“He knows his way in the dark
Mine is the way of the Lord
And those who follow the path of the righteous
Shall have their reward
And if they fall
As Lucifer fell
The flame
The sword.”
LeMiserables
How did the Lord of Demons emerge and make his way from Babylon and the Bible to Broadway? Through a lot of mistranslations of a single and curious verse in today’s chapter.
The prophet Isaiah’s powerful rebuke of the arrogant and power-hungry King of Babylon would become one of the most fascinating mythic representations of evil and the eventual downfall of all powers - human, and beyond.
Here’s how it starts. Isaiah dedicates a second chapter to dark visions of the future - Babylon, the empire swallowing up the world will topple one day. Several verses in his vision target the King of Babylon - a human guilty of leading his nation in horrific crimes and cruel conquests. But not for long - this king, too, will fall:
אֵ֛יךְ נָפַ֥לְתָּ מִשָּׁמַ֖יִם הֵילֵ֣ל בֶּן־שָׁ֑חַר נִגְדַּ֣עְתָּ לָאָ֔רֶץ חוֹלֵ֖שׁ עַל־גּוֹיִֽם׃
How are you fallen from heaven,
O Shining One, son of Dawn!
How are you felled to earth,
O vanquisher of nations!
Isaiah 14:12
Who is Hilal Ben Shachar - the shining one, son of dawn who fell to earth?
From the context, Isaiah’s words are clearly directed at the king of Babylon, whose time has come. In previous verses the other kings whom he killed are mocking him from the underworld, seeing him join them in disgrace.
Some suggest that he’s referring to Sargon, the Assyrian king responsible for the exile of the ten tribes who later dies in battle but his body is never found. Isaiah would have known this story well and likely not looked at this fallen king too kindly.
But the image of the fallen one connected to the morning stars also echo Canaanite mythology, and a lost story about a minor god who tried to take over Zaphon, the mountain of the gods. His attempted coup failed and he was hurled down to the underworld.
Is Isaiah taunting the king of Babylon or Assyria with this mythic memory as metaphor for his own future fall?
There are references that this fallen god or angel is connected - or transformed into - Venus - the Morningstar. Medieval commentaries thus name this fallen one - the bringer of light, or Morningstar - basing it on the the Greek translation that uses ‘Phosphorus’ to indicate the fallen king. It’s getting more sinister in the 5th century CE Christian translation into Latin, the Vulgate, where he’s already known as Lucifer. By the time the King James version is printed he’s known as “Lucifer, son of the Morning.” And often identified as Satan - exiled from heaven for failed rebellion and since then lord of the underworld. Dante and Milton are two of the many classical mythologists who’ve taken this story further. One interesting note is that in the original Ugaritihic myth, Dawn - or Shachar is the God of Sunrise, and his son Hilal is the morning star. But there’s another god - Shalem, the God of Sunset, who also, on some nights, has a son by the name of Hilal who shines bright as night begins.
Isaiah’s city, Jerusalem, may have been named for Shalem - that ancient forgotten god who brings on the night and darkness. So what does Isaiah mean when he’s referencing the old and maybe not forgotten layers of what or who is on the threshold between day and night, light and darkness, heaven or hell?
“Howl, O gate; cry out, O city" laments Isaiah as he sees the visions of the future, the great day of revenge as the tyrants topple and the destroyers are destroyed.
Beyond Babylon and Broadway, how does Lucifer end up in the City of Angels? It’s just one more complicated and fantastic twist in the ongoing and apocalyptic mythic plot that perhaps even Isaiah would have enjoyed.
“Like Watchmen in the Night”
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This is a really interesting mapping of a myth.