The image of the devil has always been "prickly tail" with horns and two fang-like teeth. Why is it that way?

How do people know how he looks like when they haven%26#039;t seen him? And has anyone seen it? Why did they base it like that?

The image of the devil has always been %26quot;prickly tail%26quot; with horns and two fang-like teeth. Why is it that way?
to try and scare people. There was very little emphasis on Satan while catholicism wasn%26#039;t worried about how many members they had. Satan brought them back to church out of curiosity -- like a good horror flick back in the day. So the image of Satan was distorted into a demon-like figure which was pretty much made up and not anywhere in the bible.
Reply:Because the Catholic church has no imagination. The devil could appear as anyone or anything.





The church glorifies something at first then if there is a disagreement they vilify it. They have done this to the Jews, to Joan of Arc. Some say The Knights Templar. if you do not play their game they destroy you.
Reply:Because the old Greek and Roman mythology had satyrs (men with goat lower bodies) that often had horns on their heads. Early Christianity copied a lot of early Greek/Roman images as part of their explanation of the bad %26#039;wild%26#039; nature of sin, since people would%26#039;ve got that in the Dark Ages and Middle Ages.





No-one has %26#039;seen%26#039; Satan, just like they haven%26#039;t %26#039;seen%26#039; God - they don%26#039;t have physical bodies (they are spirits, if you believe in that sort of thing).
Reply:to suit man kinds imagination of its ugliness
Reply:i would have to agree with Vicky. Somethings you can%26#039;t change once its been told over 1000 times.





He took the form of a snake in the Garden of eden, unleashed a bahemith on mankind. so perhaps those two fused along with the body of man (human) or an angle that didn%26#039;t want to be second best in heaven.





Pehaps being in Hell with its fire and brimstone have mutated him.
Reply:Early christians created that image to vilify the old pagan gods, ie Pan, or Herne.





According to the Torah, Lucifer was the highest and most beautiful of all the Archangels, and he was not the enemy of God, rather a servant of God who%26#039;s task it was to attempt to tempt men away from the path of God, hence the name Satan, ancient Hebrew for the accuser. The ancient Jews had no concept of %26#039;The Devil%26#039; Or %26#039;Hell%26#039;
Reply:I think it is a remnant of the old pagan beliefs of some of the non-Jewish converts to early Christianity.





A lot of pre-Christian mythology had gods with horns; it was apparently some kind of fertility symbol. Half-human/half-animal figures were common in the mythology of several different countries.





When Christianity took over in Europe the old pagan ideas took on a negative connotation.





Also, the Beast in the Book of Revelations has %26quot;seven heads and ten horns%26quot; or something like that.





The Quran mentions a mysterious figure called %26quot;the lord of the two horns%26quot; but I don%26#039;t think it%26#039;s supposed to represent the Devil. I read where at least one scholar thought it was referring to Alexander the Great. The Devil is mentioned in the Quran as an angel who was disobedient to God, but there is no physical description that I can recall.
Reply:the devil is described in the bible in many different forms. The origin is probably from the book of revelations





Revelation 12:3 (KJV)


And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.








although this is not describing the devil himself, this is probably where it originated.








and im not religious, but its useful to know these things
Reply:because in the garden of Eaden, devil came in the shape of snake....this is why people take his tail, horns and two fange like teeth...
Reply:The early Christians simply took the horned god from the Pagans (Pan, Cernunnos, Herne, etc) who was an amiable, lively character, and twisted into something red and ugly to scare the Pagans into believing in Christianity. The same way they placed all their holidays on top of pre-existing Pagan festivals. Such a shame.
Reply:I agree with the people who say that the Church took over pagan images and used them to represent evil.This way,they either convert or drive underground adherents to those older pagan ways.





Umm-majnun99 said the Quran says the Devil was of the angels.That is wrong-the Bible says this. The Quran states that Shaytan or Iblees (the Devil) was one of the jinn.Allah created 3 species-angels -made of light, jinn-made of smokeless fire and man-made of dirt.


Angels are incapable of disobeying God .However,mankind and the jinn were given free will and Ibless was one of these latter. The Quran does not give a description of the Devil but I have read hadith in which Ibless has taken different forms of people.





The horns and tail bit is from Western Church traditions.
Reply:Just a bunch of mythologically creatures and things like demons and stuff...why are there horse with horns and why are they called unicorns, why is there a tooth fairy, somethings have just been told a way for so long, you just cant change it
Reply:The devil does not look anything like that.


This image of him was taken from old religions, these %26quot;Horned Ones%26quot; were different horned deities and the Christians took them and created the devil. Research the ancient Israeli Christian, Jewish or Muslim depiction of Satan and it will not describe these features.
Reply:In my dreams he was a white surfer guy with spikey hair go figure that.
Reply:according to the website i found, the description of the Devil, or Lucifer, that we%26#039;re used to seeing is not really Biblical. it%26#039;s more closer to describe %26quot;Pan%26quot; of Greek mythology. In the Book of Ezekiel, Lucifer was %26quot;of perfect beauty%26quot; before he sinned. He was covered in every precious stone, wearing pendants of jewels. When he sinned, he nature changed, as well as his physical appearance.





if you want to learn more, you should really check my source. it explained a lot.
Reply:That particular image of Satan is mostly based on the early renaissance artists rendition of the devil which has been altered quite a lot since that time. I believe these artists got their vision and inspiration from the vivid descriptions and visions in the Bible, especially from the book of Revelation. The images of Devils and Demons in Hell torturing wicked souls was a way for the church to instill the horror and fear of a damned eternity to believers and non believers alike.Satan has been described in many forms, from a serpent, to a dragon, to a fallen angel of light, to a musical instrument. He is a deceiver and can take many shapes and forms. It%26#039;s all up to interpretation for we do not know Satan%26#039;s true form.



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