Illustrations of the First REAL Angels?

[SweetShark]

So I recently learned that the first look the angles had in the past wasn't so pretty or even beatiful to say at least.
I heared the first real Angels had heads of different kind of animals, not only bird wings to their back or even human characteristics.

Is there anywhere I can look for any kind of source which shows the real nature of the first Angels?

Good material to create a list btw

 

[Something Amyss]

You might be confusing the pseudo-lovecraftian element of authentic Christian angels with Egyptian gods, which were just people with random animal heads. I forget where I saw it, but one kind of angel is a pair of flaming rings, one inside the other, and each have eyes all around.

"Wheels within wheels" is one of the descriptions. Well, close enough [http://biblehub.com/ezekiel/1-16.htm]. There are a couple, depending on text, though I think you're right about the confusion with Egyptian gods.

 

[renegade7]

It's actually not Christian, the ancient Hebrew conception of what an angel was predates Christianity by centuries. It is also most likely derived from early Mesopotamian stories, where creatures that were part animal and part human served the Mesopotamian deities.

And to my knowledge it was never conclusively explained exactly what an angel would have looked like. I think the best description you could get comes from the fact that demons and angels were the same kind of creature. They could be human in appearance (Lilith, Gabriel), combinations of animal and human features (influenced directly by the Mesopotamians) or monsters or aberrations (Ezekiel's fire helicopter thingy). I think it's one of those stories where you're supposed to use your imagination.

 

[SweetShark]

You might be confusing the pseudo-lovecraftian element of authentic Christian angels with Egyptian gods, which were just people with random animal heads. I forget where I saw it, but one kind of angel is a pair of flaming rings, one inside the other, and each have eyes all around.

"Wheels within wheels" is one of the descriptions. Well, close enough [http://biblehub.com/ezekiel/1-16.htm]. There are a couple, depending on text, though I think you're right about the confusion with Egyptian gods.

Well, after some legit search I did, it seems there are some kind of angel which are actually Serpents, which are related with the same Serpent which gave the Apple to Eve. Nephilims are their name.
To be as simple as possible and as far I understood it myself, Nephilims first are described as Giants and are the sons of the first Angels which are against the will of God....I think.
But then some other text described them are reptilians creatures related with an Angel trying to revealed the secret knowledge of God to the first Humans. Adam and Eve.
Also Aliens. Yes, the andels was also Aliens with giant heads it seems.
Here are some photos I found:

Spoiler

I guess a combination of those three versions seems legit.

 

[sageoftruth]

I'm a bit lost here. What are we all talking about right now?

I know the Escapist isn't the sort of place where people would argue about the existence of angels, so there must be some sort of context that I'm missing.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

I did a google image search for "Original depictions of angels", and it seemed to get a number of results that might be like what you're looking for

Spoiler

I think that's supposed to be a Cherubim on the left

Seraphim - Michael

Unfortunately, I don't think you're going to find many well done paintings of them. By the time that artwork started introducing realism, perspective and proper shading, the humans with wings were pretty much the iconicized appearances of angels. Is your main intent to find images of them or just get an idea of what they were originally supposed to look like? If the latter, you're probably better off reading. If the former, you should probably try looking up specific types of angels.

 

[Fox12]

Well, there are different types as time goes on.

The one you first mentioned are called the Cherabim. They are powerful warrior angels with flaming swords. They were set to guard the garden of eden after mans fall. I believe they have the head of an eagle, a man, a lion, and a bull. I've heard Christians claim that they also represent four of the apostles, but I'll let you decide, since it could be seen as revisionist.

Spoiler

You have the half angel, half man Nephalem, which are basically giants. Goliath supposedly descended from them, and many of them were great heroes before the flood.

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Then there are the seraphim, who worship God 24/7. They have six wings, and cover themselves. They are the highest of the angels.

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Other angels have been described as wheels within wheels, although how you visualize that, I have no idea.

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Then there are ones covered in hundreds of eyes.

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Then you have messenger angels, who basically look like really hot people. Though, it may be a disguise, implying that they can change their appearance.

Spoiler

Angels, apparently

 

[Tayh]

Nemesis, of the Greek Pantheon, might have been a possible inspiration of what Christianity adopted as angels.

Spoiler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(mythology)

Fits in with the whole "Hand of (the) God(s)", Divine Retribution thing, too.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

You're all heretics! There is only ONE angel and he is the personification of humanity's hope of a United galaxy. He is the Emperor's wrath made manifest!

 

[Zontar]

The first Angel is clearly ADAM. I mean he's literally the first, after which Lilith and their children came.

Spoiler

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

Bah. It's obvious I'm dealing with mere children (age-wise) here. These are the first REAL angels:

 

[anthony87]

I don't really know how "accurate" they appear but the angels from Bayonetta are all pretty damn cool looking.

 

[Fox12]

The first Angel is clearly ADAM. I mean he's literally the first, after which Lilith and their children came.

