive poet, like Statius, can expand this trope into a brief but profuse allegory, though still this is a poetical personification of the Light-Bearer, not a mythology:

   
“
 And now Aurora, rising from her Mygdonian resting-place, had scattered the cold shadows from the high heaven, and, shaking the dew-drops from her hair, blushed deep in the sun's pursuing beams; toward her through the clouds, rosy Lucifer turns his late fires, and with slow steed leaves an alien world, until the fiery father's orb be full replenished and he forbid his sister to usurp his rays.
   
”

—Statius, Thebaid 2.134

[edit] Origins in Isaiah

Statue of one of twelve lucifers at the Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc.
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Statue of one of twelve lucifers at the Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc.

In the Vulgate, an early-5th-century translation of the Bible into Latin by Jerome, Lucifer occurs in Isaiah 14:12-14 as a translation of the Greek word heosphorus ("dawn-bearer"), an epithet of Venus. The original Hebrew text of this verse was הילל בן שחר (heilel ben-schahar), meaning "Helel son of Shahar." Helel was a Babylonian / Canaanite god who was the son of another Babylonian / Canaanite god named Shahar.

Helel was the god of the morning star and his father was Shahar, god of the dawn. Some translations of Isaiah 14:12 "How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning!" American Standard Version translating Hebrew Helel as "day-star" and the Hebrew word ben as "son" and the Hebrew word shahar as "morning." Others translate it as "Lucifer, son of the morning" 21st Century King James.

In Isaiah, this title is specifically used, in a prophetic vision, to reference the king of Babylon's pride and to illustrate his eventual fate by referencing mythological accounts of the planet Venus:

14:4 You will recite this parable about the king of Babylonia: How has the oppressor come to an end, the arrogance been ended?
14:10 They will all proclaim and say to you, "You also have been stricken as we were; you are compared to us.
14:11 Brought down to the nether-world were your pride and the tumult of your stringed instruments; maggots are spread out under you, and worms are your covers.
14:12 How have you fallen from the heavens, O glowing morning star; been cut down to the ground O conqueror of nations?
(Isaiah, Artscroll Tanakh)

The Jewish Encyclopedia reports that "it is obvious that the prophet in attributing to the Babylonian king boastful pride, followed by a fall, borrowed the idea from a popular legend connected with the morning star".[1]

In modern Jewish theology, Helel in Isaiah 14 is not equated with the Jewish concept of HaSatan (the adversary). Instead, the prophet is speaking of the fall of Babylon and along with it the fall of her false gods Helel and Shahar. There is satan which is a Hebrew word meaning "adversary" and in the Tanakh one will find many instances of the word used to describe human and angelic adversaries to man.

Later Jewish tradition, influenced by Babylonian mythology acquired during the Babylonian captivity, elaborated on the fall of the angels under the leadership of Samhazai ("the heaven-seizer") and Azael (Enoch, book vi.6f). Another legend, in the midrash, represents the repentant Samhazai suspended star-like between heaven and earth instead of being hurled down to Sheol.

The Helel-Lucifer (i.e. Venus) myth was later transferred to Satan, as evidenced by the 1st-century pseudepigraphical text Vita Adae et Evae (12), where the Adversary gives Adam an account of his early career,[2] and the Slavonic Book of Enoch (xxix. 4, xxxi. 4), where Satan-Sataniel (Sataniel/Satanel "The Keeper of Hell") (Samael?) is also described as a former archangel. Because he contrived "to make his throne higher than the clouds over the earth and resemble 'My power' on high", Satan-Sataniel was hurled down, with his hosts of angels, to fly in the air continually above the abyss.

[edit] Christian tradition

The fall of Lucifer, Gustave Doré's illustration for the Paradise Lost by John Milton.
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The fall of Lucifer, Gustave Doré's illustration for the Paradise Lost by John Milton.

Christian tradition of a literal fall from heaven drew upon the Homeric tradition, familiar to many. Homer's description of the parallel supernatural fall

"the whole day long I was carried headlong, and at sunset I fell in Lemnos, and but little life was in me"

relates the fall of Hephaestus from Olympus in the Iliad I:591ff; the fall of the Titans was similarly described by Hesiod. Through popular epitomes these traditions were drawn upon by Christian authors embellishing the fall of Lucifer.

