Ashton Kutcher(DeltaChi Iowa) Demi More, JC Jon Cryer Trading Places bum? Kidnap brainwash game to the death? Demogorgon, although often ascribed to Greek mythology, is attributed to a fourth-century scholar, imagined as the name of a pagan deity or demon, associated with the underworld and envisaged as a powerful primordial being, whose very name had been taboo. The origins of the name Demogorgon are uncertain, partly perhaps, because the name was of imaginary coinage. Various theories suggest that the name is derived from a combination of the Greek words δαίμων daimon (spirit given the Christian connotations of demon in the early Middle Ages)—or, less likely δῆμος demos (people)— and Γοργών Gorgon (grim) or γοργός gorgos (quick), the Ancient Greek triad of goddesses whose origins extend to the fifteenth century BC, or much earlier (as suggested by Marija Gimbutas). Another, less accepted theory claims that it is derived from a variation of demiurge, although the two scholarly editions with the earliest mention of the term, (Jahnke 1898 and Sweeney 1997), see Demogorgon as a corruption of demiurge.[1] Derivation and history[edit] Demogorgon is first mentioned in the commentary on Statiuss Thebaid[2] often attributed in manuscripts to a Lactantius Placidus, (ca. 350-400 AD). The Placidus commentary became the most common medieval commentary on the poem by Statius and is transmitted in most early editions up to 1600.[3] The commentary has been attributed incorrectly to the Christian author Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius, even though the commentator appears to have been Mithraic.[4] The name Demogorgon is introduced in a discussion of Thebaid 4.516, which mentions the supreme being of the threefold world (triplicis mundi summum); in a mystical passage that seems to show Jewish influence, as it mentions Moses and Isaiah); the author says of Statius, Dicit deum Demogorgona summum (He is speaking of the Demogorgon, the supreme god, or perhaps He is speaking of a god, the supreme Demogorgon). Prior to Lactantius, there is no mention of the supposed Demogorgon anywhere by any writer, pagan or Christian. In the Early Middle Ages, Demogorgon is mentioned in the tenth-century Adnotationes super Lucanum, a series of short notes to Lucans Pharsalia that are included in the Commenta Bernensia, the Berne Scholia on Lucan.[5] By the late Middle Ages, the reality of a primordial Demogorgon was so well fixed in the European imagination that Demogorgons son Pan became a bizarre variant reading for Hermes son Pan in one manuscript tradition of Boccaccios Genealogia Deorum gentilium (Genealogies of the Gods:1.3-4 and 2.1), misreading a line in Ovids Metamorphoses.[citation needed] After Boccaccio Demogorgon is mentioned as a primal god in quite a few Renaissance texts, and impressively glossed Demon-Gorgon, i.e., Terror-Demon or God of the Earth. The French historian and mythographer Jean Seznec, for instance, now determines in Demogorgon an allusion to the Demiurge (Craftsman or Maker) of Platos Timaeus. For a remarkable early text identifying Ovids 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.[6] In literature[edit] Demogorgon was taken up by Christian writers as a demon of Hell: Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name Of Demogorgon — John Milton, Paradise Lost II. 966. Note, however, Milton does not refer to the inhabitants of Hell, but of an unformed region where Chaos rules with Night. In Miltons epic poem Satan passes through this region while traveling from Hell to Earth. Demogorgons name was earlier invoked by Faustus in Scene III of Christopher Marlowes Doctor Faustus (1590) when the eponymous Doctor summons Mephistopheles with a Latin incantation. The sixteenth-century Dutch demonologist Johann Weyer described Demogorgon as the master of fate in hells hierarchy.[7] According to Ariostos Orlando Furioso, Demogorgon has a splendid temple palace in the Himalaya mountains where every five years the Fates and genii are all summoned to appear before him and give an account of their actions. They travel through the air in various strange conveyances, and it is no easy matter to distinguish between their convention and a Witches Sabbath. When elements of Ariostos poem supplied Philippe Quinaults libretto for Jean-Baptiste Lullys opera Roland, performed at Versailles, 8 January 1685, Demogorgon was king of the fairies and master of ceremonies. Demorgogon also is mentioned in the Book II of the epic poema El Bernardo written in Mexico by Bernardo de Balbuena in the seventeenth century and published in Spain