Probably, each of us has heard about some person - disgusting, terrible, doing vile deeds, it was said that he is a fiend. Sometimes even desperate parents call their naughty child such words, although this is probably too much. Why do we say so? Where did this expression come from?
Demons
Fiend of hell - this phraseological unit, of course, is of religious origin. The first word in it comes from the Old Slavonic language. A fiend is, simply put, a child. And we are talking about a bad, bad and naughty child. Dahl's explanatory dictionary makes us understand that this word was most often used in a reproachful sense. Its closest synonym is "geek". Ideas about hell have deep roots not even in Christianity, but in even more ancient religions. This is not only and not so much a place of punishment in folk mythology, but a place of residence for terrible and disgusting creatures - demons and Satan. Those who were once angels but rebelled againstGod. Thus, they lost their nature and became inhabitants of the underworld. Now each of them is a fiend.
Why are they called that?
The underworld was often depicted in church art as an all-devouring maw. However, she not only swallows sinners, she also throws out her inhabitants. Those disperse over the earth to multiply crimes, to seduce people. Thus, the gates of hell also give rise to evil. Therefore, a person who becomes not just a sinner, but a terrible criminal - a bloodthirsty killer, a liar, a sadist, and so on, is called a "fiend of hell." Thus, in this word, the opinion is hidden that the true place of residence of such a person is the underworld, and there he is dear.
Abaddon
A demon with that name is the most famous "hell fiend" in mythology and religious studies. He was present in Judaism, and the word itself means "destruction" or "decay." Christian texts have turned him into a personified being called the "Destroyer" or "Angel of the Abyss". It leads hordes of locusts into battle and commands the demonic spirits released to roam free until the Second Coming of Christ. This image was very much to the taste of writers - from romantics to science fiction writers. A fallen angel who can repent, a demon of war and punishment, a close associate of the Dark Lord - this is not yet a complete list of Abaddon's incarnations.
Portable
As usual, in common parlance it isthe expression has lost its religious meaning, leaving a moral connotation. Who are the fiends in our modern language? Quite often, this is how political opponents are called, attributing to them all unimaginable bad qualities. This is one of the signs of information warfare and dehumanization of the enemy. Quite often, such vocabulary is used during ethnic cleansing, when the Hutus called the Tutsis "hell fiends" and, conversely, justified the genocide of their enemies. In the modern post-Soviet space, the analogues of this phraseological unit are those phrases in which everyone puts their own meaning. However, historically, the transfer of the meaning of "geeks from the underworld" from mythological creatures to very real people and even their groups began to occur in Europe in the Middle Ages. It was then that people who did not think the way the church authorities ordered were called heretics, and even "fiends of hell", trying to prove their connection with infernal beings. As a rule, such an attitude towards people leads to violence and human casu alties. So it's better not to call anyone that way. Even those whom we consider terrible and incorrigible. After all, bad people still have a human heart.
