Contents

Preface ix

Contributors x

1 Introduction 1

Siam Bhayro and Catherine Rider

Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt

2 Shifting Alignments: The Dichotomy of Benevolent and Malevolent Demons in Mesopotamia 19

Gina Konstantopoulos

3 The Natural and Supernatural Aspects of Fever in Mesopotamian Medical Texts 39

Andras Bacskay

4 Illness as Divine Punishment: The Nature and Function of the Disease-Carrier Demons in the Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts 53

Rita Lucarelli

5 Demons at Work in Ancient Mesopotamia 61

Lorenzo Verderame

Second Temple Judaism and Late Antiquity

6 Demons and Illness in Second Temple Judaism: Theory and Practice 81

Ida Frohlich

7 Illness and Healing through Spell and Incantation in the Dead Sea Scrolls 97

David Hamidovic

8 Conceptualizing Demons in Late Antique Judaism 111

Gideon Bohak

9 Oneiric Aggressive Magic: Sleep Disorders in Late Antique Jewish Tradition 134

Alessia Bellusci

10 The Influence of Demons on the Human Mind according to Athenagoras and Tatian 175

Chiara Crosignani

11 Demonic Anti-Music and Spiritual Disorder in the Life of Antony 192

Sophie Sawicka-Sykes

12 Over-Eating Demoniacs in Late Antique Hagiography 215

Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe

Medieval

13 Miracles and Madness: Dispelling Demons in Twelfth-Century Hagiography 235

Anne E. Bailey

14 Demons in Lapidaries? The Evidence of the Madrid MS Escorial, h.I.15 256

M.

15 The Melancholy of the Necromancer in Arnau de Vilanova’s Epistle against Demonic Magic 271

Sebastia Giralt

16 Demons, Illness, and Spiritual Aids in Natural Magic and Image Magic 291

Lauri Ockenstrom

17 Between Medicine and Magic: Spiritual Aetiology and Therapeutics in Medieval Islam 313

Liana Saif

18 Demons, Saints, and the Mad in the Twelfth-Century Miracles of Thomas Becket 339

Claire Trenery

Early Modernity

19 The Post-Reformation Challenge to Demonic Possession 359

Harman Bhogal

20 From A Discoverie to The Triall of Witchcraft: Doctor Cotta and GodlyJohn 376

Pierre Kapitaniak

21 Healing with Demons? Preternatural Philosophy and Superstitious Cures in Spanish Inquisitorial Courts 396

Bradley J. Mollmann

22 Afterword: Pandaemonium 412

Peregrine Horden

Index of Subjects 419

Index of Texts 421