Guest ParatrooperLirelou Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Recently I gottn into Demonology and Angelology as a source of ideas for a Comic book Iam making and so far have already found many awesome ideas for my Comic and short stories and fanfics. So far, I am mainly familiar with Christian Demonology and Angelology(I will be getting into Islamic Demonology and Angelology and those of other religions eventually). So in this thread lets discuss Roman Demonology and Angelology(or whatever the pagan Roman equivalent was).I tried searching for a list of Roman Demons/Angels and came up very short, mainly with list of demons that are found in Christian Demonology that were taken from Roman religion). Could anyone put a list of demons and angels?Also could anyone put a list of sources and books I could check out for this topic? Reason for me making this thread is that I decided my Comic will start in the Roman period and so far am looking for ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 I may be misreading this topic but it seems very close to this one in which Ursus pointed out that 'Roman paganism doesn't proscribe sin or virtue.' The difficulty as far as I can see in ascribing what are 'Christian beliefs' onto Roman pre-Christian (therefore 'Pagan') belief systems or indeed almost any other faith is that the majority do not come from the Judeo-Christian tradition in which anything 'Pagan' must be 'demonic'. An example of this can be seen in the Lucifer God of the Morning Star thread. BTW Ursus recently did a review of a book on Roman Religion which you may find of interest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ParatrooperLirelou Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 I may be misreading this topic but it seems very close to this one in which Ursus pointed out that 'Roman paganism doesn't proscribe sin or virtue.' The difficulty as far as I can see in ascribing what are 'Christian beliefs' onto Roman pre-Christian (therefore 'Pagan') belief systems or indeed almost any other faith is that the majority do not come from the Judeo-Christian tradition in which anything 'Pagan' must be 'demonic'. True that demons and angels are connected to virtues and sins. Ok how about monsters or beasts that are terrifying such as Medusa?For this thread, demon is simplified into beingsthat opposed Gods and Goddeses or simply creatures that wreck havoc and harm on citizens of the Empire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maladict Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 For this thread, demon is simplified into beingsthat opposed Gods and Goddeses or simply creatures that wreck havoc and harm on citizens of the Empire. Wolves, possibly. The occasional whale overturning a boat, perhaps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 beingsthat opposed Gods and Goddeses or simply creatures that wreck havoc and harm on citizens of the Empire. Christians? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maladict Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Tax collectors! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Deranged mutant goats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maladict Posted July 2, 2011 Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 Lead farmers and their poisonous crops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted July 2, 2011 Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 Psychopathic Greek philosophers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldrail Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 Wealthy teenage daughters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 Demonic aurochs from Germany! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryaxis Hecatee Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 Pff some are having fun here More seriously there is indeed a pagan demonology which is seen mainly in the curse tablets and magical papyrii. Hecate could be (and sometime was) seen more as a kind of demon than a godess. We also find various "powers" that are not gods in the cursing texts, mainly from the eastern world, and some calls to powerfull dead magiciens including Jesus (yes, the one of the christians). Amongst the demons, some are the one found in the jewish books or deformations of the names of ancient babylonian divinities. Thus one will find non-christian calls to Abrasax or Baalzebuth in the texts. I've never inquired in this kind of litterature despite having an introductory course on the topic during my studies, but I know there is ample bibliography on the topic. Of course one must also be careful not to mistake the philosophic Daimon with the demons (= bad surnatural creatures) even if on sees in the later magical formula that the mistake was done by some autors, including leading neo-platonician philosophers of the 3rd or 4th century AD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted July 3, 2011 Report Share Posted July 3, 2011 Honestly, the magical papyri was a product of a multi-cultural, philosophically motivated segment of religion in Late Antiquity. I'm not sure how Roman I would really call it. The only thing that native Roman religion really has to commend to itself in the way of evil spirits are the Lemures, nasty spirits of the dead that were propitiated with bizarre rituals. But they are just nasty spirits of the dead and nothing more. "Demons and Angels" in the sense that the original poster is using are Christian constructs that are simply not useful in terms of Roman paganism. Christian constructs like good and evil or virtue and sin are not useful either. This was made clear to the original poster in a prior thread. That is why some of us are taking this thread less than seriously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GhostOfClayton Posted July 4, 2011 Report Share Posted July 4, 2011 (edited) You can't help looking at pictorial representations of the Godess Victory/Victoria, and thinking she's an angel. Did the one evolve from the other? Edited July 4, 2011 by GhostOfClayton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ParatrooperLirelou Posted July 4, 2011 Report Share Posted July 4, 2011 You can't help looking at pictorial representations of the Godess Victory/Victoria, and thinking she's an angel. Did the one evolve from the other? Very plausible that modern Angels having wings was influenced by Roman mythology and it doesn't surprise me if Victoria was the basis or among the more influential Roman mythological figures influenced the modern view of Angels. Real Angels look nothing warm and gentle like they're portrayed in recent literature and popular media.In fact the bible describes them as looking like TERRIFYING MONSTERS. Here are what real angels look like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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