230. Evil (See also Demon, Devil, Villainy, Wickedness.)

1. Ahriman represents principle of wickedness; will one day perish. [Persian Myth.: LLEI, I: 322; Zoroastrianism: Benét, 16]
2. Alberich’s curse on the Rhinegold ring: possessor will die. [Ger. Opera: Wagner, Rhinegold, Westerman, 233]
3. Apaches name given to Parisian gangsters. [Fr. Hist.: Payton, 31]
4. Apollyon demon, personification of evil, vanquished by Christian’s wholesomeness. [Br. Lit.: Pilgrim’s Progress ]
5. Archimago enchanter epitomizing wickedness. [Br. Lit.: Faerie Queene ]
6. Ate goddess of wickedness, mischief, and infatuation. [Gk. Myth.: Parrinder, 32]
7. Avidyā cause of suffering through desire. [Hindu Phil.: Parrinder, 36]
8. Badman, Mr. from childhood to death, has committed every sin. [Br. Lit.: Bunyan The Life and Death of Mr. Badman in Magill III, 575]
9. black symbol of sin and badness. [Color Symbolism: Jobes, 357]
10. black dog symbol of the devil. [Rom. Folklore: Brewer Dictionary, 329]
11. black heart symbol of a scoundrel. [Folklore: Jobes, 223]
12. black poodle a transformation of Mephistopheles. [Ger. Lit.: Faust ]
13. crocodile epitome of power of evil. [Medieval Animal Symbolism: White, 8–10]
14. darkness traditional association with evil in many dualistic religions. [Folklore: Cirlot, 76–77]
15. Darth Vader fallen Jedi Knight has turned to evil. [Am. Cinema: Star Wars ]
16. dragon archetypal symbol of Satan and wickedness. [Christian Symbolism: Appleton, 34]
17. Drug principle of evil. [Zoroastrianism: Leach, 325]
18. Gestapo Nazi secret police. [Ger. Hist.: Hitler, 453]
19. Golden Calf Mephisto’s cynical and demoniacal tarantella. [Fr. Opera: Gounod, Faust, Westerman, 187]
20. Iago declaims “I believe in a cruel god.” [Br. Lit.: Othello ; Ital. Opera: Verdi, Otello ; Westerman, 329]
21. John, Don plots against Claudio. [Br. Lit.: Much Ado About Nothing ]
22. Klingsor enemy of Grail knights. [Ger. Opera: Wagner, Parsifal, Westerman, 248]
23. Kurtz, Mr. white trader in Africa, debased by savage natives into horrible practices. [Br. Lit.: Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness in Magill III, 447]
24. lobelia traditional symbol of evil. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 175]
25. Loki god of fire, evil, and strife who contrived the death of Balder. [Scand. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 560]
26. Mephistopheles the cynical, malicious devil to whom Faust sells his soul. [Ger. Lit.: Faust, Payton, 436]
27. Miles and Flora apparently sweet children assume wicked miens mysteriously. [Am. Lit.: The Turn of the Screw ]
28. Monterone after humiliation, curses both Duke and Rigoletto. [Ital. Opera: Verdi, Rigoletto, Westerman, 299]
29. o’Nell, Peg wicked spirit claiming victim every seven years. [Br. Folklore: Briggs, 323]
30. Pandora’s box contained all evils; opened up, evils escape to afflict world. [Rom. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 799]
31. Popeye degenerate gangster and murderer who rapes Temple Drake. [Am. Lit.: Sanctuary ]
32. Powler, Peg wicked water-demon; lures children to death. [Br. Folklore: Briggs, 323–324]
33. Queen of the Night urges the murder of Sarastro, her husband, by their daughter. [Ger. Opera: Mozart The Magic Flute in Benét, 619]
34. Quint, Peter dead manservant who haunts James’s story. [Am. Lit.: Turn of the Screw ]
35. Rasputin immoral person of tremendous power and seeming invulnerability. [Russ. Hist.: Espy, 339–340]
36. Satan the chief evil spirit; the great adversary of man. [Christianity and Judaism: Misc.]
37. Vandals East German people known for their wanton destruction (533). [Ger. Hist.: Payton, 705]
38. Wicked Witch of the West the terror of Oz. [Am. Lit.: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ]
39. Wolf’s Glen scene of macabre uproar. [Ger. Opera: von Weber, Der Freischütz, Westerman, 139–140]