Jerome, with the Septuagint close at hand and a general familiarity with the pagan poetic traditions, translated Heylel as Lucifer. This may also have been done as a pointed jab at a bishop named Lucifer, a contemporary of Jerome who argued to forgive those condemned of the Arian heresy. Much of Christian tradition also draws on interpretations of Revelation 12:9 ("He was thrown down, that ancient serpent"; see also 12:4 and 12:7) in equating the ancient serpent with the serpent in the Garden of Eden and the fallen star, Lucifer, with Satan. Accordingly, Tertullian (Contra Marrionem, v. 11, 17), Origen (Ezekiel Opera, iii. 356), and others, identify Lucifer with Satan.

In the fully-developed Christian interpretation, Jerome's Vulgate translation of Isaiah 14:12 has made Lucifer the name of the principal fallen angel, who must lament the loss of his original glory as the morning star. This image at last defines the character of Satan; where the Church Fathers had maintained that lucifer was not the proper name of the Devil, and that it referred rather to the state from which he had fallen; St. Jerome gave it Biblical authority when he transformed it into Satan's proper name.

It is noteworthy that the Old Testament itself does not at any point actually mention the rebellion and fall of Satan. This non-Scriptural belief assembled from interpretations of different passages, would fall under the heading Christian mythology, that is, Christian traditions that are derived from outside of church teachings and scripture. For detailed discussion of the "War in Heaven" theme, see Fallen angel.

[edit] Other instances of the Morning Star in the New Testament

In the Vulgate, the word lucifer is used elsewhere: it describes the Morning Star (the planet Venus), the "light of the morning" (Job 11:17); the constellations (Job 38:32) and "the aurora" (Psalms 109:3). In the New Testament, Jesus Christ (in II Peter 1:19) is associated with the "morning star" (phosphoros).

Not all references in the New Testament to the morning star refer to phosphoros, however; in Revelation:

Rev 2:28 And I will give him the morning star (aster proinos).

Rev 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star (aster orthrinos).

In the Eastern Empire, where Greek was the language, "morning star" (heosphorus) retained these earlier connotations. When Liutprand, bishop of Cremona, attended the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus II in 968, he reported to his master Otto I the greeting sung to the emperor arriving in Hagia Sophia:

"Behold the morning star approaches, Eos rises; he reflects in his glances the rays of the sun— he the pale death of the Saracens, Nicephorus the ruler." [1]

[edit] The four crown princes of Hell

Lucifer has been acknowledged by the Satanic Bible as one of the Four Crown Princes of Hell, particularly that of the East. Lord of the Air, Lucifer has been named "Bringer of light, The morning star, Intellectualism, Enlightenment."

[edit] Freemasonry and Luciferianism

Freemasons have been accused by various Christian organisations of worshipping Lucifer, despite the fact that Freemasonry claims not to be a religion, and has members from many religions including Christianity. This theory originates in a hoax perpetrated by Léo Taxil, who had himself been expelled from Freemasonry within months of joining. According to the hoax, leading Freemason Albert Pike had addressed "the 23 Supreme Confederated Councils of the world", instructing them that Lucifer was God, and was in opposition to the evil god Adonai. Taxil also promoted a book by Diana Vaughan (actually written by him) that purported to reveal a highly secret ruling body called the Palladium which controlled the organisation and had a Satanic agenda. As described by Freemasonry Disclosed in 1897:

With frightening cynicism the miserable person we shall not name here [Taxil] declared before an assembly especially convened for him that for twelve years he had prepared and carried out to the end the most sacrilegious of hoaxes. We have always been careful to publish special articles concerning Palladism and Diana Vaughan. We are now giving in this issue a complete list of these articles, which can now be considered as not having existed.[3]

Despite the fraud having been revealed for over a century, Pike's spurious address and other details of the hoax continue to be quoted by anti-masonic groups.[4]

Arthur Edward Waite wrote an exposé of this hoax, titled Devil-Worship in France. Waite produces evidence that this was what today we would call a tabloid story, replete with logical and factual inconsistencies.

[edit] New Age beliefs

In the The Urantia Book, published in 1955, Lucifer is a brilliant spirit personality, a "son of God" who at one time ruled this constellation of 607 inhabited planets. He fell into an iniquitous rebellion against the ordained universe governmental regime in a denial of God's existence saying he was God. "There was war in Heaven" but, according to The Urantia Book, the story has become convoluted over time.

