DAEMONS & DAEMONOLOGY
I. Definitions & Origins: Luck,' "divine being"
A. Definition Changes:. Homer 5th cent B.C to Plato ca. 400 B.C.
Hellenistic era 320--30 B.C. to Christian era 100 A.D.
B. Origins: Near East--Persian, Hebrew views
C. Angels: similar history as daemons:
1. 8th cent B.C. "messenger;"
2. 400 B.C. & later "good" daemons vs. "evil" daemons
*world "full of spirits'; some 'mistaken identity' (exs. in Luck text)
II. Early History--Belief In Spirits
A. Egyptians
B. Greeks: "Furies"
C. connected w/seeing Future & Oracles
D. Causes: "unquiet dead"-angry souls
E. Exorcism--all ancient cultures-- way to rid demon 'possession.'
III. Daemons/Spirits of Dead/ Ghosts:
A. Heros--some worshipped
B. Ancestor worship (family dead)-caring for the dead
C. Festivals: Anthesteria (in Greece) yearly;
Rome, too: May: ghosts walk the Earth-rituals needed to pacify
D. Conflicting Views:
1. "shade" vs. corpse
2. soul (psychē)
E. Guardian "spirit"--from birth, good--human may be bad.
IV. Ghosts: Hauntings--Why? spirit stays at death site or tomb
A. Haunted houses: Greece, Rome
B. Vampires: Slavic origins?
(not anc. Greek--lamia "eats" "dead")
--Orient, India--many Vampire legends
V. Texts:
A. Types of daemons
B. Patterns:
1. Underworld visits (Necromancy)
2. attitudes of Dead.