evil evil communications corrupt good manners proper conduct is harmfully influenced by false information or knowledge; the saying is also used to assert the deleterious effect of bad example. The saying is recorded from the early 15th century. Often with biblical allusion to 1 Corinthians 35:33, ‘Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.’
evil doers are evil dreaders someone engaged in wrongdoing is likely to be nervous and suspicious of others. The saying is recorded from the mid 16th century.
the Evil Empire a term for the former Soviet Union, deriving from a speech by Ronald Reagan in 1983. The name is often used allusively of a political approach focusing exclusively on the perceived dangers from a particular direction.
the evil eye a gaze or stare superstitiously believed to cause material harm; the expression in this sense is recorded from the late 18th century.
evil to him who evil thinks the person placing a disgraceful interpretation on words or actions is likely to bring ill upon himself. A saying, recorded from the mid 15th century, which in its French form honi soit qui mal y pense is the motto of the Order of the Garter.
never do evil that good may come of it the prospect of a good outcome cannot justify wrongdoing; often with biblical allusion to Romans 3:8, ‘And not…Let us do evil, that good may come.’ (Compare the end justifies the means.) The saying is recorded from the late 16th century.
of two evils, choose the least a statement of what to do when none of the possible course of actions is palatable. The saying is recorded from the late 14th century, but the idea is found earlier in Greek, in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, ‘we must as a second-best course, it is said, take the least of the evils,’ and Latin, in Cicero's De Officiis, ‘of evils choose the least.’

See also axis of evil, a great book is a great evil, money is the root of all evil.

evil Bad situations, usually involving pain and suffering, attributed to disobedience to God's will, or to natural calamities. Much of the Bible is about the cause, nature, and consequences of sin, and God's reaction to it. Evil began according to the myth in Genesis in an act of calculated rebellion against God and it continued wherever the human race acted in conflict with the will of God. As a result by way of punishment God sent evil disasters (Jer. 26: 19; Amos 3: 6). He is responsible both for good and for evil (Ps. 78: 49), though fundamentally God's creation is good (Gen. 1: 32) and his intention to do good (Jer. 18: 8) is only frustrated by human sin (Jer. 18: 10).

However, the power of evil came to be seen as concentrated in particular beings within a system and controlled by a leader, sometimes called Satan. These rebels against God were bent on defying his will and could even take over the lives of people by ‘possession’. Evil is also to be found in the human will (Mark 7: 20–2) and may manifest itself in overwhelming desire for money (1 Tim. 6: 10). The tendency to evil is recognized as fundamental in the human scene and is given various explanations in addition to that of Gen. 3 (and accepted by Ben Sirach and other rabbinic authorities, Ecclus. [= Sir.] 25: 24). By some, it was attributed to the machinations of Satan; by others among the rabbis to an evil impulse or inclination located within each human being. The evil erupts in people in the form of specific deeds, thoughts, and diseases, and Jesus attacked the whole apparatus by his healings and exorcisms and by words of forgiveness. Evils continue within the Church (Rom. 7: 15) and suffering too, but they can be turned to good by God, as, in Christian belief, did the great evil of the Cross. At the End there will be a total destruction of all that is evil (Matt. 25: 41; 2 Thess. 2: 8; Rev. 19: 20–1).

evil. Buddhism has no concept of evil as a cosmic force or objective reality. The nearest it comes to this is the mythological figure of Māra, the Buddhist ‘devil’. However, it has much to say about evil in the sense of human suffering (duḥkha), and these teachings are set out in the First Noble Truth (see Four Noble Truths). Buddhism recognized that human experience inevitably contains much that is painful, such as sickness and death, and that human beings are exposed to many natural evils such as floods, fires, earthquakes, and the like. Alongside these there is also the category of moral evil, which is analysed into various vices known as defilements (kleśa). The most fundamental of these are the three roots of evil (akuśala-mūla), namely greed (rāga), hatred (dveṣa), and delusion (moha). The so-called ‘problem of evil’ which afflicts theistic religions is not so acute in Buddhism since many (but not all) of life's misfortunes can be explained by the doctrine of karma.

