In the Light of the Moon: Demonology in the Early Imperial Period

Brenk, Frederick E.

doi:10.1515/9783110851519-014

Cited by 9 publications

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“…1978 (with further bibliography). See also Brenk 1986.  See Wilford 1965Timotin 2012, in particular Chapter 2.…”

Section: The Question Of Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Comparative Approach to Demonology in Antiquity: The Case of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia

Lucarelli¹

2013

Archiv Für Religionsgeschichte

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This essay provides a general introduction to demonology in antiquity as well as a focus on ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. It is also meant as an introduction to those papers which were originally presented at the international conference titled "Evil Spirits, Monsters and Benevolent Protectors: Demonology in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia," held on April 23, 2012 at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World of New York University, contained in the first section of this volume. Questions of the definition and function of demons in ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations are raised and discussed in light of a comparative approach to the study of ancient religions.If we intend "demonology" as a scholarly discourse about demons,¹ a few main questions arise: can we speak at all about "demons" in pre-Christian religions? Does it make sense to compare religious beliefs in order to recognize common features and organized descriptions of supernatural creatures other than the gods? Do we have enough comparative evidence to identify "demonology", as a general phenomenon, in the ancient world? Among the religious cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world, those of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia provide abundant textual and iconographic information in order to answer the questions above and explore the many underlying religious and social implications of beliefs in demons in antiquity.

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“…1978 (with further bibliography). See also Brenk 1986.  See Wilford 1965Timotin 2012, in particular Chapter 2.…”

Section: The Question Of Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Comparative Approach to Demonology in Antiquity: The Case of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia

Lucarelli¹

2013

Archiv Für Religionsgeschichte

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“…202e-203a: My translation, with slight reference to Joyce/Hamilton/Cairns 1999, 554. Again, see Brenk 1986Brenk , 2085Brenk -2087.  Maguire, et.…”

Section: Daimon and Ritualmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Oh, Lord, Give This One a Daimon So That He May No Longer Sin”: The Holy Man and His Daimones in Hagiography

Kalleres¹

2013

Archiv Für Religionsgeschichte

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This essay examines two hagiographical accounts, each features a Christian holy man performing an unusual, though not aberrant, ritual action: casting a daimon onto or into a person. I argue that the priest Innocent in Palladius' Lausiac History and Abba Daniel in John Moschus' Spirituale Pratum acted in accordance with their late antique role as ritual experts and "charismatic ombudsmen" and, thus, they could manipulate power relations between the daimon and human to cleanse, protect and/or punish a human, sinful body. To grasp fully the hagiographers' explorations of a holy man's charismata-his power over daimones and what kinds of bodies that creates, I situate these narratives within a particularized context of contemporary and earlier Greek demonologies (Plato, Plutarch and Greek Magical Papyri, especially katadesmoi or binding spells), which reveals variant daimon/human relations through time and the consequential material, moral, and intellectual transformations relevant in these hagiographies.

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“…15), they only became prominent in the broader culture of the empire, and understood as consistently malign, as a result of the influence of Judaism and emergent Christianity, traditions that also helped to introduce angels into the eclectic repertoire of supernatural powers employed by magicians, something evident from the PGM. For demonology in the early Empire, see Brenk (1986); for early Christianity, Eitrem (1966) Love magic might be thought an exception of a kind, but it was generally considered harmful to the victim. Such magic was believed to be able to drive the object of desire mad (see Plut.…”

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confidence: 99%

Did Magic Matter? The Saliency of Magic in the Early Roman Empire

Meggitt

2013

Journal of Ancient History

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Magic is usually assumed to have been ubiquitous and culturally significant in the early Roman Empire, something exemplified by Pliny the Elder's claim that "there is no one who does not fear to be spell-bound by curse tablets".1 A variety of written and material evidence is commonly taken to be indicative of both the regular use of magic and widespread anxiety about its deployment. However, this paper argues that if we attempt, having determined a contextually appropriate definition of magic, to gauge the prevalence and significance of magic in this period, it can be seen to have had little cultural salience. Not only is evidence for its presence more equivocal than usually presumed, but magic is found to be strikingly absent from major popular cultural sources that shed light on the presuppositions and preoccupations of most of the empire's inhabitants, and to have had little explanatory or symbolic utility. The paper then proceeds to suggest possible reasons for magic's lack of salience in the early Empire, including the role of various sceptical discourses concerned with the supernatural in general and magic in particular, and the consequence of the largely agonistic context of its use on the limited occasions that it was employed.

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In the Light of the Moon: Demonology in the Early Imperial Period

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Towards a Comparative Approach to Demonology in Antiquity: The Case of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia

Towards a Comparative Approach to Demonology in Antiquity: The Case of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia

“Oh, Lord, Give This One a Daimon So That He May No Longer Sin”: The Holy Man and His Daimones in Hagiography

Did Magic Matter? The Saliency of Magic in the Early Roman Empire

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