Medieval representations of the devil show a remarkably great variety and cannot be traced back to one single model or source. Also, there is no single definite type. Devils maybe human-sized, giant or tiny, sometimes impish or goat-faced. They may have horns, long or trunk-like noses, bat wings, and long or short tails. Their limbs may be saw-like or jagged with spurs, their fingers claw-like, and their legs usually resemble those of birds, sometimes those of humans, and less ofen they may be hoofed. Devils may be blue, black, grey, red, or even white, but their color always differs from that of the humans appearing in the same picture. The image of the hoofed devil, the most widespread representation today, occurs very rarely in medieval representations. The highly variegated medieval appearances of the devil were replaced by more uniform representations only in the seventeenth century.

“It is absolutely necessary, for the peace and safety of mankind, that some of earth’s dark, dead corners and unplumbed depths be let alone; lest sleeping abnormalities wake to resurgent life, and blasphemously surviving nightmares squirm and splash out of their black lairs to newer and wider conquests.”