evil antithesis of good. The philosophical problem of evil is most simply stated in the question, why does evil exist in the world? Death, disease, and sin are often included in the problem. Traditional Christian belief ascribes evil to the misdeeds of humans, to whom God has granted free will . The Christian systems that believe in predestination and justification by faith claim, like their Christian opponents, that God is still not the author of the evil men do. One explanation of evil is dualism , as in Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism . In optimism evil is treated often as more apparent than real. The book of Job is a literary treatment of the problem.

Bibliography: See R. Taylor, Good and Evil (1970); F. Sontag, The God of Evil (1970); R. Stivers, Evil in Modern Myth and Ritual (1982); D. Parkin, ed., The Anthropology of Evil (1987).

Evil. The furthest reach of wrongdoing and wrong being. Although Kant maintained that the only evil thing is an evil will, there is much in human experience which evokes the word which is not a product of the will. Indeed, Hannah Arendt, observing the Eichmann trial, spoke of the banality of evil, lying as it does so far outside the compass of will, and being ‘excused’ by the appeal that, in a totalitarian regime, to obey orders and not to think is the only behaviour possible. Religions tend to see the occurrence of evil as the consequence of personal agency in the cosmic order (personified as Satan, the Devil or Iblīs, Māra, etc.), which if made absolute leads to dualism, an eternal principle of evil; and in either case, religions offer resources both to recognize and combat evil.

See also THEODICY; EVIL, PROBLEM OF.

e·vil / ˈēvəl/ • adj. profoundly immoral and malevolent: his evil deeds. ∎  (of something seen or smelled) extremely unpleasant: a bathroom with an evil smell. • n. profound immorality, wickedness, and depravity, esp. when regarded as a supernatural force: good and evil in eternal opposition. PHRASES: the evil eye a gaze or stare superstitiously believed to cause material harm: he gave me the evil eye as I walked down the corridor. the Evil One archaic the Devil. speak evil of slander: it is a sin to speak evil of the king.DERIVATIVES: e·vil·ly / ˈēvəl(l)ē/ adv. e·vil·ness n.

146. Evil

See also 103. CRIME ; 117. DEVIL ; 367. SIN .

invultuation

a form of witchcraft involving melting a wax image of the intended victim or, in voodoo, sticking it with pins.

malism

the belief that the world is essentially bad or evil.

ponerology

the branch of theology that studies sin and evil.

evil adj. and sb. OE. yfel = OS. ubil, MDu. evel (Du. euvel), OHG. ubil (G. übel), Goth. ubils :- Gmc. *ubilaz, prob. f. IE. base *up- (see OVER), the primary sense being ‘exceeding due limits’.
So evil adv., OE. yfle; survives in literary use in speak evil (of), evil-disposed, and the like.

Evil

See Evil and Suffering; Theodicy

evil •Ethel • lethal • brothel • betrothal •Cavell, cavil, gavel, gravel, ravel, travel •Havel, larval, marvel, Marvell, rondavel •bedevil, bevel, devil, dishevel, kevel, level, revel, split-level •daredevil • she-devil • eye level •naval, navel •coeval, evil, Khedival, medieval, primeval, retrieval, shrieval, upheaval •civil, drivel, shrivel, snivel, swivel •carnival • Percival • perspectival •festival • aestival (US estival) •adjectival, arrival, deprival, genitival, imperatival, infinitival, outrival, relatival, revival, rival, substantival, survival •archival •grovel, hovel, novel •oval •approval, removal •Lovell, shovel •interval • serval • narwhal •coequal, equal, prequel, sequel •bilingual, lingual, monolingual, multilingual •rorqual • Hywel •Daniel, spaniel