Lucifer recruited Satan, another brilliant being of the same order, to represent his cause to the universe authorities on earth. The then planetary prince of earth, Caligastia - one and the same as "the devil", believed Lucifer's cause and subsequently aligned himself, along with 37 other planetary princes in the system, with the rebels. They all attempted to take their entire populations of their planets under the assertion of a false doctrine, a "Declaration of Liberty" which would have driven them to darkness, evil, sin and iniquity.

When Jesus of Nazareth went up to Mount Hermon for the "temptation", it was really to settle this iniquitous rebellion for the triumph of the entire system. "Said Jesus of Caligastia: "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast down." Subsequently, Lucifer, Satan, Caligastia and all the personalities who followed them, figuratively "fell from Heaven". They were actually and literally all "dethroned and shorn of their governing powers" by the appropriate universe authorities and most have been replaced. Subsequent to their efforts to corrupt Jesus while incarnated in the flesh on earth, any and all sympathy for them or their cause, outside the worlds of sin and rebellion, has ceased.

See: Paper 53 - The Lucifer Rebellion and Paper 54 - Problems of the Lucifer Rebellion.

[edit] Astronomical significance

Because the planet Venus (Lucifer) is an inferior planet, meaning that its orbit lies between the orbit of the Earth and the Sun, it can never rise high in the sky at night as seen from Earth. It can be seen in the eastern morning sky for an hour or so before the Sun rises, and in the western evening sky for an hour or so after the Sun sets, but never during the dark of midnight.

Venus (Lucifer) is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. As bright and as brilliant as it is, ancient people couldn't understand why they couldn't see it at midnight like the outer planets, or during midday, like the Sun and Moon. Some believe they invented myths about Lucifer being cast out from Heaven to explain this. Lucifer was supposed to shine so bright because it wanted to take over the thrones or status of Saturn and Jupiter, both of which were considered most important by the worshippers of planetary deities at the time.

In Romanian mythology, Lucifer (Romanian: Luceafăr) means the planet Venus and some other stars. It is also linked with Hyperion, a figure who animates bad spirits (but is not the Devil himself).

[edit] Cultural references

"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav'n." —Paradise Lost, Book I, 263

Lucifer is a key protagonist in John Milton's (1667) Protestant epic, Paradise Lost. Milton presents Lucifer almost sympathetically, an ambitious and prideful angel who defies God and wages war on heaven, only to be defeated and cast down. Lucifer must then employ his rhetorical ability to organize hell; he is aided by Mammon and Beelzebub. Later, Lucifer enters the Garden of Eden, where he successfully tempts Eve, wife of Adam, to eat fruit from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Lucifer naturally makes appearances in fiction offering a suggestion of esoterica.

[edit] Literature

  • Lucifer is a book written by Michael Cordy.
  • Lucifer is a character in The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1604)
  • Lucifer appears in Joost van den Vondel's Lucifer (1654)
  • In Miguel Serrano's Nos (1980), Lucifer is identified as the King of the White gods.
  • In Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series (1968-1997), Jupiter was renamed Lucifer after its transformation into Earth's second sun.
  • Lucifer is a character in the view-from-the-other-side fantasy novel To Reign in Hell (1984) by Steven Brust.
  • Lucifer is a character in The Sandman graphic novels (1988-1996) by Neil Gaiman, and the protagonist of the graphic novel series Lucifer (1999-2006) by Mike Carey.
  • Lucifer is the main character in Catherine Webb's novels Waywalkers (2003) and Timekeepers (2004), under the name of Sam Linnfer.
  • Lucifer is also a poem by the Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu Luceafarul (the Evening Star)
  • Lucifer is identified by the name of "Memnoch" in Memnoch the Devil, by Anne Rice (July 3, 1995)
  • The fall of Lucifer is a central element of the universe portrayed in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.
  • Lucifer is a character in Michael Moorcock's Von Bek series. Here he is a multi-faceted and complex character.
  • Lucifer is a character in Kaori Yuki's Angel Sanctuary manga, about a boy who is the reincarnation of one of his fellow fallen angels.
  • Lucifer is the protagonist of Glen Duncan's I, Lucifer, in which he is offered a shot at redemption by God, and must live a mortal life free of sin.
  • Lucivar is the name of a main character in Anne Bishop's Black Jewels books, a character tortured for hundreds of years by one cruel matriarch and redeemed by a kinder, loving one.
  • Lucifer is a character in Anatole France's la Révolte des anges; he is said to have led men to philosophy, science, and art.
  • Lucifer is one of the main characters in the Hungarian dramatic poem, The Tragedy of Man.
  • Lucifer is the main character in "The Fall of Lucifer: The Chronicles of Brothers" by Wendy Alec
  • Lucifer is the father of the protagonist, Sinthia in the comic book series with the same name.
  • Lucifer is a central character in the webcomic, The Modern Edda.
  • Lucifer is the narrator and protagonist of the upcoming Nick Feldman novel, "The Bible: Lightbringer's Cut".
  • Lucifer is a major character of the upcoming Reka Erbad novel, "We All Die Someday."

