Editing Lucifer (section)

== Planet Venus, Sumerian folklore, and fall from heaven motif ==
{{main|Venus in culture#Canaanite mythology}}
The [[Motif-Index of Folk-Literature#Terminology|motif]] of a heavenly being striving for the highest seat of [[heaven]] only to be cast down to the underworld has its origins in the motions of the planet [[Venus]], known as the morning star.

A similar theme is present in the [[Babylonia]]n myth of [[Etana]]. The ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' comments:
{{blockquote|The brilliancy of the morning star, which eclipses all other stars, but is not seen during the night, may easily have given rise to a myth such as was told of Ethana and [[Zu (mythology)|Zu]]: he was led by his pride to strive for the highest seat among the star-gods on the northern mountain of the gods [...] but was hurled down by the supreme ruler of the Babylonian Olympus.<ref name="Jewish">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10177-lucifer |title=Lucifer |encyclopedia=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |access-date=9 September 2013 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111171028/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10177-lucifer |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

The fall from heaven motif also has a parallel in [[Canaanite mythology]]. In ancient [[Canaanite religion]], the morning star is personified as the god [[Attar (god)|Attar]], who attempted to occupy the throne of [[Baal|Ba'al]] and, finding he was unable to do so, descended and ruled the [[underworld]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y-gfwlltlRwC|first=John|last=Day|title=Yahweh and the gods and goddesses of Canaan|publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group]]|location=London|date=2002|isbn=978-0-8264-6830-7|pages=172–173}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hj791_BeAF0C|first=Gregory A.|last=Boyd|title=God at War: The Bible & Spiritual Conflict|publisher=InterVarsity Press|date=1997|isbn=978-0-8308-1885-3|pages=159–160}}</ref> The original myth may have been about the lesser god Helel trying to dethrone the Canaanite high god [[El (deity)|El]], who lived on a mountain to the north.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ns4UAAAAIAAJ&q=Pope+%22El+in+the+Ugaritic+texts%22 |title=El in the Ugaritic Texts |access-date=22 December 2012|last1=Pope |first1=Marvin H. |author-link=Marvin H. Pope |year=1955}}</ref><ref name="GVS">{{cite book|author1=Gary V. Smith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cLN08jf_C2EC&q=%22several+attempts+to+find+mythical+allusions%22&pg=PA314|title=Isaiah 1–30|date=30 August 2007|publisher=B&H Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8054-0115-8|pages=314–315|access-date=23 December 2012}}</ref> [[Hermann Gunkel]]'s reconstruction of the myth told of a mighty warrior called Hêlal, whose ambition was to ascend higher than all the other stellar divinities, but who had to descend to the depths; it thus portrayed as a battle the process by which the bright morning star fails to reach the highest point in the sky before being faded out by the rising sun.<ref name="Gunkel">{{cite book|title=Creation And Chaos in the Primeval Era And the Eschaton. A Religio-historical Study of Genesis 1 and Revelation 12|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pNstLQ8i3nsC|chapter=Isa 14:12–14|pages=89–90|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pNstLQ8i3nsC&q=%22Isa+14:12-14%22&pg=PA89|first=Hermann|last=Gunkel|author-link=Hermann Gunkel|translator-first=K. William Jr.|translator-last=Whitney|date=2006|orig-year=1895|publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]]|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan|isbn=978-0-8028-2804-0|quote=... it is even more definitely certain that we are dealing with a native myth!]|access-date=2016-01-27|archive-date=2023-10-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018054833/https://books.google.com/books?id=pNstLQ8i3nsC|url-status=live}}</ref>

This Jewish tradition has echoes also in Jewish [[pseudepigrapha]] such as [[2 Enoch]] and the [[Life of Adam and Eve]].<ref name="Jewish"/><ref name="Schwartz">{{cite book|last=Schwartz|first=Howard|author-link=Howard Schwartz|title=Tree of souls: The mythology of Judaism|date=2004|publisher=OUP|location=New York City|isbn=0-19-508679-1|page=108}}</ref> The Life of Adam and Eve, in turn, shaped the idea of [[Iblis]] in the [[Quran]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Iberdina|last1=Houtman|first2=Tamar|last2=Kadari|first3=Marcel|last3=Poorthuis|first4=Vered|last4=Tohar|title=Religious Stories in Transformation: Conflict, Revision and Reception|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|location=Leiden, Netherlands|date=2016|isbn=978-9-004-33481-6|url=https://brill.com/abstract/book/edcoll/9789004334816/B9789004334816_007.xml|page=66|access-date=2018-11-23|archive-date=2018-11-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123154225/https://brill.com/abstract/book/edcoll/9789004334816/B9789004334816_007.xml|url-status=live}}</ref>