Probably, each of us has heard how about some person - disgusting, terrible, committing vile deeds, it was said that he is a fiend of hell. Sometimes even desperate parents call these words their naughty child, although this is probably already too much. Why do we say that? Where did this expression come from?
Demons
The fiend of hell is a phraseological unit of this, of course, religious origin. The first word in it comes from the Old Slavonic language. Devil is, simply put, a child. And we are talking about a bad, bad and naughty child. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary makes it clear that this word was most often used in a reproachful sense. Its closest synonym is "geek." The concept of hell has deep roots, not even in Christianity, but in even more ancient religions. This is not only and not so much a place of punishment in folk mythology, as the place of residence of terrible and disgusting creatures - demons and Satan. Those who were once angels but rebelled against God. Thus, they lost their nature and turned into the inhabitants of the underworld. Now each of them is a fiend of hell.
Why are they called that?
Hell is often portrayed in church art as an all-devouring mouth. However, she not only swallows sinners, she also throws out its inhabitants. They disperse on the earth to multiply crimes, to seduce people. Thus, the gates of hell also generate evil. Therefore, a person who becomes not just a sinner, but a terrible criminal - a bloodthirsty killer, liar, sadist, and so on, is called the "fiend of hell." Thus, in this word the opinion is hidden that the true place of residence of this is hell, and there he is dear.
Abaddon
A demon with this name is the most famous “myth of hell” in mythology and religious studies. He was still present in Judaism, and the word itself means "annihilation" or "decay." Christian texts turned him into a personified creature called "Destroyer" or "Angel of the Abyss." It leads into battle the hordes of locusts and commands demonic spirits released to walk free until the Second Coming of Christ. This image really appealed to writers - from romantics to science fiction writers. A fallen angel who can repent, a demon of war and punishment, an approximate of the Dark Lord - this is not an exhaustive list of Abaddon's personalities.
Figurative meaning
As usual, in common vocabulary this expression has lost its religious meaning, leaving a moral tint. Who are the fiends of hell in our modern language? Quite often this is the name of political opponents, attributing to them all the unthinkable bad qualities. This is one of the signs of information war and the inhumanization of the enemy. Quite often, such vocabulary is used in ethnic cleansing, when the Tutsis were called Hutus by the "devils of hell" and, conversely, they justified the genocide of their enemies. In the modern post-Soviet space, those phrases in which everyone puts their own meaning serve as an analogue of this phraseological unit. However, historically, the transfer of the meaning of “degenerates from the underworld” from mythological creatures to very real people and even their groups began to occur in Europe in the Middle Ages. It was then that people who thought differently from what the church authorities ordered were called heretics, and even “fiends of hell,” trying to prove their connection with infernal beings. As a rule, such an attitude towards people leads to violence and loss of life. So it’s better not to call anyone that way. Even those whom we consider terrible and incorrigible. Indeed, in bad people, the heart still remains human.