DEMONIAC ( Lai . ilk. 3araoriK6s, duim on ikos, from Scal.uov, daim Cm, detillni 1. A person supposed to he possessed by a demon. The idea of such a possession is as widespread as the belief in the existence of demons. There is evidence of it in the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Babylonia; it existed in Persia and Judea, Greece and liome, in the most flourishing periods of their history; it held a large place in the life of the Christian nations until the end of the ei(Atteenth century; it is cherished by the ma-- of the people in India and China, and i- found among numerous savage tribes.
Ibis conception otlert•d it-'It the natu ral explanation of certain extraordinary and startling ph. novena. The frenzy of the prophet and the dervish, the Pythoness and. the Bacchant, the necromancer and the Witch, could only be understood in the earlier time a- the obsession of a spirit. the temporary of a human being by a ghost. .1 frequent occurrence of such an unusual phenomenon would rise to the belief in a permanent possession. an incarnation of a god, a transmigration of an eminent ;Investral spirit into the body of a de scendant. _1, the divine frenzy wa- frequently connected with hysteria and epilepsy and seemed akin to insanity. these pathological conditions were naturally ascribed to the same agencies. l'hysical disAilitie, of long, duration and ap pauntly incurable, such as deafness, dumbness, and blindness, would also be accounted for in the same way, and ultimately all bodily di-eases. in course of time the demon- were dif ferentiated as evil spirits in distinction from the good spirits, gods, angels. saint: ) DEMON person- possessed by them \yene thought to secure from such iinpure sources forbidden knowledge, heretical doctrines, unholy enthusiasm. suffer ing and misfortune, or a singular immunity from want and disease in exchange for everlasting perdition.
Although a belief in demoniacal possession must have grown up spontaneously among differ ent peoples from the need of explaining .tich ab normal and striking phenomena found every where, historic contact no doubt hastened the process of development and gave shape 10 la tent tendencit•A. The highly specialized demonology a spirit for each important organ of the body and for every familiar disease, vvIlieh meets us at the very dawn of history in Egypt and Babylonia. has. directly or indirectly, jn tlue»ced all of western Asia and Europe. Thu,. in I ran, Za rat litisht ra, by reciting the prayer called hinta-vairyit, all denim), to van ish in the ground who aforetime dery about the earth in human shape'' ( Vasna ix. 15i. Already
(0a. v, 3911) a demon causes wasting sickness; insanity and epilepsy. a- well a. the divine frenzy of the Bacchantes, are ascribed to demons by later writers. lint there i- every reason to believe that the increasing emphasis on the wickedness of the demons was occasioned by eonf)ict with Persia on the one hand and Egypt on the other. How strong the native con ception was i- front the fact that even the Nett-Pythagoreans and Neo-Platonist, dill not limit the tens to an evil spirit, as \vas done in Persia and Judea. Possession a roust have Leen a Nery familiar conception among the am•i•nt Ilebr•ws. 1Vithout it. neerontan•y and w it eltera t t could 11111 hate and proithelhond would have been impossible. The high moral ideal, of the prophets it 110-e words have come down to n, cannot obseure the fact that they both ettnsidered themselves possessed It• a spirit, whose spokesman they became by virtue of this posse--ion. and also regarded other prophets as possessed in a similar manner by other spirits. The immunity with ,o.h•h they could make personal attack., upon king-. magi: and priest, was undoubtedly due, in no small measure. to the general fear the spirit that possessed theta. The capacity for prophetic vision- or condition: seems to have been con netted ttith a certain epileptic or cataleptic tendency. The prophet %vas looked upon a madman: the insane man was possessed be a David tea• perfectly alien feigning madness t I. Sant. xxi. 131 his latent over Saul that he did not associate the King his in moments of insanity (11. Nut,. i, 17.•.7 I. way the frenzy exhibited ill battle %vas looked upon as possession. The spirit was said to clothe him-elf with a titan. \\ hilt. we have no positive evidence that disease was explained by spirit 1m:session, the prophetic character of the literary remain, in part ac count, for the silent.e. .As leprosy and Were considered a- the result of blow, inflicted by Jehovah or some other god. unawae, and smiting, so other sicknesses may have been traced to purely UNternal attacks of stall spirits as the Seirim or the Shedini. The growth of motiolatry and transcendental theism forced the transfer of certain functions of deify to inter mediaries. Then it was that contact with Per sian, Et.,ryptian, and tirtero-\laeedonian thought helped to develop the idea of deitioniat.