The Iconography of Demons - Essay Example

Insert Name of Student Insert Name of Professor Insert Course Insert Date of Submission The Iconography of Demons as Inhabitants of Hell: From Early Christian Times to the Medieval Period Demons are often regarded as denizens of hell. This perception is rooted in our belief of how things are ordered: angels together with God, the Supreme Being, reside in the heavens while demons, followers of Satan, belong in the underworld. Throughout the history of mankind, demons have been creatures of dread, fear, and reluctant fascination – the latter manifested by the countless array of literature on demonology. As such, depictions of demons are wide-ranging and varying from one period to another and across cultures. This paper explores the visual characteristics of hell demons throughout centuries. Unlike angelic iconography, diabolic images tend to vary based on cultural context. Despite the variance, there are common factors in images across cultures, confirming that, there is a universal psychological response to common perceptions of evil. The Origin of the Word “Demon” The term ‘demon’ can be traced back to pagan Greeks, who believed in various malicious spirits but never identified a principle of evil that is equal to Christianity’s Satan. The word ‘demon’ came from the Greek word ‘daimon.’ Russel (1988) writes that it doesn’t necessarily connote an evil being. Furthermore, centuries after Homer’s time, a daimon (or daimonion) was understood to be a spiritual being inferior to a god. Its usage and meaning remained vague until the time of Socrates, whose guiding spirit was a ‘demon.” It was only during the time of Plato that the negativity of the word was established. Plato’s pupil Xenocrates divided good gods from evil demons and transferred destructive qualities of gods onto the demons. The Stoics and Plutarch followed suit. The negative meaning was further stressed during the 2nd century, when the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek used daimonion to refer to Hebrew evil spirits. The term ‘devil’ and ‘demon’ are often used interchangeably and are considered synonymous to each other.1 During the Renaissance period, the devil and demon have two distinct connotations, the former as a synonym for the Catholic term ‘fallen angel.” The latter, as previously stated, is a constellation of different meanings. It could refer to the Platonic ‘daimon,” the Christian ‘devil,’ and ‘spirit’ in medieval and Renaissance popular magic. Though having distinct meanings, these two terms do not pertain to two radically different entities. As such, for the purpose of this paper, the devil and demon shall be considered as synonymous to each other. Demons as Shape Shifters Universally known images of demons – evil beings that they are – tend to be menacing, fearsome, and unsightly. However, it is interesting to note that, unlike depictions of angels that remain relatively static over time, icons of demons tend to reflect their cultural environment, its values, abuses, and terrors (Palmer, 1992). Angels, as portrayed all throughout the history of Western art, are always depicted with wings and halos. Demons, on the other hand, are shape shifters, which explain to some extent the interrupted and erratic history of diabolic iconography.2 Demons can change their forms and attributes unceasingly (Russel, 1988). Palmer (1992) further explains: “A cursory historical examination of the diabolic concept sheds little light on medieval English representations. The term ‘devil’ itself reflects philological shape-shifting; as Rossell Hope Robbins notes, ‘originally distinct species of spirits were unified by interchangeable translations of devil, demon, fiend’ an observation buttressed by the textual designations of ‘serpente,’ ‘dyvell,’ and ‘Demon’ within the same sentence in the Chester Cycle Fall of Adam and Eve.” (page 20) The concept and forms of a devil come from wildlife forms, shaped by attributes of social ills and dangers, and embody man’s psychological, spiritual, and moral terrors. The Classic Portrayal of the Devil The Devil is considered the principal of evil, the arch nemesis of God, the source of all goodness. He is the ruler of hell, the underworld. The amber glow of hell’s fires and the color of bloodshed led to the correlation between the Devil and color red (Russell, 1988). Blackness and darkness are almost always associated with evil; psychologically, it symbolizes the fearful, uncontrollable depths of the unconscious. It is also connected with depression, idiocy, sin, hopelessness, dirt, poison, and plague. Void, nothingness, and chaos are also linked with the Devil. Chaos appears in myth as a monster, such as the Hebrew Leviathan or the Babylonian Tiamat. Chaos is also represented as a