Lex Luthor: A Demonic Role
(Here it is, as promised!! It got VERY long but I think Tumblr cuts off posts now... if not I’lll edit in a read more (it’s nearly midnight and I didn’t proofread this so hopefully it is ok and at least a little insightful/interesting:)
So as promised– my Lex Luthor and demons post!! This might go along with @catie-does-things Clark as a saint post from years ago that is still excellent (I am now also considering Clark as a St Michael specifically and in contrast to Lex but that needs more exploration)
Anyway I was listening to this specific episode of the podcast The Lord of Spirits, where two Orthodox priests discuss…. spirits. As a general disclaimer I am not Orthodox. I am not even an Eastern Catholic, I am just a humble Roman and a Modern American laywoman at that. So that perspective colors my approach here a bit. As another disclaimer is that I did not re-listen to the podcast and it’s been about a week since I first listened– I did, however find the transcript and am referencing, likely quoting it– it can be found here, along with the show. I am also not an expert on ancient near-East cultures and so if my language is not precise, please forgive me.
To summarize the episode (and I guess the podcast as a whole), they are discussing how we encounter the spiritual in the physical world, and that our term of “angel” is not entirely specific as “angel” is a rank (messenger). As English speakers, we kind of dance around the idea that there are other “gods” because we think that means we are talking about polytheism. But the Hebrew does not and is pretty clear there is only one God worthy of worship even if there are these other spiritual beings, lower case gods. For ease of this post, I will use gods to refer to named pagan gods, and angels/demons to reference spiritual beings– however, note that pagan gods and demons (that is, a fallen angel in the English sense) are the same.
What does that have to do with Lex Luthor? I am getting there. This specific episode talks about pagans and pagan beliefs. Pagans were not dumb– they were experiencing the same spiritual reality that we are— but they were misguided and misled. Many of the demons who fell had been assigned to different natural phenomena or nations – the sun, the stars, storms, various nations or cities. They are supposed to direct worship to the only God worthy of worship– the Hebrew God, the actual Most High, but many began to accept the worship of humans and so this is part of their fall.
One point the podcast returns to is these succession myths– that is, across various cultures, there is usually a myth of a son of god (or at least a new god) overthrowing the previous high god– Zeus overthrowing Cronus, Cronus overthrowing his father are common ones we know but there are two Mesopotamian/babylonian ones involving Baal as well, who we know is a frequent player in the Bible. This is essentially demon propaganda– the demons remember are spiritual beings who rebelled against God by rejecting Him and refusing to serve Him– but they could not actually overthrow the actual Most High God, so they tell stories to the humans of how they wish it had gone. For some more in depth, here is a quote from the podcast:
Fr. Stephen: The first of these probably is what’s referred to, generally by scholars, in all of these stories together, is you find in pretty much every ancient culture some version of what’s called the succession myth, which is, bare bones, the idea that there was a—we talked before about how there was the idea of a council of gods and sort of a divine father-type god, and then a divine son who was the head of the council. We talked about how in Israel that was Yahweh in both cases, so you already have [this binary] built into ancient Israel religion. But the idea in most of the other cultures of the ancient world, pretty much universally, is that there was an original most high god, who was overthrown at least once by a later god who rose up from among the council, by one of his sons in the council, who overthrew him and took his place, that of the most high god.
So the most common—you mentioned Baal already—this happens with Baal. The Baal cycle is primarily the tale of Baal’s insurrection. This happens twice in Babylonian mythology. It happens twice in Greek mythology, as people may be aware, when Chronos castrates his father, Uranos or Uranus, and becomes most high god, and then Zeus later kills his father Chronos and takes his place. So there are actually two successions there, as well as in Babylonian mythology.
So you have this story of a rebellion, but in every case in these other nations, that rebellion was successful, and of course the version that we are going to see in the Old Testament in the Hebrew Scriptures is going to be inverted in that this insurrection is going to have failed.
Lex Luthor, of course, buys into this. He projects his hatred for his father– who used his power to abuse Lex– onto God– and then onto Superman. He is attempting the succession myth – “and now god bends to my will”-- it appears to work too– he might be in jail but by the end he’s “killed” a god, he’s won.
Another fall of the demons, however, is also giving humans knowledge and technology they are not ready for– the podcast doesn’t get super in depth about that (or if it did, it was the part where I was driving in a congested area and I missed some of it lol), but they did specifically address Prometheus from the Greeks and alluded to other Sumerien myths. It’s a bit of a long quote from the transcript, but I think it’s worthwhile:
There’s a narrative before the flood and then after the flood. Before the flood, that’s the time of the seven sages, the Apkallu, the first of which comes out of the sea, and as an Apkallu has one of these lesser gods who is advising him. Because of this advisor, the king is able to create astrology, magic, technology, all of these things, based on this knowledge that he’s given from these spirits.
The major figures in Cain’s line who are named, it talks about the technological innovations that they produced, which are weapons of war, all of these things. So this idea is, yes, these spirits gave technology to man, but it was not to benefit man; they were giving man technology that humanity wasn’t ready for, but for destroying themselves.
