Where there’s quarrel, noise, and fight –

That’s where my musicians play tonight!

(from a Vertep dialogue)

Like Death, the Devil is a mystical figure of the Ukrainian Vertep – both comic through his grotesque nature and terrifying in his essence. He is the personification of Herod’s tormented conscience, the embodiment of chaos, falsehood, and pure evil. Death is often called his “sister” and “companion,” yet in many Vertep versions they fight, unable to divide Herod’s soul between them.

His appearance is intentionally grotesque. In the Sokyrynskyi Vertep (18th c.), he appears as a black creature with horse legs, tail, bat-like wings, horns, and a coal in his mouth – a vision of distorted nature, an infernal force that ultimately destroys itself.

Traditional Devil costume: a black fitted coat or shirt, a black mask with high horns. Claws on the fingers, and a pitchfork in hand. His movements are abrupt, his grimace mocking, his speech filled with sarcasm.

In the modern Vertep, the Devil often becomes the symbol of external aggression. He speaks in the voice of pride, temptation, vengeance, and lies – that which corrupts a person from within.

But the ending is always the same: the Angel of God casts the Devil out – for in the presence of Christ, darkness has no power.