''La Fin de Satan'' ("The End of Satan", 1886) is a long religious epic by

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

, of which 5,700 lines were written between 1854 and 1862, but left unfinished and published after his death. When it was rejected by his publisher in 1857, Hugo tried to integrate it into ''Petites Epopées'' (later ''

La Légende des siècles ''La Légende des siècles'' (English: ''The Legend of the Ages'') is a collection of poems by Victor Hugo, conceived as an immense depiction of the history and evolution of humanity. Written intermittently between 1855 and 1876 while Hugo worked ...

''), eventually announcing that it would form a companion work, along with '' Dieu''. His intention, apparently, was to invest the

storming of the Bastille The Storming of the Bastille (french: Prise de la Bastille ) occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, when revolutionary insurgents stormed and seized control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille. At ...

with a religious significance; after making various efforts, he ceased work on it in 1862 and returned to novels. There are many gaps large and small.

Argument

Satan is defeated and thrown into the Abyss ("Depuis quatre mille ans il tombait dans l'abîme"), but Evil is communicated to Man through the agency of

Lilith Lilith ( ; he, לִילִית, Līlīṯ) is a female figure in Mesopotamian and Judaic mythology, alternatively the first wife of Adam and supposedly the primordial she-demon. Lilith is cited as having been "banished" from the Garden of Ed ...

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

. She provides three weapons with which Cain murders

Abel Abel ''Hábel''; ar, هابيل, Hābīl is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He was the younger brother of Cain, and the younger son of Adam and Eve, the first couple in Biblical history. He was a shepherd ...

: The Bronze will become a gauntlet, symbol of War; the Wood will become a gibbet, or crucifix, symbol of Execution; and the Stone will become a prison, symbol of Oppression. This preface is followed by three books, interleaved with otherworldly episodes. Book the First tells the story of

Nimrod Nimrod (; ; arc, ܢܡܪܘܕ; ar, نُمْرُود, Numrūd) is a biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush and therefore a great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of ...

, a powerful and monstrous king of

Judaea Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous so ...

. Wandering the Earth, which he has fully dominated and laid waste, he decides to conquer the heavens. For this purpose, he builds a cage and attaches four giant eagles to it, with the meat of dead lions above their heads to draw them upward. With his servant, the eunuch, Nimrod releases the cage from its tethers, and the eagles start towards the heavens. After a journey of one year, moving continuously upwards and finding only an immense blue, Nimrod shoots an arrow into the infinite, and is thrown back to Earth. Book the Second describes the life and death of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

. It emphasises the evil of human beings. In "Tenebres" (II:XXI),

Barabbas Barabbas (; ) was, according to the New Testament, a prisoner who was chosen over Jesus by the crowd in Jerusalem to be pardoned and released by Roman governor Pontius Pilate at the Passover feast. Biblical account According to all four canoni ...

curses this impure world which liberated him instead of Christ, and claims that we would have chosen to die if offered the choice. Book the Third is about the storming of the Bastille. (Almost nothing in this book was completed.)

Structure

* Hors de la Terre ("Beyond Earth"), I * La Première Page * Livre Première: Le

Glaive A glaive (or glave) is a European polearm, consisting of a single-edged blade on the end of a pole. It is similar to the Japanese naginata, the Chinese guandao, the Korean woldo, and the Russian sovnya. Overview Typically, the blade is arou ...

* Hors de la Terre, II * Livre Deuxième: Le Gibet ("The Gallows") ** La Judée ("Judea") ** Jésus-Christ ** Le Crucifix * Hors de la Terre, III ** Satan dans la Nuit ("Satan at Night") ** L'Ange Liberté ("The Angel of Liberty") * Livre Troisième: La Prison * Hors de la Terre, IV

Notes

External links

''La Fin de Satan'' - French text online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fin de Satan Poetry by Victor Hugo 1886 poems Fiction about the Devil Depictions of Jesus in literature Isis Lilith Nimrod Poems published posthumously Unfinished poems