Fr. Andrew: Right, and this same story is played out in multiple other ancient mythologies. The one that probably most of our listeners are familiar with is Greek mythology, and you’ve got the story of Prometheus, who gives fire from the gods to mankind. But of course in that story, it’s depicted as Prometheus… It’s correct in the sense that Prometheus is sort of rebelling, he’s doing something he’s not supposed to be doing, but it’s presented as positive, like: look at this wonderful gift that he gave mankind.
But the problem, of course, is that, again, it’s propaganda. This is these demons saying, “Look at all these good things that we gave you. Why don’t you just go ahead and bow down and worship us?” … There’s this promise of being great, being smart, being beautiful, being popular, being wealthy, being prestigious—if only you would serve whatever it is that you are asked to serve. It’s a trick. As you said, it’s for their destruction. Notice whom this technology is given to; it’s given to Cain, the first murderer, and to his descendants.
But the problem, of course, is like, you look at this stuff, and you’re like: What’s so wrong with iron-working and with music? What’s wrong with that stuff?
Fr. Stephen: Right, and it gets expanded firstly in the book of Jubilees, to include all kinds of things in terms of pharmaceuticals and sorcery and means of seduction of the opposite sex. But even if we’re just talking about raw technology, again, it’s not that it’s evil any more than the tree of knowledge of good and evil is evil in and of itself, but it was wisdom for which humanity wasn’t ready to use it appropriately. So it comes to these men as: “I’m giving you this knowledge so that you can use it to gain power and to conquer your neighbors, to set yourself up as a king, to seduce members of the opposite sex, so you will have this power and wealth and authority,” and that’s what humanity uses it for.
From the pagan perspective, kingship and these kings are these glorious beings; from the perspective of Scripture, they are these wicked beings who are destroying themselves and each other and the world around them.
I bolded the parts that remind me of Lex in particular. We have talked before about how BvS, is, to an extent, entirely about power (“men with power obey neither policy nor principle” “that’s how it starts the the fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness that turns good men cruel” “knowledge without power is paradoxical” “do you know the oldest lie in the book, Senator? That power can be innocent – good luck,” “if God is all-good, he cannot be all powerful, if God is all powerful, He cannot be all good… and neither can you be”)
We see Lex is seeking power throughout the movie– he is projecting his rage at his father, who abused his power and authority over Lex, onto both God and Superman. Bruce, also, feels powerless against the violence enacted upon him, but that’s a separate post, we are focusing on Lex, who is attempting to re-gain power he feels he does not have. Interestingly, when he confronts Superman on the rooftop, he has the Advantage– he is the wealthy, authoritative one, wielding all the power and yet…. Still casting himself as a victim.
Anyway, back to the technology distribution – Lex specifically mentions Prometheus– I just watched this scene– he says “Prometheus went with us and he ruined Zeus’ plan to destroy mankind… and for that he was given a thunderbolt! Zoom! Seems unfair.” Diana rolls her eyes at this, but it’s an excellent throw-away line about Lex’s perception of both himself and the world– he is viewing himself as a Prometheus figure.
We know Lex is obsessed with power and knowledge– he has a weird breakdown over it at the Friends of the Metropolis Library speech immediately following his mention of Prometheus – “the bittersweet pain among men is having knowledge with no power because that is paradoxical”. – We also see Lex exploring technology he was not ready for – he tells Bruce ““My R and D is up to all sorts of no good” – which on the surface is bit of light hearted business Talk…but we, as the audience, know better. We know he is messing around with Kryptonite and with Zod’s body. We see him in the Genesis chamber, assuming command. The Genesis Chamber tells him it has knowledge from a hundred thousand different worlds and Lex says-- “good, teach me”. This concludes with him over-riding the chamber itself and participating in the creation of an abomination, an abomination he is warned against. He is using technology for his own gain, for his own power-- for evil-- he was not prepared for it and does not use it appropriately
(We have talked before about how doomsday also casts Lex in a Creator and Father role, once more casting of himself as a mythological high god.)
ANOTHER piece here– Lex messing around with alien technology, with things that were Beyond him and not made for him– at least not yet– leads him to contact with Darkseid. He knows Darkseid is coming – the bell can’t be unrung– and seems to be working in his service. Beyond that– he intends to distribute this technology –he wants to get an import license for the Kryptonite so we don’t have to rely on the kindness of strangers. Obviously he will still have control but… he allows Bruce to take the Kryptonite because he wants Bruce to have it. He intends for Bruce to have it… as part of his plan to take down a god.
So we have Lex actively casting himself both in a succession myth and as a benevolent, powerful being, providing technology to the simple folk (the way he says “kindness of strangers”-- the mocking of the Southern accent….). He is the type of man to enjoy a Good Narrative– his constant referencing of mythology and art and even his Lolita references– and so how he places himself as a god, not realizing he is only buying into propaganda, that he is orchestrating his own fall.
His complete rejection of good has invited the demonic into his life. He’s unleashed something he is incapable of controlling and in fact threatens him— not just Doomsday but an old god beyond his control (in an act of seeking power and control for himself). In casting himself as a god, he has only given himself the role of a fallen god– a demon, who has no more power and authority over God than he did as a man.
(There are similar ideas here also with Suicide Squad’s Enchantress – but that’s a different post.)
