Interesting demons?

[Kyriakos]

Demon is a nice term, perhaps because it owes its current meaning to the bad appropriation by christianity. The term (greek: daimon) originally meant either lesser gods (benevolent by and large) or some aspect of a person's character, like a driving force of creation. Socrates famously spoke of his "daimon" who urged him to do things, like learn music - and one of the accusations in the trial of Socrates was that he "introduces new daimons" (kaina daimonia).
In the era of mystical gnostic religions, in the first centuries AD, a hybrid of greek philosophy and christiany (in a very general sense) stuff appeared, where you'd also occasionally find "kakodemons"; mean demons. Christianity just usurped the notion to fill the world with even more nasty stuff

But this thread is about interesting demons or - if you will - endiaferontodemons
The Erinyes , aka "Zeus's winged dogs", can be seen as a type of what now is identified as demon. They were sent by the gods to punish anyone who committed hubris, and according to a nice aphorism by Heraklitos: "Not even the Sun can exceed what was allotted to him, for if he does then the Erinyes will find him and see that he faces trial".
The three Gorgones (two of which were immortal; the third one was killed by Perseas) also look like demons in their vase depictions. While the Erinyes at times have nice-looking female forms, and at others are nightmarish, the two immortal Gorgones look like a strange ant in most depictions, and bearded horrible old women in others.
Although they aren't really interested in dealing with humans, and not even the gods can stand to look at them - much like with other monsters, like the Scylla, the "immortal evil".

Yes, little fish... Come to the Octopus...

 

[Berzerker]

Heraklitos: "Not even the Sun can exceed what was allotted to him, for if he does then the Erinyes will find him and see that he faces trial".

Some peoples likened eclipses to a wolf or hound devouring the Sun

I thought about starting a thread exploring the word dragon

 

[Kyriakos]

In the case of Heraklitos, there wouldn't be any wolf-related image there. The Sun was often depicted with human form in the mythology, and was hanging around with Apollo and other supremely beautiful men. Iirc he once used his disc to kill an antagonist for Apollo's attention.
Heraklitos wrote of inescapable limits in almost all of the fragments we have left, and the quote about the Sun is the same.

As for dragon, afaik it is of greek origin, from drakon/drakos. A famous dragon in greek mythology was Ladon, who was guarding the garden of the Hesperides, until Herakles diminished him to a state of perpetual near-death (Ladon was immortal, so couldn't be killed).

 

[El_Machinae]

Oh, one that might not be familiar across the pond

The Wendigo

"The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash-gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave."

And the Wendigo would possess or afflict people with ravenous hunger. Sometimes it afflicted evil or greedy people, but not always

"Those poor men (according to the report given us) were seized with an ailment unknown to us, but not very unusual among the people we were seeking. They are afflicted with neither lunacy, hypochondria, nor frenzy; but have a combination of all these species of disease, which affects their imaginations and causes them a more than canine hunger. This makes them so ravenous for human flesh that they pounce upon women, children, and even upon men, like veritable werewolves, and devour them voraciously, without being able to appease or glut their appetite."

 

[Berzerker]

I suppose an eclipse does look like something 'biting' the sun as the moon's curvature increasingly swallows it

 

[Kyriakos]

According to legend, Thales (of Miletus) was the first person to predict a solar eclipse, and informed the king of Lydia that it would take place during their battle with Persia.
Heraklitos lived a century later (6th century BC), and by then eclipses were studied by natural philosophers (Heraklitos wasn't one). A little later you'd even have things like the Antikythera mechanism, since they were predicted consistently.

 

[AdamCrock]

Abraxas, α + β + ρ + α + ξ + α + ς = 1 + 2 + 100 + 1 + 60 + 1 + 200 = 365

Branded as demon by Christians.
In fact the symbol of a whip in his right hand is a weapon against demons. It represents might (Dynamis)
Snake legs represent spirit and word (Nous and Logos)
Chicken head symbolizes the dusk and dawn - the duality of good and evil but also a passage of time and vigilance over that time, which is providence (Phronesis)
Finally the shield represents wisdom (Sophia)

In "Septem sermones ad mortuos" ("Seven Sermons of the Dead") Carl Gustav Jung wrote :

That is terrible Abraxas.
It is the mightiest creature, and in it the creature is afraid of itself.
It is the manifest opposition of creatura to the pleroma and its nothingness.
It is the son’s horror of the mother.
It is the mother’s love for the son.
It is the delight of the earth and the cruelty of the heavens.

It is unreal reality, because it hath no definite effect.
It is also creatura, because it is distinct from the pleroma.
The sun hath a definite effect, and so hath the devil. Wherefore do they appear to us more effective than indefinite Abraxas.
It is force, duration, change.
The dead now raised a great tumult, for they were Christians.

Interestingly from the name Abraxas , the word "Abra Cadabra" is derived
There are a numerous pop culture references listed on a Eglish wiki page too, if anyone's interested
He was also an inspiration of a great Therion song !

 

[Gori the Grey]

Fliberdigibbet.

