I ran into something though provoking the other day. One of the places I read, is doing a series on demonology. They were starting with Sumerian mythology. Since the writer is heavily Christian and the sources I have read of him before, make me wonder on his sources, I decided to google. I found something interesting.
Sumerian Demons are not like what we think of in Christian mythos. http://www.templeofsumer.org/share4b.html Sumerian Demons are not necessarily bad. They have rules, and aren't the the chaotic forces of evil, that we see on Paranormal witness. Ghosts are classified under this. Quoted from the page. that means that ghosts, foreign gods, monsters, protective spirits, and numerous other essences are all lumped into the broad category of Udug. Udug is the Sumerian word for Demon.
That explains things. That explains the Jewish fear of Ghosts. That explains why Solomon could build a temple with help from demons(Key of Solomon and Lesser key of Solomon) and that explains why there is a holdover of foreign Gods equals demons.
Things that make you go hmmmmmmm
Oh and for those curious, home page for Sumerian Gods and the context. Go and view. http://www.templeofsumer.org/Temple_of_Sumer.html
This is also interesting as heck too http://www.templeofsumer.org/biblicalpar.html
*blinks...* Now my game (Shin Megami Tensei) where every random monster be it spirit, fey, deity, what have you, is referred to as a 'demon' has a basis for that. Wonder if the creators of the game knew about this concept... I'm betting they did. They took a lot of other Sumerian influences for characters and concepts.
ReplyDeleteI tagged this post as Ooooh shiny:) It was a very interesting recon site. It is informational, without axe grinding and pointing of fingers. It doesn't try to be ooooh I'm the elder so thou must bow down to me, condescending. Wish they would update it though.
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