[edit] Film and TV

[edit] Music

  • The Iron Maiden song "Moonchild" from the album "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" at one point says "be the mother of a birth strangled babe, be the devils own, Lucifer's my name. Another song from the same album, "The Prophecy", contains the lyrics "Now Lucifer smiles, hell awaits".
  • Lucifer it's the track #1 on the Mercyful Fate's 1996 Album "Into the Unknown".
  • On Black Sabbath N.I.B. the following lyrics are used Look into my eyes, you will see who I am, My name is Lucifer, please take my hand The song is about the Devil falling in love and becoming a good person.
  • Lucifer is the first-person "narrator" in The Rolling Stones' song "Sympathy for the Devil" (1968).
  • Lucifer is used in "Lucifer Sam", from the Pink Floyd's album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Lucifer Sam is a Siamese cat who belongs to a witch named Jennifer Gentle, as described in the songs lyrics by Syd Barrett. (preview this song).
  • The 13th section of Jethro Tull's A Passion Play is subtitled Flight From Lucifer and its first lyric-line is "Flee the icy Lucifer. Oh he's an awful fellow!".
  • Lucifer is the subject of the song "Prince of Darkness" by Megadeth. The following lyrics are used Prince of darkness, the devilish serpent, the dreaded Lucifer
  • "Father Lucifer" is the name of a song by Tori Amos.
  • "Lucifer" is also the name of the song by Jay-Z produced by Kanye West.
  • "Lucifer's Angel" is the name of song composed by Rasmus in their album "Hide from the Sun" - 2005
  • Inspector Javert from Les Misérables makes several mentions of Lucifer in his song "Stars":

"And if you fall as Lucifer fell, you fall in flame..." "And if you fall as Lucifer fell, the flame, the sword..." "And so it must be, for so it is written on the doorways to Paradise that those who falter and those who fall must pay the price!"

  • "If I make the pearly gates, do my best to make a drawing of God, and Lucifer, a boy and girl, an angel kissing on a sinner" in The Trapeze Swinger by Iron and Wine.

[edit] Video Games

  • Lucifer is a vital character in the roleplaying series Shin Megami Tensei, and its related spin offs. In the series, Lucifer is portrayed as a multi-faceted, almost noble enemy of YHWH (God). His human alias is Louis Cypher.
  • Lucifer is mentioned as being the former ruler of the Netherealm before he was overthrown by Quan Chi and Shinnok in the Mortal Kombat series.
  • The Lucifer is a Shivan capital ship, from the game Descent: FreeSpace.
  • Lucifer is the basis for the character Horus in the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000. His story is much the same as Horus' (including his fall from grace, or in Horus' case, fall to Chaos), but Horus slew Sanguinius, while Lucifer was cast down by Michael.
  • Lucifer is the name of a playable character in the Warcraft III custom map Defence of the Ancients.
  • Lucifer, changed to Luther in North America, is the final boss of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.
  • In Soul Calibur III, the name Lucifer cannot be given to a custom made character (the game simply won't allow it).
  • In a game (or 2 games) by Atlus, Demikids Light and Dark versions, after completing the game, you may recruit Lucifer as an ally.
  • In Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, there is a character named "Flucifer" who is the second final boss in the game, he has a tank called "Great Demon". The Final Boss (optional) is the goddess in the form of Flucifer

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Lucifer; also Fall of Angels
  2. ^ Vita Adae et Evae: Text from R.H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament
  3. ^ Freemasonry Disclosed April 1897
  4. ^ Leo Taxil: The tale of the Pope and the Pornographer. Retrieved on 14 September 2006.

[edit] External links

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