 

[Kyriakos]

Abraxas, α + β + ρ + α + ξ + α + ς = 1 + 2 + 100 + 1 + 60 + 1 + 200 = 365

Branded as demon by Christians.
In fact the symbol of a whip in his right hand is a weapon against demons. It represents might (Dynamis)
Snake legs represent spirit and word (Nous and Logos)
Chicken head symbolizes the dusk and dawn - the duality of good and evil but also a passage of time and vigilance over that time, which is providence (Phronesis)
Finally the shield represents wisdom (Sophia)

In "Septem sermones ad mortuos" ("Seven Sermons of the Dead") Carl Gustav Jung wrote :




Interestingly from the name Abraxas , the word "Abra Cadabra" is derived
There are a numerous pop culture references listed on a Eglish wiki page too, if anyone's interested
He was also an inspiration of a great Therion song !

Abraxas also makes in appearance in Hesse's Demian, which itself is a weird mixture of mysticism and analytic thinking

 

[Gori the Grey]

Legion, of course.

 

[Kyriakos]

Legion, of course.

They are just many demons inside one person; not particularly interesting?

 

[Takhisis]

I have to point out Tiamat (of course!) but

The term (greek: daimon) originally meant either lesser gods (benevolent by and large) or some aspect of a person's character, like a driving force of creation.

How (dis)similar would you say they are to Japanese kami then?

 

[Kyriakos]

^I am not sure if the daimonia included all the immortal beings/elements listed in (eg) the Theogonia. From reading the wiki kami article for a few seconds it seems those are included there.
Also: Culture(variable_x) (variable_x = ¬greek ⊃ ¬Culture)

 

[Berzerker]

Tiamat was the primordial world before the dry land (Earth) appeared, she is the biblical Tehom or watery dragon/abyss split in two to form Heaven and Earth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbaba

Humbaba or Hawawa (Sumerian) was the demon given the job of protecting the cedar forest (Cedars of Lebanon). Kinda sounds like the biblical cherubim guarding the Garden. He was killed by Gilgamesh and Enkidu.

 

[Hygro]

The cherubim has a flaming sword

 

[Patine]

The cherubim has a flaming sword

Cherubim is not a demon, though.

 

[Ferocitus]

The closest to what I think you're looking for from Australian Aboriginal legends is the Yara-Ma-Yha-Who.

In the branches of fig trees sleeps the Yara-ma-yha-who, a dwarf with red skin, a huge head and mouth,
and sucking, mouth-like parts on his hands and feet.
When an unsuspecting person happens by the tree, Yara-ma-yha-who drops and drains their blood with
his suckers. After the person is consumed, Yara-ma-yha-who takes a nap and, on waking regurgitates its
victim and repeats the process. The victim is smaller and redder each time. The Yara-ma-yha-who continues
repating the process until the victim is turned into another Yara-ma-yha-who.
The story goes this can only happen during the daylight.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Thread title made me think of this:

 

[Kyriakos]

The closest to what I think you're looking for from Australian Aboriginal legends is the Yara-Ma-Yha-Who.

In the branches of fig trees sleeps the Yara-ma-yha-who, a dwarf with red skin, a huge head and mouth,
and sucking, mouth-like parts on his hands and feet.
When an unsuspecting person happens by the tree, Yara-ma-yha-who drops and drains their blood with
his suckers. After the person is consumed, Yara-ma-yha-who takes a nap and, on waking regurgitates its
victim and repeats the process. The victim is smaller and redder each time. The Yara-ma-yha-who continues
repating the process until the victim is turned into another Yara-ma-yha-who.
The story goes this can only happen during the daylight.

This clip really terrified me when I saw it in mid-elementary school (but it had a greek dub, which gave it a different meaning, with the first phrase being: "When the monster appears"

 

[yung.carl.jung]

time to read up on Homunculus and its various pop-cultural iterations, imho.

azazello and behemoth are pretty cool demons from Master and Margarita.

berserk probably has the scariest, most demon-ey demons out of any piece of fiction. obligatory warning: do NOT watch or read berserk unless you want to have all of your innocence stripped away

also, I guess Killer BOB from Twin Peaks was sort of a demon. Scared the **** outta me.

What about Mephisto in (Goethe's) Faust? was he a Demon, a sort of devil, or something else entirely?

also, if you have not seen it, Mononoke (not the princess, the unrelated show!) has some sick demon spirits.

If you haven't seen Hereditary, it's probably the best film involving demons made in the last 30 or so years. Absolutely amazing.

Abraxas, α + β + ρ + α + ξ + α + ς = 1 + 2 + 100 + 1 + 60 + 1 + 200 = 365

Branded as demon by Christians.
In fact the symbol of a whip in his right hand is a weapon against demons. It represents might (Dynamis)
Snake legs represent spirit and word (Nous and Logos)
Chicken head symbolizes the dusk and dawn - the duality of good and evil but also a passage of time and vigilance over that time, which is providence (Phronesis)
Finally the shield represents wisdom (Sophia)

In "Septem sermones ad mortuos" ("Seven Sermons of the Dead") Carl Gustav Jung wrote :




Interestingly from the name Abraxas , the word "Abra Cadabra" is derived
There are a numerous pop culture references listed on a Eglish wiki page too, if anyone's interested
He was also an inspiration of a great Therion song !

I logged in only to congratulate you for what might be the best post of your entire career. I enjoyed the everloving hell out of that post.