The Face of Evil

I'm reading a book about a guy who becomes a devil.  It's Horns, by Joe Hill (who's really  Stephen King's son).
   In reading it, I starting mentally cataloguing all the things that people think of when they think of the devil, which things do not in any way come from the bible (which means they're coming from somewhere else and then getting blamed on the bible).  Assuming that the bible would be one's "go-to book" to even know about the devil (being a character first referred to in there), if we are going to think about him (as a real or fictional character) in terms of his depiction in the bible, we would need to think about him without thinking of any of the following:

-a goatee, and goat feet
-a tail
-red skin
-a pitchfork
-horns
-being in Hell right now, let alone ruling it in any way
-wanting people's souls
-punishing sinners

Because not one of those things is in there in any shape or form.  And what does that leave, exactly? As with most things biblical, I realized that everything the bible ever said on the subject has been completely replaced by other stuff from stupid little cartoons and silly crap from John Milton and Dante Alighieri and then that being bastardized on Star Trek, and then people looking at that pile of patently silly stuff and saying "That's silly!  How could anyone see any validity in thinking along those lines?  Further evidence that there is nothing of validity in the whole book!"  Clearly the writers of the bible would agree, as they didn't talk about evil in those terms either.

In fact, what that impish creature seems to resemble most is a satyr or faun from Greek mythology (and the gods Pan and Baccus, as well.)  So, just the typical thing of making the personification of evil nothing more than a thinly-veiled, revisionist smearing of the Puritan-annoying embodiments of celebration of wine, women and song, of celebration itself.  Again.  The bible has a bunch of stuff about the virtues and value of wine, celebration, sex and song.  The whole "androgynousedly sexless, effete angels squaring off effeminately against the sneering, funny, witty, horny devils" thing is such a Puritans vs. Partyers thing, and nothing to do with the bible at all.  It's about people who wanted to stamp out all partying, with a special focus upon alcohol. In the bible, the devil doesn't have any tunes at all, let alone the best ones.  The bible has song lyrics in it. And poetry.  An entire book of erotic poetry, in fact.

  So, celebration is bad, right?  And alcohol in particular?  Yet in the bible, alcohol doesn't represent evil.  It represents celebration, which is an (in fact "the only") appropriate response to joyful occasions such as weddings and things.  It isn't evil to celebrate something.  Evil in the bible isn't about partying or celebration.  It is about the opposite of celebration, in fact.  It's about addiction, betrayal, exploitation, faithlessness and despair.  Evil doesn't collect souls to punish for their sinning.  It eats entire lives.  Makes sure every good thing is wasted, squandered, traded or mixed in with shit.  I can think along those lines. In my experience, that's what evil's like, alright.  In my experience, evil doesn't have horns.  In my life, it wears a tie and is always having meetings, selling something you can't touch with your finger, spin-doctoring truth and spouting unintelligible business jargon.  In fact, in my life, evil has always looked a bit more like this: