What's with all the temptations, Dungeon Meshi Maniacs? Seems like you can't turn around these days without some talking animal offering to make your dreams come true. Is it because we were talking demons last week? Is the old saying true, "He who studies evil gets accosted by talking animals 24/7"? Having a possum tempt me with the Infinite Egg Sandos is just the price I'm going to have to pay in order to bring you quality blogging it seems because we are talking demons again this week! Not the sexy sex succubi that we covered a few weeks ago. No, something else that's been bothering me. The demon that tempted Cap'n took the form of a goat. Why, in Western culture, are goats the G.O.A.T. image for all things demonic? Reheat some Barometz Soup and get ready for a frustrating dive through myth!
I say frustrating, DMMs, because there isn't a great answer as to how all things Westernly demonic became horned. Checking a couple sources gave some insight but none were all the definite. It's still worth talking about since I love goats! I shared a picture of one I met recently didn't I? Oh who cares! Here he is again!
Cute, eats weeds, climbs trees and stares at me while I'm running a race at 3 AM. What's not to love? Needless to say I'm not thrilled that get saddled with evil! That's all the excuse I need to find out where this goat slander or golander comes from. Let's start with biggest culprit, the Greek god Pan!
Okay, I can see where people are coming from. Goat legs, horns, devil beard, annoying flute. These are all things we think of when we think the devil. Case closed, right? I gotta say I'm not buying it, DMMs. Sure, Pan walks the goat walk but evil? Hardly. The guy was a god of the hunt and fertility! Mostly that second party as a lot of his statues are well endowed. The Greeks that worshiped Pan didn't even build temples to the guy. He was worshiped in caves and in the field. Pretty down to Earth for a god. Pan also did something that very few gods have ever done. He died. I'm not kidding, DMMs. Pan is a god whose own story ends with his death. Not the type I'd tie to evil. Also, how many Pan worshipers could there have been by the time Christianity came around? Wouldn't it more likely be the Roman version, Faunus?
Of course, Faunus is missing both the goat legs and horns that Pan had. Pan's a no go for me, DMMs. You may confuse him for the devil in a line-up but they couldn't be more different. If Pan's out then where can we turn next? If we are looking for why goats are evil in the West why not go to the source? The Bible! It's not just a heavy book that elders will throw at you if you speak out during church. It's also full of interesting stories! The one we are looking at is from the book of Matthew also made famous by not at all tedious musicals from the 70's!
It's always dangerous to paraphrase the Bible, DMMs, but let's get dangerous! Matthew 25:31-46 is where Jesus tells his followers how the people of the world will be separated into two groups and judged. Like a shepherd separating his flock the sheep will go on the right, the goats on the left. The sheep will be the people who tried to be good to their neighbors during life while the goats are the jerks who ignored how much their neighbors suffered. So if you're a nut who reads the Bible literally you could claim that Jesus is actually saying goats are evil. Just going to stop this one right here, DMMs. This is a dead end and don't listen to anyone who claims otherwise. They are likely to have many MANY other retrograde ideas. Also, it seems if you were going to take an animal from the Bible to be the evil symbol there's a more obvious one in the first couple of pages.
Before we go on from the Bible there is another possibility that involves a famous person from the Bible but isn't a story you can find there. King Solomon and his pet demon, Asmodeus! This is some very out there religious lore, DMM's, so I have to be even more careful. There are some texts that say King Solomon had a signet ring that allowed him to control the demon Asmodeus and that King Solomon used Asmodeus to help in the construction of the first temple. Huge if true! Why bring up Asmodeus? It is a demon and a king of demons at that. Pretty good candidate for where our goat imagery starts, right? I can see where some could make that claim but one look at the guy puts that theory to bed.
Yes, there is a goat head there but there's also a cow, a human, and a dragon/bull thing? I guess over time you could say the other faces were dropped and we are only left with the goat. Why the goat and not the cool dragon/bull? Even the giant human face is scarier than a goat. I do love how inventive old drawings of demons were, however. Just draw whatever you want!
At the end of the day the best reasoning I could find is the goat image came about in the Spiritualism movement of the late 1800's. They just pulled the evil goat image out of their imagination. Cue Aleister Crowley and the image stuck. I get it to an extent. Goats look weird and a man with a goat head is even weirder. It's not a satisfying answer but it's the best I could find, DMMs! Sometimes research digs end with a disappointing answer. Still, it was a fun side trip! I'm still a fan of all things goat and it's neat to see how the goat has been part of mythology since the beginning! That's it for this week but trust me you won't want to miss next week. I think this dish may be the most decadent (and expensive) that we've made so far! Be sure to run, don't walk!
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