Image Details

Giraudon/Art Resource, NY

Lucifer, the tortured ruler of hell, wears a crown but perpetually burns on a grill, in this illumination from the French manuscript Les Très Riches Heures, painted by the Limbourg brothers in the 15th century. Lost souls are dragged in by lesser demons; others fall in a continuous stream into Satan’s mouth.

This image of Lucifer comes from early Christian translations of Isaiah 14:12–15. Author Ronald Youngblood explains that the Hebrew term helel, mistranslated as Lucifer, means “morning star” and is simply a metaphor for the Babylonian king described in the preceding and subsequent verses. Modern English translations almost all translate the text of Isaiah in this way and not as Lucifer.