Questioni di demonologia. Valore e uso dei termini daímon e daimónion nel pensiero cristiano di II e III secolo

Abstract

The aim of my PhD dissertation is to analyze the changes in the use of the words δαίμων and δαιμόνιον between the Hellenistic period and the Christian thought of the Second and the Third Centuries. In Hellenistic period, when δαιμόνια is used in the LXX translation, its meaning is not easy to understand. The use of the word δαίμων in Ancient Greek is very extensive and it can have a lot of different meanings; several studies, such as François 1957, Brenk 1986 and Timotin 2012, concern this argument:1 all of these authors stress the polyvalence of the demonic notion on a diachronic and synchronic level. On another level, it is also often difficult to understand the difference between the notion of demonic and that of divine, but it seems that there must be a difference since the first occurrences of the term in Iliad, where sometimes δαίμων and θεὸς; means the same, while in other passages they are clearly opposed. An important proposal for the understanding of the meaning of the δαίμων, not only in Greece, but in all the Ancient Mediterranean, is that of Petersen 2003, who suggests to investigate the function of the concept tied to the word δαίμων: by analyzing this, it is possible to understand that in the Mediterranean world, including Ancient Near East and Egypt, the demonic level is always connected to the idea of μεταξύ. The demonic seems to be the influence that affects the human world from the divine sphere: so, any appearance of the gods in Iliad is demonic, because the gods cannot show themselves as they really are in the human world... [edited by Author]