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[German version] (ἄωρος; áōros). ‘Untimely’, used as adjective and noun, known in the magical papyri as a designation of a soul that died before its time (ἄωρος). Ahoros in this usage also appears in literary texts (Aesch. Eum. 956; Eur. Or. 1030); ahoros or synonyms (πρόμοιρος, ἀωρόμορος) are also found in grave inscriptions of all periods [1. 14; 2]. In general ahoros relates to death before puberty, marriage or childbirth ([1. 47-83]; cf. Od. 11,36-41; Verg. Aen. 6,426-29; Pl. Resp. 615c; PGM IV 2732-5). Living people could command the ahoros to carry out various tasks, includi…

[German version] The term Oracula Chaldaica describes those Greek poems in dactylic hexameters which were allegedly uttered by Hecate and possibly also other deities, either directly to a man known by the name of Julian [4] the Chaldean, who had invoked them, or via a divinely possessed medium acting for Julian. The poems were written in archaizing style which imitated both Homer and other older oracles. Although they date from the late 2nd or early 3rd cent. AD, the name Oracula Chaldaica was not…

[German version] I. Mesopotamia Mesopotamia did not develop a generic term for demons. A large number of immortal beings was known that each had their own name and acted as servants of the gods and as enemies or helpers of humans. They did not have cults of their own. Since demons were only able to exercise their limited powers, which manifested themselves in physical and psychological illnesses, with the approval of the gods, they were part of the existing world order. Thus, in the Babylonian tale …

[German version] (Orphic gold leafs). A number of Greek texts on thin gold foil from grave finds; the Latin expression has become established since [1]. A critical edition of most of the texts known until 1997 (18 in total) can be found in [2]. The texts contain instructions and information to guide the soul of the dead on its way through the underworld and to guarantee its preferential treatment by the gods of the same place. They are called 'Orphic' because early scholarship, knowing significant…

[German version] (Γελλώ; Gellṓ) designates the spirit of a girl who died single, which kills unmarried or pregnant women and small children; it is first mentioned in Sappho (fr. 178 L.P. = 168 V.) [1]; G. is also the name of a mythological creature with these characteristics (Suda s.v.). It was still feared in the Byzantine period (Johannes Damascenus Perì Stryngôn, PG 94, 1904 C; Psellos Dihḗgesis perì Gellṓs [2]), something that has survived to the present day in rural Greece [3]. G. has often been associated with  Lamia and  Mormo, two similar spirits, and the strix. Rites to fend off G…

[German version] The three most important Greek deities associated with gates (for Rome see  Ianus,  Carna) were  Hecate (and  Artemis, who was closely associated with her),  Hermes and  Hercules. Hecataea (small statues or shrines to Hecate) were to be found in front of the gates of private houses and in front of city gates (Aeschyl. TrGF 388; Aristoph. Vesp. 804, Hsch. s. v. προπύλαια). Corresponding with this is the association between Hecate and additional liminal places, particularly road-forks ( tríhodoi), which is in turn connected with her role as protector from t…

[German version] (Μέγαιρα/Mégaira, ‘the envious one’, Lat. Megaera). Name of one of the Erinyes ( Erinys; Apollod. 1,3f.; Cornutus 10; Verg. Aen. 12,845-847; Lucan. 1,572-577, 6,730; Stat. Theb. 1,712; more in [1. 123]), perhaps also a name for the destructive power of personified envy in general and the evil eye in particular (Orph. Lithika 224f., cf. Orph. Lithika kerygmata 2,4). A 3rd century AD altar with a votive inscription to M. has been found in Pergamum. Votive offerings may have been made with the aim of warding off envy [2]. Johnston, Sarah Iles (Princeton) Bibliography 1 E. Wüs…

[German version] (Μορμώ/ Mormṓ). A female spirit, principally used to frighten children (Theocr. 15,40 with schol.; Plat. Phd. 77e; Str. 1,2,8; schol. Aristides p. 41 Dindorf = 1,5), in this role often interchangeable with Gello, Lamia [1] and strix (a nocturnal bird which sucked the blood out of children). Her other name, Mormolýkē or Mormolykía, suggests she was imagined as a wolf, though Theocr. 15,40 (with schol. ad loco) associates her with a horse and Erinna 26f. implies she could change shape. According to myth M. was a woman from Corinth who devoured at first her own…

(Ἰφιγένεια; Iphigéneia). [German version] A. Myth Daughter of  Agamemnon and  Clytaemnestra (Procl. Cypriorum enarratio, 55-62 EpGF S.32; Aesch. Ag.; but cf. Stesich. fr. 191 PMGF and Nicander fr. 58 = Antoninus Liberalis 27, where Theseus and Helena are her parents and Clytaemnestra merely adopts I.), sister of  Orestes,  Chrysothemis [2] and  Electra [4]. Although she was promised to marry Achilles [1], Agamemnon, on the advice of Calchas, sacrificed her to Artemis to allow the Greeks' departure for Troy, which had been delayed by an unnatural calm. Aulis is most commonly refer…

[German version] I. Mesopotamia Myths, Epics, Prayers and Rituals of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC, in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages, describe the location and nature of the Underworld, along with the circumstances under which its inhabitants live. This domain, located beneath the surface of the earth and surrounded by the primeval ocean called Apsȗ, is known in Akkadian as erṣetu (Sumerian: ki), a term that can refer both to the surface of the earth and to the Underworld. There are other terms for certain characteristics of this region. The Underworl…