snake, serpent, or dragon. Through the serpent, the Devil is associated with terror; through the dragon, the slaying of life. Renaissance writer Leon d’Alexis describes the Devil as having a “deformed” and “disfigured” image (Palmer, 1992). The image is often depicted with horns. Horns symbolize princely power, as in deer, bulls, and mountain goats. However, they also carry a powerful negative connotation. Horns also bring to mind dangerous wild beasts that gore with their horns. A perfect illustration is the Greco-Roman deity, Pan – hairy and goat-like, with horns on his head and cloven hooves as feet – whose image became part of the Christian image of Satan (Russell, 1988). In addition, Caciola (2003) reveals that a prelude to the iconography of the birthing of Satan is the anonymous mosaic on the ceiling of the baptistery in Florence. She further explains: “The composition focuses on the reptilian figure of Satan enthroned on a pair of dragons, and surrounded by various figures of toads, worms, and serpents. This mosaic was influential in its vivid depictions of the torments of Hell, dominated by ingestion and incorporation into the bodies of demons. The dragons of Satan’s throne devour sinners, as does Satan himself and the two snakes that spring forth from his ears. Meanwhile, the surrounding reptilian fauna are all busily engaged in biting, chewing, and vomiting various sinners. The souls of humans vomited up by toads are a fascinating reversal of the typical image of the demoniac vomiting up a spirit.” Diabolic Iconography in Early Christian Art Unlike pagan Roman art, early Christian art did not illustrate many images of demons. Despite heavy and many references to diabolic iconographic forms in the Holy Scriptures, there were no artworks made during the early years of Christianity about demons, except for the illustration of Adam and Eve separated by a tree with a serpent. Biblical accounts, however, offer a rich and vast array of diabolic images – the serpent, Leviathan, dragon, sea beast, earth beast, leopard, bear, lion, locust, horse, scorpion, frog, and bird. As diabolic shapes, the Bible also offers the following demonic attributes – fire, smoke, chains, horns, multiple heads, crowns, women’s hair, lion’s fangs, and breastplates. Palmer (1992) also wrote that demons from 18 Gospel accounts of Christ casting them out were among the first to be illustrated in Christian art. Furthermore, she cites a Book of Periscopes and explains: “The offending demon takes the form of a diabolic bird with horns and sharply feathered arm wings who emerges from the mouth of a possessed man; other demons in this illustration ride animals whose shapes eventually will become subsumed into their own.” The Stuttgart Psalter’s two diabolic tempters are black and naked with sharply-pointed wings, distorted facial features, and elongated pointed fingers by which one holds a two-pronged poker and the other a splayed hook. Instead of being imaginative inventions, however, these demons seem rather to reflect a debased parody of angelic iconography. 14th Century – Medieval Diabolic Illustrations The medieval period was the golden age for diabolic iconography. Artists and writers alike spewed forth numerous art and literary works in reference or with usage of demons. It was also the time when demons were more diversified. A perfect encapsulation of this fact is a line of Lucifer’s character from a 14th century French miracle play of St. Quentin (as cited in Palmer, 1992): “Smooth Devils, Horned Devils, Sullen Devils, Playful Devils, Shorn Devils, Hairy Devils, Bushy Devils, Cursed Devils, Foolish Devils, Devils, Devilesses, and Young Devils, All the progeny of devildom…” A rich and classic example of diabolic iconography in the medieval times is the communion and death of Judas. Full of diabolic images, (blackbirds; bat-like, scrawny demons; dragon-fish; beastlike grotesques; even an ibex pulling the hanging rope), such scenes are very rare after the fourteenth century and even rarer at any point in England, making their influence on medieval diabolic imagery difficult to discern (Palmer, 1992). Palmer (1992) writes: “In the vast cauldron of diabolic imagery with either verbal or artistic authority, one can see the shape of a giant, black boy, monk, scholar, woman, wild beast, angel, adder, dragon, Leviathan, bird, smoke, fire, ibex, bee, or locust. Additional appendages are attached from ass, leopard, bear, horse, wolf, scorpion, bull, goat, and bat, with wings, horns, fangs, and body hair in varying proportions… multi-headed or multi-faced to suggest their duplicity, some devils are also represented by further anatomic distortion as Behomoths of sexual prowess or corruption. Although usually pictured as black to signify their deprivation from