Demonic Anti-Music in the Life of Antony

The narrative of Antony's life includes several vivid instances of demonic attack, and Antony's first-person speech on evil spirits around the mid-point of the hagiography allows the reader to discern the battle between holiness and evil at a closer range.

In his discernment speech, Antony states that noisy demonic attack serves to deceive the unwary:

For everything [demons] do—they talk, they cause mass confusion [θορυβοΰσι], they pretend to be others than themselves, and they create disturbances [ταράττουσι]—all this is for the deception of the simple. They also make crashing sounds [κτύπους γοΰν ποιοΰσι], and laugh madly [γελωσιν άφρόνως], and hiss [συρίττουσιν].^{[529] [530] [531] [532] [533] [534] [535] [536]}

Later in his speech, Antony suggests that the purpose of demonic trickery is to cause fear: “‘when [demons] see people who are fearful, they multiply the apparitions so as to terrify them all the more’”?³ Evil apparitions, he explains, can be identified by the sounds they make. Whilst holy visitations are “‘not subject to disturbance,”^⁴ the appearance of evil beings is troubling, “‘with crashing and noise and shouting [μετά κτύρου καί ήχου καί κραυγής]—the sort of disturbance one might expect from tough youths and robbers’”?⁵ This is certainly in keeping with the experiences recorded in the narrative of his life.

Antony describes the effect that the noisy apparitions have on the soul of a vulnerable monk:

[f]rom this come immediately terror of the soul, confusion and disor­der of thoughts [τάραχος καί άταξία λογισμών], dejection, enmity toward ascetics, listlessness [άκηδία], grief [λύπη], memory of relatives, and fear of death [φόβος θανάτου]; and finally there is craving for evil, contempt for virtue, and instability of character^{[538] [539]}

As agents of chaos, demons first of all throw the ascetic into a fearful state, and then trouble his thoughts.

Creating noise is not the only way in which demons seek to perform άταξία. Antony explicitly makes reference to the theatrical aspect of the demons’ deception in their capacity to create illusions.8² He elaborates, “‘[they] play parts as if they were on stage, changing their forms and striking fear in children by the illusion of the hordes and their shapes’”.^[540] Antony's portrayal of demons as actors would have been particularly powerful for the late-antique Christian, familiar with patristic invective against theatrical performance^[541] The weak monk, unable to distinguish stage from world and performance from reality, would easily fall prey to demonic dramatics.

Elsewhere in his speech, Antony explains that demons are able to feign psalmody and recite from Scripture: “‘[f]requently, without becoming visible, they pretend to chant with sacred songs [ψάλλειν μετ’ ωδής προσποιούνται]’”^[542] Imitation or parody is therefore another aspect of demonic anti-music^{[543] [544] [545] In chanting psalms and reciting Scripture, demons are merely putting on a show of holiness.}

Antony states the intention behind this trickery is to “‘bring the simple to despair, and declare the discipline useless, and make men sick of the solitary life as something burdensome and very oppressive, and trip up those who, opposing them, lead it’”.88 This response to demonic performance again serves to detach the monk from the wider community and lose faith in God and him­self, reinforcing a delusional view that all efforts are for nothing. Although Antony does not give a specific term to this state, the condition described here bears similarities to the “listlessness” (άκηδία) which Antony claimed could be brought about by noisy demonic apparitions. While Athanasius does not fully develop this term in the Life of Antony, it may be interpreted as an early under­standing of the monastic sin and sickness, acedia, which was thought to cause listlessness, dejection and tiredness.^[546] Andrew Crislip argues that later monas­tic texts, the Life of Pachomius and the canons of Shenoute, reveal a distinc­tion between natural illness, with a physiological cause, which can be cured by both medical and non-medical healing, and non-natural illness, caused by demons^[547] He understands demonic illness, such as acedia, to be a false illness, which mimics the symptoms of physical sickness but is instead a disorder of thought. In the Life of Antony, Athanasius does not draw such a distinction. Yet we may conclude that demonic performance can bring about a despairing and dejected state, with a faulty judgement about the world and the self at its core, and that, in some later writings, this state was associated with illusory demonic illness.

Antony recognises that the microcosm of disorder created by the demons can only be a performance or illusion. In Against the Heathen, Athanasius defines evil as “ούκ οντα,” without being^[548] This privation is the opposite of God, Being Itself. Evil is not created, but comes about when spiritual beings turn away from God. A model of “utter equilibrium,’^^[549] Antony maintains parts of his body and soul in a state of right relation, and, as we can infer from his evalu­ation of demonic apparitions and anti-music as harmless, he keeps a model of the universe as a harmonious whole in mind. In his understanding of the tricks of demons, Antony resembles the ideal wise man of the Stoic tradition who recognises the fear of external threat to be an illusion^{[550] [551]}

During several of his trials with demonic noise, Antony engages in psalm singing.94 These spiritual songs have an apotropaic function, causing the evil ones to cry and lament.^[552] The efficacy of the psalms lies not only in their words, or even in their musical structure, but in their correct performance. In the Letter to Marcellinus, Athanasius explains how the soul “that possesses the mind of Christ” uses reason as a leader to prevent it from falling into confusion^[553] Reason governs the body's members and passions so that “man becoming him­self a stringed instrument and devoting himself completely to the Spirit may obey in all his members and emotions, and serve the will of God”^[554] The psalms are a figure or a type of this state of being; the musical nature of the psalms is a symbol of the harmony within the balanced soul.9^{[555] [556] Furthermore, this state can be achieved through the very activity of singing or reading the psalms with the mind fixed on God. When worshippers chant psalms “so that the melody of the phrases is brought forth from the soul's good order,” they sing with the mind as well as the tongue.99 This benefits both themselves and the listeners, inducing tranquillity in souls and bringing them “into unanimity with those who form the heavenly chorus”.[557] [558] Psalms act as a performative link between the microcosm of the soul and the macrocosm of the created universe, draw­ing the singer's attention towards heavenly and earthly spiritual communities.}

Like all adjuncts to health and harmony, Antony's steadfast faith and rea­sonable conduct do not and cannot eliminate baseness. Rather, these virtues create an inspirational atmosphere within the desert, which motivates his followers to set their minds on renewing and restorative feats of holiness. Antony's monastery becomes like a place “filled with divine choirs—people chanting, studying, fasting, praying, rejoicing in the hope of future boons, working for the distribution of alms, and maintaining both love and harmony among themselves”.ioi We cannot fail to be reminded of Athanasius's descrip­tion of the universe as a choir with each member singing according to his or her own special skill and ability. Antony, as the enemy of legions of demons, is the conductor of a body of monks working in harmony.