during 1624. The passage tells how the fairy, Alcina, visits Demorgogon in his infernal palace. Aquí Demogorgon está sentado en su banco fatal, cuyo decreto de las supremas causas es guardado por inviolable y celestial preceto. Las parcas y su estambre delicado a cuyo huso el mundo está sujeto, la fea muerte y el vivir lúcido y el negro lago del oscuro olvido — (Libro II, estrofa 19) Demogorgon is mentioned in Edmund Spensers The Faerie Queene: A bold bad man, that dard to call by name Great Gorgon, Prince of darknesse and dead night, At which Cocytus quakes, and Styx is put to flight. — (Canto I, stanza 37) and: Downe in the bottome of the deepe Abysse Where Demogorgon in dull darknesse pent, Farre from the view of Gods and heauens blis, The hideous Chaos keepes, their dreadfull dwelling is. — (Book IV, Canto ii, stanza 47) Demogorgon is the central character in Voltaires 1756 short story Platos Dream - a lesser superbeing who was responsible for creating the planet Earth. He is also the protagonist of an opera Il Demogorgone, ovvero il filosofo confuso (Demogorgon, or the Confused Philosopher by Vincenzo Righini (1786) with a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, which originally was written for Mozart.[8] In Moby-Dick, the first mate of the ship, Pequod, Starbuck, describes the white whale as Ahabs demogorgon. Demogorgon also appears as a character in Percy Bysshe Shelleys Prometheus Unbound. In this lyrical drama, Demogorgon is the offspring of Jupiter and Thetis who eventually dethrones Jupiter. It is never mentioned whether Demogorgon is female or male, instead, being portrayed as a dark, shapeless spirit. The theory of Demogorgons name originating from Greek demos and gorgos may be the foundation for its use in this text as an allusion to a politically active and revolutionary populace.[citation needed] Shelleys allusions to the French Revolution further support this.[original research?] In the poem Demogorgon by Álvaro de Campos, the writer is afraid of becoming mad by learning the true nature and unveiling the mystery of life.[9] See also[edit] Christian demons in popular culture Apollyon - A Greek equivalent of Abaddon. Notes[edit] 1.Jump up ^ See below, under References. 2.Jump up ^ Statius, Thebaid iv.500-518 , a passage often linked (see below) to Lucan, Pharsalia vi.744-49, where, however, Demogorgon is not specified. See notes to Lucan 6.744 in G. Viansinos edition (Mondadori, 1995). 3.Jump up ^ H. Anderson, The Manuscripts of Statius (Arlington, VA, 2009), vol. 2, pp. 83-85 and 191-202 4.Jump up ^ J. François, Le Scoliaste de la Thébaïde de Stace, Mémoire de licence, Liège, 1936, p. 82. R.D. Sweeney (ed., Lactantii Placidi in Statii Thebaida commentarii libri XII (Stuttgart/Leipzig: Teubner) 1997) also indicates that another Placidus, a Christian grammarian, is not to be confused with this Lactantius: glossae Placidi (ut uidetur, Christiani) nullo modo auctori nostro sunt adscribendae (p. viii). 5.Jump up ^ The Berne Scholia; Adnotationes super Lucanum, vi.746, are mentioned in Daniel Ogdens Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 198. 6.Jump up ^ Dr Daniel Kinney, Ovid Illustrated: The Renaissance Reception of Ovid in Image and Text linked below. 7.Jump up ^ Rudwin, Maximilian (1970) [1931]. The Devil in Legend and Literature (2nd ed.). New York: AMS Press. p. 80. ISBN 0-404-05451-X. 8.Jump up ^ Non tardar amato bene, left incomplete by Mozart was inserted in Da Pontes next project, Il Demogorgone (D. Heartz, Mozart and Da Ponte, The Musical Quarterly, 1995); the question how did Righini wind up setting a text written for Mozart, and how could a text designed for a different opera fit successfully into II demogorgone? is addressed in J Stone, Mozarts Theory of Opera, 13 October 1781 The Musical Times, 1991. 9.Jump up ^ Poema: Demogorgon - Álvaro de Campos - Poesia/Poemas no Citador, citador.pt References[edit] Lactantius Placidus, ad Theb. 4.516, ed. Jahnke (1898) (Google books) Lactantius Placidus, ad Theb. 4.516, ed. Sweeney (1997) (Google books) P.van de Woestijne, Les scholies à la Thébaïde de Stace: remarques et suggestions, LAntiquité Classique n.s. 19 (1950), pp 149–63], dates the scholiast of Statius to ca 350 - 400 CE. Dr Daniel Kinney, Ovid Illustrated: The Renaissance Reception of Ovid in Image and Text Vardas Demogorgon page Ogden, Daniel (2002). Magic, witchcraft, and ghosts in the Greek and Roman World, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515123-2
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 17:28:31 +0000
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