light, red, blue, yellow, or green devils occur as cultural norms dictate.” Another key characteristic of diabolic iconography is the expression of chaos, a deviation from natural order (Bourke, 2007). More importantly, medieval diabolic images underscore how men perceive the difference between the way things ought to look. Medieval English demons, as reflected in York’s Church at St. Michael, are depicted as fallen angels – “Lucifer yet in feathers, but other demons fully altered with feathers replaced by hair” (Palmer, 1992, p. 27) Depictions of demons borrowed heavily from ideas of the Holy Scriptures. At Lincoln Cathedral, Satan bears a sinister, deceitful, cross-legged posture usually given to Herod.3 Lesser demons, however, are pictures more often as animalistic and grotesque, with an assortment of pig ears, snouts, bat-like wings, fanged mouths, paw-like hands, facial hair, and furry bodies. These lesser personnel are employed in hell as torturers; demons act as executioners of God’s justice by tormenting damned souls in hell (Russel, 1988). Other lesser demons act as porters, stokers, cauldron tenders, executioners, scribes, guards, accountants, and even musicians.4 At the same time, angelic iconography also borrowed extensively from diabolic depictions. Palmer (1992) writes: “The feathered wings and tunic of a Methley Church of St. Oswald roof boss seraphim are as sharply pointed as a devil’s appendages, and the Thornhill Church of St. Michael with unfurled bat-like wings guarding the entrance to heaven.” Desensitization toward Diabolic Imagery The more diabolic images one analyzes, the less peculiar their individual iconographic elements become. At first glance, demons appear to be horrific, nightmarish creatures escaped from another world; consequent examination reveals that the elements which compound diabolic representation are in fact simple things from the world of man, of nature, and of scared art (Warner, 2007). Bosch shows St. Anthony born aloft by demons from the Temptations of St. Anthony is a case in point. The viewer immediately reacts to a world that never was and the he very much hopes will never be: suspended in a sulphorous blue sky, St. Anthony clings to a crab-like demon while assaulted on all sides by voracious flying fish, a captured sailing boat in tow, and demons which range from the homicidal to the comical. Closer study, however, identifies recognizably natural details. The homicidal demon carries a leafy locust branch as his weapon, another demon a long-handled mason’s mallet, and the third an ordinary hay scythe, the flying fish look like fish, the blackbirds like blackbirds, and the boats perfectly sea-worthy. Even the apparent oddity of the third demo’s being propelled by a firecracker in his posterior is relatively normal in the world of medieval drama. Demonization of the Female: Fallen Women and Fallen Angels Albertus Magnus, one of the pillars of the Catholic Church, once said, “In brief, a woman is nothing other than a devil in the likeness of a human form (Caciola, 2003). Women were regarded as easy prey to demonic whiles and possession. Caciola (2003) explains: “Women’s malleability, weakness, and softness made them easy fall under the sway of external persuasions and spiritual influences… Man (vir) is so called because there is greater strength / virtue (virtus) in him than in women. It is for that reason that he takes the name, or because he acts with strength / virtue in his relationship with woman. Woman (mulier) however, gets her name for her weakness (mollicia), for she is weaker, (mollier) with the letter ‘l’ removed or changed, giving ‘woman.’ Women were also thought to be the more carnal sex in the Middle Ages. Debilitated by sexual urges, women’s limited moral judgment and rational capabilities were easily overwhelmed by desire. Caciola (2003) further writes that anything that existed in the image of God had resistance to demons. Thus medieval theologians and preachers regularly asserted that the human soul, of either sex, was off-limits to demonic invasion. The logic behind such thinking is that no demon would ever attempt to infiltrate a being with image and likeness of the Omnipotent. However, women, being less alike God in image and likeness than men, are believed to be more prone to possession. Caciola (2003) further writes: “Among spirits, a female appearance is an exclusive signifier of demonic status. Male appearance, conversely, is angelic. William of Auvergne states ‘What if someone should that the virile sex also has no place among exalted and blessed spirits? I answer that though this is true, nevertheless virtue, strength, and active ability has a place in men and those are quite appropriate to spiritual substances. However, the passive ability and infirmity and weakness that