He is very old and he comes from far away. Probably of Iranian origins (Ahriman, ruler in the dominion of darkness), he appears in the Bible as Satan, God's antagonist, seducer and liar. He has had many names—Beelzebub, Abaddon, Diabolos, Lucifer, Deoful—down to the English Devil. He has had a lot to put up with in his long history—the leering intimacies of hysterical witches, the cold hatred of inquisitors, the feverish fantasies of romantic poets, and, last but not least, the supercilious mockery of enlightened intellectuals.