For these divine oracles, truly, from ancient times of old, had been proclaimed among the Hebrews, announcing beforehand the redemption of our souls, once blind, and bound with the manifold fetters of evil daemons. Whence it is fitting that we, the eyes of our understanding having been illumined by the saving word, having become prudent and reverent and intelligent, and free from all evils, shall neither sacrifice to nor be enslaved to the gods reckoned as such by the nations, who indeed formerly tyrannized over us; but having been led and brought forward by the teaching of our Savior to the one and true God -- who is indeed both Master and Nourisher, Savior and Benefactor, and moreover Maker and Creator and King of all -- we shall regard Him alone as the true God, and to Him alone shall we render the fitting reverence, honoring and worshiping Him alone, not in the manner pleasing to the daemons, but in the manner that has been handed down through the evangelical teaching of Him who was sent down by Him as Savior of all men.
Worshiping God in this way, we shall drive out and banish from ourselves -- far from fearing them -- the evil daemons, solely through purity and a clean manner of life, and through a life that is prudent and possessed of every virtue, such as has indeed been ordained by our Savior. For it has been agreed that they cannot approach a pure soul, because of its unlikeness to them. But neither shall we have need of divinations and oracles, nor shall we search out the entrails of animals, nor shall we busy ourselves with any of the things wrought through demonic activity.
For the things for the sake of which the many are so zealous, the word of Christ has commanded us to practice keeping ourselves apart from; but it has exhorted us to desire only those things concerning which, truly, no diviner nor the entrails of animals will disclose what is clear, but only the Word of God himself, who dwells in the true inward parts of those able, through the utmost purity of soul, to receive him within themselves. Concerning these it says somewhere in the sacred writings: 'I will dwell in them, and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.'
These, then, are the arguments from the topic of sacrifices that refute the wickedness of daemons. But hear also what the same author, in his work On Abstinence from Animate Beings, again relates concerning these same matters, expressly confessing that evil daemons, taking shape in many forms and assuming all manner of appearances, escape notice and deceive most men. For, he says, putting on the masks of good beings and winning over the multitudes by inflaming men's desires, they wish to have themselves proclaimed as the highest gods. And he says they have such power as to deceive even the wisest of the poets and philosophers among the Greeks, whom he also confesses to have been the causes of the multitude's corruption; and that from them all sorcery has arisen, and through them things pleasurable are procured for men; and that they wish to be gods, though they are base daemons; and that the power that presides over them is thought to be the greatest god. All this Porphyry relates in this manner.
But as many souls as do not master their continuous pneuma, but for the most part are themselves mastered by it, are for this reason led about and swept along exceedingly, whenever the angers and desires of the pneuma take the impulse; and these souls, being themselves also daemons, might reasonably be called evil-workers.
And all these -- both these and those of the opposite power -- are invisible and altogether imperceptible to human senses. For they are not clothed with a solid body, nor do they all have one form, but exist in many shapes; and their forms, being impressed upon and imparting character to their pneuma, at one time become manifest, and at another time are invisible; and sometimes the worse among them even change their forms.
The pneuma, insofar as it is bodily, is passible and corruptible; but inasmuch as it is so bound by the souls that its form persists for a longer time, it is nevertheless not eternal, for it is likely that something continually flows away from it, and that it undergoes change.
The pneuma of good beings, then, is well-proportioned, as also are the bodies of visible things, while that of the evil-workers is disproportionate; these, giving the greater share to the passible part, occupy the terrestrial region, and there is nothing evil they do not attempt to do. For, having a character altogether violent and treacherous, and being deprived of the guardianship that comes from the superior daemonic order, they for the most part make their assaults violent and sudden, like ambushes, at one time trying to escape notice, at another using force.
And next he adds: 'These things, and the like, they do because they wish to remove us from the right conception of the gods and turn us toward themselves. For they delight in all things that come to pass in such an incongruous and unfitting manner, and, as it were putting on the masks of the other gods, they enjoy our folly, winning over the multitudes by inflaming men's desires with passions and longings for wealth, power, and pleasures, and again for vainglory, from which arise factions and wars and things akin to these.'
But the most terrible thing of all is that, ascending from these, they also persuade men of similar things concerning the greatest gods, even to the point of subjecting the best god himself to these same charges -- by which, they say, all things above and below have been thrown into confusion. And this has been suffered not by the uninitiated alone, but also by not a few of those who spend their time in philosophy.
And the cause has arisen mutually, through one another. For those of the philosophers who did not stand apart from the novel current came to the same conclusions as the multitudes; and again, in turn, the multitudes, hearing from those reputed to be wise things in accord with their own opinions, were further emboldened to think such things about the gods all the more.
For the poetic art further inflamed men's suppositions, by using a manner of speech contrived for astonishment and enchantment, capable of producing bewitchment and belief concerning the most impossible things -- whereas one ought to be firmly persuaded that the good never harms, nor does evil ever benefit. For, as Plato says, it does not belong to heat to cool, but to its opposite; nor does it belong to cold to warm, but to its opposite; so too it does not belong to justice to harm.
