Demogorgon
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Demogorgon, although often ascribed to Greek mythology, is actually an invention of Christian scholars, imagined as the name of a pagan god or demon, associated with the underworld and imagined as a powerful primordial being, whose very name had been taboo. Demogorgon is first mentioned by a Christian scholiast of ca 350 - 400 CE, who was writing glossary annotations into the margins of Statius, Thebaid. This unidentified scribbler is misidentified with various Christian authors by enthusiastic modern demonologists. Prior to this, there is no pagan mention of any mythic "Demogorgon" anywhere.
By the late Middle Ages, nevertheless, the reality of a primal creative pagan "Demogorgon" was so well fixed in the European imagination that "Demogorgon's son Pan" became a bizarre variant reading for "Hermes' son Pan" in Boccaccio's Genealogie Deorum ("Genealogies of the Gods":1.3-4 and 2.1), misreading a line in Ovid's Metamorphoses.
- "Though a "primal" god mentioned in quite a few Renaissance texts, and impressively glossed "Demon-Gorgon," i.e., "Terror-Demon" or "God of the Earth," Demogorgon was quite possibly brought into existence by way of a garbled scholium on Statius' Thebais 4.516 (often linked to Lucan 6.744-49), where most scholars like Seznec, for instance, now spot an allusion to the Demiurge ("Craftsman" or "Maker") of Plato's Timaeus. For a remarkable early text actually identifying Ovid's Demiurge (1/1, here) as "sovereign Demogorgon," see the paraphrase of Metamorphoses I in Abraham France, The third part of the Countesse of Pembrokes Yuychurch (London, 1592), sig. A2v." (Dr Daniel Kinney, "Ovid Illustrated: The Renaissance Reception of Ovid in Image and Text" see link below)
The origins of the name Demogorgon are uncertain, partly because the figure itself was of imaginary coinage. Various theories suggest that the name is derived from the Greek words daemon ('spirit' given the Christian connotations of 'demon' in the early Middle Ages)— or, less likely demos ('people')— and Gorgon or gorgos ('grim'). Another, less accepted theory claims that it is derived from a variation of 'demiurge'. The early Christian obsession with Satan and the vivid inhabitants of Hell are of Persian origin, while the magical context in which such imaginings thrive was Egyptian and Syrian.
"Demogorgon" was taken up as a poetic Christian ogre of Hell:
- "Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name Of Demogorgon."
- --John Milton, Paradise Lost II.966.
External links
- Varda's Demogorgon page (http://www.geocities.com/varda_valar/genD/Demogorgon.htm)
- Dr Daniel Kinney, "Ovid Illustrated: The Renaissance Reception of Ovid in Image and Text" (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/latin/ovid/ovid1563.html)
Reference
- [P.van de Woestijne, "Les scholies à la Thébaïde de Stace: remarques et suggestions," L'Antiquité Classique n.s. 19 (1950), pp 149-63, dates the scholiast of Statius to ca 350 - 400 CE.]
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, Demogorgon is a powerful demon, a two-headed, tentacle-limbed, reptilian (or amphibious) hermaphroditic humanoid. Similar interpretations of Demogorgon appear in many D&D-derived games, such as NetHack.
Demogorgon is the name of a black metal band.
Demogorgon is the name of a novel by Brian Lumley.