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 Müller, 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 the 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 even the most trivial incidents into its service. But
generally the names of demons, and for whole races of demons, report
far more than this; and in no inquiry more than that before us is it
necessary to remember that names are things. The philological facts
supply a remarkable confirmation of the statements already made
as to the original identity of demon and deity. The word 'demon'
itself, as we have said, originally bore a good instead of an evil
meaning. The Sanskrit deva, 'the shining one,' Zend daêva, correspond
with the Greek theos, Latin deus, Anglo-Saxon Tiw; and remain in
'deity,' 'deuce' (probably; it exists in Armorican, teuz, a phantom),
'devel' (the gipsy name for God), and Persian div, demon. The Demon
of Socrates represents the personification of a being still good, but
no doubt on the path of decline from pure divinity. Plato declares
that good men when they die become 'demons,' and he says 'demons
are reporters and carriers between gods and men.' Our familiar word
bogey, a sort of nickname for an evil spirit, comes from the Slavonic
word for God--bog. Appearing here in the West as bogey (Welsh bwg,
a goblin), this word bog began, probably, as the 'Baga' of cuneiform
inscriptions, a name of the Supreme Being, or possibly the Hindu
'Bhaga,' Lord of Life. In the 'Bishop's Bible' the passage occurs,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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