And surely the divine, by nature, is the most just of all things, since otherwise it would not be divine. Therefore this power and portion must be cut off from the daemons who work good. For that power which is by nature disposed and willing to harm is contrary to that which works good; and contraries could never coexist in one and the same subject.
And again: 'Through these contrary beings, moreover, all sorcery is accomplished; for these, and their ruling power above all, are honored by those who work evils through acts of sorcery.'
For they are full of every kind of illusion, and capable of deceiving through the working of wonders. Through them the ill-omened daemons contrive love-charms and erotic spells; for all licentiousness and hope of riches and glory come about through them, and above all, deception.
For falsehood is native to them; for they wish to be gods, and their ruling power wishes to be thought to be the greatest god. These are the ones who delight in libation and the savor of burnt fat, by which their pneumatic and bodily nature is fattened. For this thing lives on vapors and exhalations, in various ways through various means, and is strengthened by sacrifices of blood and flesh.
Through these words, then, we have heard him confessing that not only did the poets among the Greeks further inflame men's suppositions concerning base daemons as though they were gods and good beings, but also, among those who spend their time in philosophy, those who seemed to be earnestly devoted to the gods -- who, themselves too, in attending upon not gods but evil daemons, dragged headlong the multitudes and the peoples into the same error.
The argument, then, has plainly confessed that the multitudes, hearing about the gods from those reputed wise things in accord with their own opinions, were further emboldened to think all the more of the wicked daemons as though they were gods. And these charges are not brought by us, but by those very men who knew their own affairs more precisely than we do.
This same author, indeed, having dealt not superficially with the superstition that escapes the notice of most men, says that the evil daemons wish to be gods and to have a reputation for goodness among men; and he himself will again make clear what power it is that presides over them, saying that Serapis and Hecate are the rulers of the evil daemons -- though the divine Scripture calls him Beelzebul. Hear, then, how he writes concerning this matter in his work 'On the Philosophy from Oracles':
We do not, without reason, suspect the evil daemons to be under Serapis, nor have we been persuaded merely by his symbols, but because the propitiatory rites and the apotropaic rites against these beings are directed to Pluto, as we showed in the first book. And the god himself is identical with Pluto, and for this reason especially is he the ruler of daemons, and it is he who gives the symbols for driving them away.
This god, then, has revealed even to his suppliants that these beings, assuming the likeness of every kind of animal, approach men; whence also among the Egyptians and the Phoenicians, and in general among those wise concerning divine things, whips are cracked in the sanctuaries, and animals are dashed to the ground before the worship of the gods, the priests driving these beings off by the giving of breath, or the blood of animals, and by the striking of the air, so that, once these beings have departed, the presence of the god may come about.
And every house too is full of them, and for this reason people purify it beforehand and cast these beings out, whenever they call upon a god. And bodies likewise are full of them; for they especially delight in certain kinds of food. For when we are eating, they approach and show themselves near the body; and this is the reason for acts of purification -- not primarily for the sake of the gods, but so that these beings may depart. Above all, they delight in blood and in impurities, and they enjoy these by insinuating themselves into those who make use of them.
For, in general, the intensification of desire toward anything, and the impulse of the pneuma's appetite, are made violent from no other source than the presence of these beings; and it is they who compel men to fall into inarticulate sounds and hissings, through the shared enjoyment that comes to pass together with them.
For wherever there is a drawing-in of more pneuma than usual -- whether from the belly being filled through indulgence in pleasure, or from eagerness breathing hard through intensity of pleasure and drawing in much from without -- there let the presence of such spirits be made known to you. Up to this point human nature ventures to discover the snares set around itself; for indeed, when the god enters in, the pneuma is multiplied many times over.
Such, then, is what he says concerning the evil daemons, of whom he says Serapis is the ruler. And that Hecate too rules over these, the same author teaches, speaking thus: 'Perhaps these are the beings over whom Serapis rules, and the symbol of these is the three-headed dog -- that is, the evil daemon in the three elements, water, earth, and air -- whom the god who holds them in his hand brings to rest. And Hecate too rules over them, as she who holds together the three elements.' And again he says:
Having set forth still one more oracle, which Hecate herself has composed, I will bring to a close my discussion concerning her: 'I am the maiden of many apparitions, wandering through heaven, bull-faced, three-headed, relentless, with golden arrows, Phoebe, undefiled in marriage, Eileithyia, light-bringer to mortals, bearing the threefold tokens of a triple nature: as ether, I appear in fiery images; as air, I sit enthroned in gleaming, whirling courses; and as earth, I drive the dark race of my hound-whelps.'
To these words the author adds, plainly stating who the hound-whelps are: namely, the evil daemons, of whom we have just now ceased speaking. So much, then, for this. But concerning the fact that those deified by the many are truly evil daemons, and bring nothing good with them, come, let us confirm this yet further through additional evidence.