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[Andy Balholm]

On Jul 27, 2010, at 9:02 AM, Kruppa, Peter Ulrich wrote:

> Am 27.07.2010 17:23, schrieb Andy Balholm:
>> Chad Perrin wrote:
>>   
>>> Andy Balholm wrote:
>>>     
>>>> although the UNIX term "daemon" is not satanic in origin, some aspects
>>>> of Beastie's appearance are obviously derived from traditional
>>>> depictions of the Devil.
>>>>       
>>> Really?  Are you sure they weren't derived from something else -- perhaps
>>> a source in common for the "traditional" depictions of the devil?  There
>>> may be a common source for both, rather than one being the source of the
>>> other.  Correlation does not imply causation.  Did you ask the original
>>> Beastie artist for confirmation that he was consciously emulating images
>>> of the Christian devil, or did you just jump to a conclusion like the OP?
>>>     
>> I jumped to a conclusion, but I'll stand by it until someone shows me the ancient common source. I don't recall anything that looks much like Beastie in Greek art.
>>   
> Perhaps there are some ancient depictions/sculptures of the greek god Pan (god of the shepherds) around? Pan partially resembles a goat.

The BSD daemon doesn't look like a goat (or Pan) at all. Maybe he has cloven hooves inside those tennis shoes; I don't know. But Pan could certainly have had some influence on how the Devil was traditionally drawn.

My point wasn't that there is no earlier source that traditional depictions of the Devil draw on. They aren't based on anything in the Bible, so it seems quite likely that there is. I was just saying that the BSD daemon is not derived from that ancient source _independently_; its immediate source is almost certainly the traditional depictions of demons.

Andy Balholm
(509) 276-2065
andy at balholm.com