The Greeks called a supernatural being inter- mediate between the gods and men oal/iuv, 'demon.' This was used in the LXX and the Apocrypha, as in Tobit, to translate D-i.i' and D'i'!,y. The word thus came to get a bad meaning. The later Jews and Christians, in their hatred of the pagan cults, emphasized this view, and it has ever since been retained as in the English word ' demon.' H The Greek term Sai.iJ.ovi^e(T6ai means ' to be possessed by a maleficent spirit.' Our word 'epilepsy' is the English form of eiriXT/^tis, meaning 'seizure' by a superhuman agent, while epilepsy itself was called by the Greeks Upa vdao^, ' the divine illness.' **
While, therefore, 'demonism' and 'demonist' indicate belief in and a believer in demons, ' demonology ' is the science which treats of demons, ' demonolatry ' is the worship of demons ; 'demonopathy,' or, better, to use the term of the Sydenham Society Lexicon of 1883, ' demonomania' is the pathological condition in which the patient, a ' demoniac,' believes, and his conduct would in- duce others to believe, that he is possessed by a maleficent spirit.
Anthropological research shows that demono- mania prevails or has prevailed among the Amerind tribes from the furthest Korth to Patagonia, throughout Polynesia, in New Zealand, the Aus- tralian and Tasmanian regions, in all parts of India and Africa, among the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and all the Semitic nations.+t
But the facts as to demonism and demonomania will become clearer by a consideration of tliese as we find them present in the life of one nation. The primitive Semites believed in demons, and this racial faith was inherited and developed by the Arabians, and the nations which swarmed from the desert eradle-land — Me.sopotamians, Phoe- nicians, Canaanites, and Hebrews. t* The last, in
* T. W. Da\ie8, Magic,' Divination, and Demonoloqy, London, 1898, p. 7.
t fiBrlixxii. 174,
i A. Edersheim, LT*, London, 1887, ii. 762, 774 ; E. B. Tylor, PC*, do., 1903, ii. 124, 130; R. R. Marett, The Threshold of Religiotfi, do., 1914, p. 24 1. ; Bettany, Primitive Religion, pp. 19, 67, 68, 69.
§ Tvlor, PC* ii. 132.
II EBr^ xxii. 176.
TI Davies, Magic, Divination, and Demonology, p. 7 ; ERE iv. 665.
" JE iv. 617 ; Edersheim, LT* ii. 762 ; Tylor, PC* ii. 137.
tt See, e.g., Tylor, PC* ii. 123, 137 ; DCG i. 438 ; ERE iv. 690, 619, 620, 72.!, etc. ; cf. art. Exorcism, j.
\X K. Marti. The Reliqion of the 07", London. 1907, p. 60 ; Erp, 7th ser., iii. [1907] 326, 319 ; JE iv. 616 ; Edersheim, LT* ii. 769,
their nomadic state and their sojourn in Egypt, by their settlement in Palestine .'ind intercourse with neighbouring nations, and during the Exile, were subjected to inlluences which, while modifying, tended to intensify the ancestral belief.* They recognized not merely the existence of demons but their classification into the two great groups, bene- ficent and maleficent, the latter being our special concern.! The demons in the earliest culture had no names, but gradually, e.g. in Mesojiotamia, they were divided into classes with distinct names. Among the Hebrew.s we have these classes.^:
(1) The D"i'j,'!f, field spirits, like satyrs, so called because of their resemblance to hairy he-goats. To these sacrifices were otlered in the open field, and for their worship Jeroboam appointed pi tests. § A further reference to these may be found in '2 K 23", where for O'lj;^ there should be read || o-i'Vfc'. One of these spirits became prominent enough to receive a personal name ViKjy, and to have a dis- tinctive ritual of his own in which a goat was ottered. IT
(2) In Meso])otamian mythology one of the most prominent of the groups of demons was the shedtm, storm-deities. They were represented in an ox- like shape, and from being used as the protective genii of palaces became, in JNlesopotamia, propitious deities. From Ghaldajix their worship |i,assed to Palestine, and the name D'lp was applied 1)3' the Hebrews to the Canaanite demons wliom they re- cognized and worshipjied.** If .Tis'n -jdn (Job 5-^) be a corruption for .-nb'n -ii^, then ' the lords ' were field-demons of this kind. A further reference to them is found in Gn 14^- *• '", where D^jpn should be printed D-iB'n;tt and in Hos 12'^in3! o'-ivf hi^i-^ should be 'l D'lB'^ '33, ' at Gilgal they sacrifice to the fal.te gods {ta-shcdhi7n).'tt Three of these demons at- tained to such eminence as to receive names. These were n'h'^, Lilith (the night-hag. Is 34'^- '■•), a female night-demon who sucked the blood of her sleejiing victims ;§§ n-nyen, a demon servant of Jahweli warded ott by a blood-talisman (Ex 12^5);|| II Asmedai, the Asmodeus of To 3"'", who is called in the Aramaic and Hebrew versions of To 3* ' king of the ShedSm,' a demon borrowed from Zarathustrianism, who is identified with 'ATroXXiiwc (Rev 9" ).1I1I Indica- ERE iv. 668, 670, 741 ; and, generally, R. C. Thompson, The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, London, 1903-04.
* ERE iv. 765 ; Marti, The Religion of the OT, p. 90.
t Jg V^, 1 a 16" ; Exp, 7th ser., iii. 318 ; DCG i. 439.
t C. H. Toy, Intrvd. to the Hist, of Religions, p. 293.
§ Lvi 17', 2 Ch 1115; gee also Is 1321 341'' ; J. H. Kurtz, Bijst. of the Old Covenant;^, Edinburgh, 1872, ii. 15S ; W. R. Smith, iii", London, 1894, p. 113 ; H. Sohultz, OT Theology, Eng. tr., do., 1892, ii. 270; A. H. Japp, Some Heresies dealt with, do., 1899. p. 240 ; J. H. Philpot, The Sacred Tree, do., 1897, p. 64 ; JE iv. 515 ; A. H. Sayce, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion^ (HL, 1887), London, 1891, p. 199; Davies, Magic, Divination, and Demonology.^. 96 ; Exp, 7th ser., iii. 680, 632 ; EzpT iii. 4S5 ; ERE iv. 598 ; UDB i. 691, v. 617''.