Cultures throughout the ages have
had their versions of demons. In most, demons are the personification of evil,
pain, and suffering. They exploit weakness already in man and are said to have
many powers that can torment or can allure men.
Ancient Akkadian texts alluded
that evil spirits were sent by evil gods. In Persia, the prophet Zoroaster
preached about the doctrine of evil. The world was split between an ultimate
Good, named Ormazd, and an ultimate evil, Ahriman. Ahriman had 6 archdemons,
known as Daevas, to fight Ormazd’s 6 archangels. And, of course, they
controlled countless numbers of lower demons.
The Hebrews attributed the “false
gods” of other religions to being demons. One particular favorite was Moloch,
the devourer of children. Tales said that his follower would place their
children on his burning idol and sacrifice them for protection, health, and
long life. (Note: I think he will be used in a future book. *Rubs hands
together with an evil laugh.*)
The term demon actually came from
the Greek term daimon, which means spirit or lesser deity. Many of the spirits
resided in the Greek Underworld, a place so frightening to man that they would
not even speak the name of Hades, the god of the Underworld. The Romans did
what they always did and added the Greek pantheon to their own. So the daimons
became daemons.
When Christianity rose, it was in
Rome. They incorporated other religions into their own to gain converts.
Except, like the Hebrews (since Christianity started as an offshoot of the Hebrew
religion), a lot of the deities became demons, especially the darker or “evil”
gods. Now, we have a whole hierarchy of demons in hell associated with the
Christian religion.
This is just touching the
surface. You can find variations of demons in India, Africa, the middle East,
Japan, and China. All come with their own special mythos. I guess, all around
the world, we have something to name our fears after. Be sure to check out A Prescription for Delirium for some of
the demons found in lore.
*This is a repost from my blog tour. The original post is found on Happy Tails and Tales.
I find this kind of thing fascinating. The demons I wrote about in my Darkworld series are more like 'evil spirits' than biblical creatures, and I used elements from different cultures' ideas about demons. There's so much interesting information out there!
ReplyDeleteI know there are many cultures who view demons more as evil spirits. There really is a lot of interesting information and i love how when you start to research, you see connections.
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