Daemons and Evil

Imagine a trembling mother with her baby in her arms, a circle of invading Turks around her. They've planned a diversion; they pet the baby, laugh to make it laugh. They succeed, the baby laughs. At that moment a Turk points a pistol four inches from the baby's face. The baby laughs with glee, holds out its little hands to the pistol, and he pulls

Russell, J. B. 1977. The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity. Ithaca, N.Y.

As for the death of daimones, let me relate the words of a person who was not at all gullible or given to sensationalism. The father of Aimilianos the orator, whom some of you heard, was Epitherses, a fellow citizen of mine and my schoolteacher. He said that once while about to sail to Italy, he embarked on a freighter heavily burdened with passengers and goods. Around evening as it approached the Echinades Islands, the wind dropped and the ship began to drift near the Paxoi. Almost everyone was awake and some who had finished eating were still drinking wine. Suddenly from the Isle of Paxoi they heard a voice and someone calling out "Thamous," to the amazement of all. The name of the pilot, an Egyptian, was Thamous, but most on board were unaware of it. Twice he was called, but did not answer. But the third time he responded to the caller, who said, raising his voice, "When you get near Palodes, bring the news to them that the Great Pan is dead." Epitherses related the astonishment of the witnesses, and their discussion on whether to obey the command, or avoiding unnecessary involvement, to leave the matter alone. In these circumstances Thamous reached the conclusion that if the wind kept up, he would sail past quietly, but if there were no wind and the sea were calm, he would report what he had heard. As he got near Palodes, with neither breath nor swell, Thamous stood on the stern, and facing land said the words just as he had heard them: "The Great Pan is dead." He barely got the words out of his mouth when an enormous groan was heard, not just of one person, but of a multitude, mixed with cries of surprise. Since quite a few were present, the word quickly spread at Rome, and Thamous was summoned to the Emperor Tiberius, who was so convinced of the account that he became interested in learning about Pan. The classical scholars at the court, who were numerous, thought it most probable that he was the son of Hermes and Penelope. 419b-e, translated in Brenk (1986) 2119-20.

Some of the other Greek words for supernatural agents are: angelos ("messenger"), phasma ("apparition" or "phantom") and alasteros ("avenging spirits"). The evangelists often used the term pneuma rather than daimon or daimonion to mean both an intermediate being or some type of intellectual inspiration (Brenk 1986, 2115). The New Testament authors used a new word to connote something different than daimon or daimonion because they were aware of the negative connotations already attached to these words. Within the Platonist tradition, however, "every daimonion is something between a god and a mortal" (Symp. 202E) which seems to portray the same idea of an intermediate being that the Christian authors attempted to find with the word pneuma. Roman authors encountered a problem similar to that of the evangelists because the Roman vocabulary did not have an equivalent for the Greek daimon. Cicero employed lares (deified ancestors) for daimones and Apuleius tried genius (a guardian angel) for daimon. Because of the difficulty in vocabulary, Apuleius eventually decided to use daemon and daemones, employing these words 120 times throughout his writings (Brenk 1986, 2134).

Neusner, J., Frerichs, E.S., and Flesher, P.V. 1989. Religion, Science, and Magic: In Concert and In Conflict. New York and Oxford.

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