[...] It is therefore natural that, with the sole exception of women, no other creature in the history of civilization has stimulated the imagination of artists as much as the Devil. The incarnate Evil takes many different forms: it becomes a snake, a frog, an ancient deity, a monster, or a mythical animal. However, the most prevalent form of it was born in the 12th century: a humanoid and hairy creature, with pointed ears and goat or horse legs. The horns and the long tail are the necessary complement.

Giotto, Bosch, and Botticelli endowed their demons with bat wings, which come from Chinese paintings with the technique of Li Long Mien scrolls. However, the horns and the goat feet of Satan clearly have Mediterranean origins: Pan, Dionysus, and the satyrs had the same distinctive features, which in turn were borrowed from Paleolithic deities. [...]