"i look down towards his feet; but that's a fable"

indeed - you want to call him inhuman, but his humanity more than anything becomes iago's most chilling aspect. the very deliberateness with which he systematically destroys life after life - with no apparent gain for himself - begs to be named inhuman, impossible. the soul of the reader wants to deny iago, remove him from the realm of empathy, but though certainly he suffers from madness, and hubris, he remains human. we understand his pain, his jealousy, even his madness, just enough to know that such cruelty can exist. iago brings to flesh all the deep, throbbing, denied angers of humanity - the thoughts we barely whisper to ourselves when we feel slighted, or abused, or afraid. he is the absoulte villian because he represents everything we fear in ourselves.