Demonology and Devil-Lore
Format: Paperback
ISBN13: 9780217201575
Paperback|9780217201575
Out of Stock
Overview
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. DEGRADATION. The degradation of deities ? Indicated in names ? Legends of their fall ? Incidental signs of the divine origin of demons and devils. THE atmospheric conditions having been prepared in the human mind for the production of demons, the particular shapes or names they would assume would be determined by a variety of circumstances, ethnical, climatic, political, or even accidental. They would, indeed, be rarely accidental; but Professor Max Miiller, in his notes to the Rig-Veda, has called attention to a remarkable instance in which the formation of an imposing mythological figure of this kind had its name determined by what, in all probability, was an accident. There appears in the earliest Vedic hymns the name of Aditi, as the holy Mother of many gods, and thrice there is mentioned the female name Diti. But there is reason to believe that Diti is a mere reflex of Aditi, the a being dropped originally by a reciter's license. The later reciters, however, regarding every letter in so sacred a book, or even the omission of a letter, as of eternal significance, Diti?this decapitated Aditi?was evolved into a separate and powerful being, and, every niche of beneficence being occupied by its god or goddess, the new form was at once relegated to the newly-defined realm of evil, where she remained as the16 PHILOLOGICAL TRACES. mother of the enemies of the gods, the Daityas. Unhappily this accident followed the ancient tendency by which the Furies and Vices have, with scandalous constancy, been described in the feminine gender. The close -resemblance between these two names of Hindu mythology, severally representing the best and the worst, may be thus accidental, and only serve to show how the demon-forming tendency, after it began, was able to press e...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217201575 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217201571 |
| Weight | 0.86 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.59 In |
| List Price | $21.33 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 262 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
View All Offers
Sort by:
Price
