'I am called the spirit of lust'
Many stories about Saint Anthony’s temptation and torture by Satan were recorded in a biography written in Greek around 360 AD by Athanasius of Alexandria. In one quotable passage, the tempter tells the saint: "I am called the spirit of lust. How many have I deceived who wished to live soberly, how many are the chaste whom by my incitements I have over-persuaded! I am he on account of whom also the prophet reproves those who have fallen, saying Hosea 4:12, You have been caused to err by the spirit of whoredom. For by me they have been tripped up. I am he who have so often troubled you.”
The images are details from a 1950 painting by William Roberts from the Tate Collection.














