Demonology
(Fri Oct 9 14:32:37 1998)
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Demonology is, as its name suggests, the study of demons: which prompts the question, what a demon is. The word itself derives from the Greek daimon, meaning simply a supernatural spirit or power of an inferior sort, i.e., not a god. Thus eudaimonia, having a good daimon, which is translated as ``happiness'' or ``fulfillment'' or even ``a flourishing life'' (the last is the rendering of the estimable Martha Nussbaum). When Socrates, in the Apology, claimed to be advised by a daimon, he meant (it seems) more or less what we now call ``the voice of conscience'' (or would call it, if we were still old-fashioned enough to believe in a conscience). In Latin, the word became dæmon. The general rule, as Latin degenerated through the Middle Ages, was that the dipthongs ``æ'' and ``oe'' (which isn't in the standard web character set) became ``e''; this gave us edifice from æedificum, celestial from coelestis, and demon from dæmon. None of which actually says what the word came to mean.
In a basic sense, the meaning remained unchanged: an inferior sort of supernatural being. But such a statement carried one set of implications for the pagans, and another, very different one for Christians. (I don't know how the other sorts of monotheists in the classical world --- Jews, Zoroastrians, Manicheans, the sundry Gnostic sects, etc., used the word, or even how it is employed in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament.) In the Christian tradition, there was only one category of supernatural beings inferior to God, namely the angels, who were divided between those who joined in Lucifer's rebellion (a third of the heavenly host, according to the Book of Revelation) and were condemned to Hell, and those who remained loyal to their Creator and stayed in Heaven. (A charming Irish tradition explained the fairies as the angels who opted for neutrality, but this is not orthodox at all.) The existence of the pagan gods was not, for the most part, denied by the Fathers of Church (for instance, Augustine): they were real alright, and really did work miracles for their followers, they just happened to be fallen angels who lied through their teeth (or whatever it is immaterial beings lied through). This applied all the way down the line, from the Olympian Gods to the most minor fountain nymph, so the dæmones of the pagans were really fallen angels. Thus ``demon'' came to mean ``fallen angel, inhabitant of Hell.'' Demonology, then, took the form of saying what these fiends were like, and what they were up to.
http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/notebo ... ology.html