[German version] A. Definition Demonology is the philosophical doctrine of the daímones ( Demons) ─ intermediate beings between gods and men ─ that the Platonic Academy first systematically developed subsequent to the problem posed by the Socratic daimónion (δαιμόνιον). Baltes, Matthias (Münster) [German version] B. Preplatonic It is not possible to reconstruct a systematic Pre-platonic demonology although later philosophers, e.g., Aetius (1,8,2), Aristoxenus (fr. 34), Aristotle (fr. 192 Rose) and Plutarch (De Is. et Os. 360e), believed th…

[German version] (Ἰφινόη; Iphinóē). Name of various heroines in myth and cult: one was a daughter of the Megarian king  Alcathous [1] at whose grave girls offered libations and locks of hair before marriage (Paus. 1,43,3f.), another was a daughter of king  Proetus (Apollod. 2,29) who died when Melampus tried to cure her and her sisters of madness. She may have been honoured with rites during the Argive Agrigonia. (Hsch. s.v. Agrania). Johnston, Sarah Iles (Princeton) Bibliography W. Burkert, Homo Necans, 1972, 189-200 K. Dowden, Death and the Maiden. Girls' Initiation Rites in…

[German version] [1] Female spirit (Λάμια; Lámia). A female spirit who specialized in attacking children (Duris, FGrH 76 F 17; Diod. Sic. 20,41,3-5; Str. 1,2,8; [1. ch. 5]). In this function, L. was often confused with Gello, Mormo and the Strix. In later sources, L. also seduces and destroys attractive men (Philostr. VA 4,25; cf. Apul. Met. 1,17). Her name is etymologically related to laimós (‘maw’), which is an expression of her all-consuming hunger (cf. Hor. Ars P. 340; Hom. Od. 10,81-117 on Lamus, the king of the cannibalistic Laestrygones; lamía is also a designation for ‘shark’…

(πάρεδρος/ páredros, plural πάρεδροι/ páredroi, 'assessor' of political office-holders or deities). A. Politics [German version] 1. Athens (a) In the 5th and 4th cents. BC two paredroi were appointed each by the eponymous árchōn , the polémarchos and the basileús (see árchōn basileús) as assistants and deputies ([Aristot.] Ath. pol. 56,1). Their position had an official character, as they were subordinate to the dokimasía and they were liable to account. (b) In the 4th cent. BC a pair of paredroi for each ten eúthynoi of the Council (see eúthynai ) of the 500 were chosen from the bouleutaí …

Epithet of many gentilicia [1]. Famous persons: the jurist Salvius I. [1]; the doctor I. [2]; the emperor I. [11], called ‘Apostata’; the bishops I. [16] of Aeclanum and I. [21] of Toledo. [German version] [1] L. Octavius Cornelius P. Salvius I. Aemilianus Roman jurist, 2nd cent. AD Jurist, born about AD 100 in North Africa, died about AD 170; he was a student of  Iavolenus [2] Priscus (Dig. 40,2,5) and the last head of the Sabinian law school (Dig. 1,2,2,53). I., whose succession of offices is preserved in the inscription from Pupput, provi…

[German version] (Ἑκάτη; Hekátē). Into the modern age, the goddess H. has been known as the mistress of ghosts, as the demonic mediator par excellence between above and below. In this function, she is closely associated with  magic in which the ‘use’ of the spirits of the dead plays an important role (Eur. Med. 397; Hor. Sat. 1,8,33). H. probably stems from Caria and came to Greece around the archaic age, from where her worship spread to the entire Graeco-Roman world. Her cult in Caria (above all in Lagina) and other p…

[German version] (Νεκυδαίμων; Nekydaímōn). Nekydaímōn is used in magic papyri and defixiones as a technical term to describe the spirit ( daímōn; Demons) of a dead person (Greek  nékys) providing services to the living. It was primarily the spirits of people who had not received a ritual burial ( átaphoi), or who had died violently ( biaiothánatoi) or prematurely ( áhōros ) that were threatened with the fate of being forced into service as a n ekydaímōn.  (PGM V 304-369; [1. 46-63, 71-81, 100-123; 3. 273]). The word nekydaímon is not found other than in papyri and defixiones, but they are…

I. Ancient Orient [German version] A. General The magic of the ancient Orient and of Egypt is based on a view of the world that runs counter to that of religion. In the world-view of magic, men, gods and demons are tied to each other and to the cosmos by sympathies and antipathies, whereas in the religious world view everything is created by the gods for their own purposes; the relations between men and the cosmos are the result of deliberate actions of the gods. In the practice of religion, however, b…

(ἴυγξ; íynx). [German version] [1] Demon related to the genesis of the world Iynx (‘sounding’, cf. ἰύζω/ iýzō) refers to 1. a bird, 2. a humming wheel used in magical rites, and 3. a demon in  theurgy who is associated with the origin of the world and mediates between humans and gods. In myth the bird is transformed from a seductive nymph, the daughter of Echo or Peitho and perhaps  Pan (Callim. Fr. 685; Phot. and Suda, s.v. I.), or from a woman who competed with the Muses in singing (Nicander in Antoninus Liberalis 9). The wheel and the bird were important in the Greek love-spell in myth…

[German version] (Ἐρινύς; Erinýs). Etymology uncertain (Chantraine 2,371, cf. [1; 2. 83-4]). E. is already mentioned in  Linear B (KN 200 = Fp 1, 208 = V 52, cf. Fs 390; [1]) in connection with other deities such as Zeus, Athene, Paeon and Poseidon. Later, the name appears both in the singular as well as in the plural (‘Erinyes’). Mostly, the Erinyes are daughters of Night (Aesch. Eum. 69; 322 et passim) or they originate from drops of blood shed during Uranus' castration (Hes. Theog. 185), which indicates their connection with crime within a family, in particul…