are womanly characteristics are entirely inappropriate for this kind of spirit.” This supposed inferiority is clearly encapsulated in the fourteenth century fresco inside the Church of San Petronius in Bologna. The painting presents a dense set of figural relationships: between the Fall and the Redemption, between the Tree of Knowledge and the “Tree of the cross, and between Old Testament patriarchs and New Testament figures. Most interesting for our purposes, however, are the parallelisms that are established between Adam and Eve and other figures. Adam is closely aligned with Jesus: indeed, this was a traditional association first made by Paul, who refers to this pair as the “first man Adam,” and the “last man Adam (I Cor 15:45-49), in order to emphasize Christ’s recreation of human nature through his redemptive sacrifice. Adam thus both historically prefigures, and is created in the image of the God-Christ. Eve, however, resembles no one in the picture so much as the devil; she gazes into the smiling face of the serpent to whom she succumbs as if into a mirror. They are twinned: both have lush, wavy blond hair, smooth foreheads, and delicate features. However, beneath the tempter’s skillfully made-up face lie the green, scaly coils of a snake. The painting also juxtaposes Eve with the figure of Mary, who is standing on the other side of the tree and who often was regarded as the woman who brought salvation to the world engendered by Eve’s trespass. However, insofar as Eve’s physical form exists in the image of something else, it is an imago diabolic, of the devil whose visage lies so near to hers. The iconography of the female-headed serpent had become increasingly popular since the 13th century: such a motif is also found, for example, in the portals of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris (Caciola, 2003). Trends in Diabolic Imagery across Cultures There is a pattern in depicting demons regardless of the cultural environment they come from. There are certain civilizations - particularly cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Canaan, and Greece - parts of the Roman Empire, stood directly in the historical background of the Judeo-Christian concept of the Devil. However, depictions of demons from East, unencumbered by Western influences, bear striking similarities to Western diabolic imagery – the same claws and fangs, the association of black with demons. Russel (1988). In a nutshell, regardless of cultural context, there appears to a universal psychological to perceived evils. Conclusion Many characteristics typify the inhabitants of hells: disintegration, fragmentation, incongruity, antithesis, exaggeration, adaptation, juxtaposition, and recombination of elements into a potential compound of all the contortions and distortions known to exist among living things on this earth. It is basically a perversion of heavenly and earthly elements, a realm where the practices were a total reversal of everything ordained for mankind by the Almighty. The common thread though all these diabolic images, however diverse and whatever their context, is that they represent man’s attempt to portray disorder, the disorder which threatens his physical, psychological, social, or spiritual ability. The inhabitants of hell as depicted in medieval art figure an assault on the ordinary, the regular, the anticipated. Man calculates that if the follows the rules which he either has been taught or has learned empirically the affairs of his life are likely to go in a certain more or less predictable way. When man breaks rules, he allows a chaotic latitude that seems to find artistic expression in the iconographic diversity of medieval devils. Open to boundless images from the natural and man-made world, devils present an extraordinary opportunity for innovation, individuality, and artistic evolution. By definition of the invasive, perverted and damnable nature of the evils which it represents, diabolic iconography survives all forms of censorship to remain the means by which is expressed that which all men in all ages have feared most: chaos. Works Cited Bourke, Cormac. The Iconography of the Devil: St. Vigean’s, Eassie’s and the Book of Kells. The Innes Review, Vol 58:1, Spring 2007. Caciola, Nancy. Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2003. Davidson, Clifford, and Seiler, Thomas H. (eds). The Iconography of Hell. Michigan: Medieval Institute Pubilcations, 1992. Maggi, Armando. Satan’s Rhetoric: A Study of Renaissance Demonology. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2001. Russel, Jeffrey Burton. The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1988. Warner, Marina. Monsters of Our Own Making: The Peculiar Pleasures of Fear. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2007. Read More