Spoiler

You know, I've heard people say that the angels in Neon Genesis just look like weird monsters, but they're actually pretty consistent with the descriptions in the bible. They're way more accurate then in other forms of fiction. Angels weren't white dudes with eagle wings, or adorable little babies. They were fucking eldritch horrors. Heck, even the stuff that happens in End of Eva is pretty consistent with Revelation. That always made me laugh.

 

[Something Amyss]

To be as simple as possible and as far I understood it myself, Nephilims first are described as Giants and are the sons of the first Angels which are against the will of God....I think.

It's worth noting that the modern understanding of giant is a relatively recent one, and that even the original Greek giants were initially portrayed as roughlt human-sized. I'm not good enough with Hebrew to tell you...well, anything...but it's possible the translation had a different meaning. I tried looking it up, but got a bit confused by some of the language used. This is one of the issues with angels in general: we fill in modern perceptions (even if "modern" is really centuries old).

I did forget the description that involved lion heads, though.

The serpent one is new to me, however.

Angels were represented as humans since as long as I remember.

Have you read the Bible lately? Unless you mean literally, personally and chronologically what you remember, in which case that would be a given. They have been depicted this way for centuries, and thus nobody human would be able to remember a time when this wasn't true.

I'm a bit lost here. What are we all talking about right now?

I know the Escapist isn't the sort of place where people would argue about the existence of angels, so there must be some sort of context that I'm missing.

I took it to be a question as to how angels were originally depicted. These days, angels are often humanoid and either sexy or childish (and hopefully EITHER OR), often with effeminate beauty that is partially inspired by Renaissance paintings (which did not come from a vacuum, either). As pointed out by other posters, the Biblical descriptions of angels often describe rather inhuman creations which would probably be seen as monstrous were they to appear to a modern Christian. A lot of the notions of Christianity derive from extra-Biblical sources and depictions.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I don't really know how "accurate" they appear but the angels from Bayonetta are all pretty damn cool looking.

When Hell marches on Heaven, with all their Balrogs, would you prefer Heaven send out wave after wave of buff blonde men in white robes, or Fortitudo there?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Nemesis, of the Greek Pantheon, might have been a possible inspiration of what Christianity adopted as angels.

The halo was definitely from the Graeco-Roman tradition, they'd depict gods as standing with the sun (oversized) behind their heads.

You're all heretics! There is only ONE angel and he is the personification of humanity's hope of a United galaxy. He is the Emperor's wrath made manifest!

I thought you'd go for the Sanguinor there. Or, literally anyone above the rank of initiate in the BA chapter or certain successors, or maybe marines in general.

 

[rcs619]

So I recently learned that the first look the angles had in the past wasn't so pretty or even beatiful to say at least.
I heared the first real Angels had heads of different kind of animals, not only bird wings to their back or even human characteristics.

Is there anywhere I can look for any kind of source which shows the real nature of the first Angels?

Good material to create a list btw

It's kind of tough, from my limited experience poking around the subject. Much like the prevalence of Jesus as a blonde, blue-eyed white guy, the depiction of angels as beautiful, winged humans completely dominates everything else.

But yeah, if you go by some of the older descriptions (especially of the higher level angels like the Thrones), angels sound more like lawful-good lovecraftian horrors than the winged people we usually see them as. Wheels within wheels, on fire and covered in uncountable eyes as they spin. Or even giant chimeric animals, their entire bodies covered in eyes.

I don't think the lower-tier angels, or even the named ones like Michael or Gabriel were ever described. People just kind of assume that they look like humans because they have human names.

One thing to consider though. If angels are these horrific monster-things... then what about demons? They're just fallen angels afterall. Not nearly enough media where demons are depicted like intelligent lovecraftian horrors. I'm sick and tired of boring goatmen.

Really digging into it is going to be tough though. The catholic church eventually began a campaign of associating monstrous traits with pagan gods as a way of tying them to the devil and such. That's where the original depictions of Satan as some sort of horrible goatman came from. They intentionally drew him in the style of pagan deities to discredit them. Conversely, angels became these beautiful, perfect human-looking things with wings.

Oh, fun-fact: The flaming wheels within wheels, covered in eyes, are known as the Thrones. They literally carry the Throne of God along with them.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Really digging into it is going to be tough though. The catholic church eventually began a campaign of associating monstrous traits with pagan gods as a way of tying them to the devil and such. That's where the original depictions of Satan as some sort of horrible goatman came from. They intentionally drew him in the style of pagan deities to discredit them.

Well, I think some of that could have happened less maliciously. If the foreigners are worshiping some weird thing that isn't your god but stands in opposition (in some way) to it, not unreasonable to assume that it's a monster from your own mythology, and assume your monsters look like their gods.

A lot of it was probably deliberate, though, yeah.

Also, IIRC, some of the winged angels had more wings the more important they were. The most import had several dozen, IIRC.