noun 1. The act of destroying or state of being destroyed: destruction, devastation, havoc, ruin, ruination, undoing, wrack, wreck, wreckage. See help/harm/harmless, leftover.
2. Anything that is injurious, destructive, or fatal: canker, contagion, poison, toxin, venom, virus. See help/harm/harmless.
3. Something that causes total loss or severe impairment, as of one's health, fortune, honor, or hopes: destroyer, destruction, downfall, ruin, ruination, undoing, wrecker. See help/harm/harmless.
4. A cause of suffering or harm: affliction, curse, evil, ill, plague, scourge, woe. See help/harm/harmless.
The meaning of bane as an English form of nemesis, the bringer of ruin, dates only from 1577. Now an affliction, curse, evil, ill, plague, scourge or woe, in Old English bana had a more specific and immediate meaning, of "slayer", "murderer."
Goat noun 1. Any of various hollow-horned, bearded ruminant mammals of the genus Capra, originally of mountainous areas of the Old World, especially any of the domesticated forms of C. hircus, raised for wool, milk, and meat.
2. A lecherous man.
3. A scapegoat.
4. Goat See Capricorn.
Since its inception, Christianity has associated goats with Satan. A common superstition in the Middle Ages was that goats whispered lewd sentences in the ears of the saints. The origin of this belief was probably the size of the male goat's phallus, which is unusually large. At those times, the depiction of a devil in the dark ages was generally that of a goat like face with horns and small beard (a goatee). The Black Mass, a probably-mythological "Satanic mass," was said to involve a black goat, a form in which Satan supposedly manifested himself for worship.
The goat has had a lingering connection with Satanism and pagan religions, even into modern times. The pentagram, a symbol used by both Satanism and Wicca, is said to be shaped like a goat's head. It is sometimes called the goat of Mendes, after a goat that supposedly copulated with priestesses during certain rituals in an ancient cult in Mendes, Greece.
