Note on this edition: this is an electronic version of the 1999 book ...

The Beginnings 3mons form an important part of the narrative heritage in many cultures, andthis material has proven exceedingly enduring. Folklores all over the worldcelebrate demons alongside human ghosts and natural spirits, in animal aswell as human forms, and do not often clearly distinguish their moral character:the same spirit may be benevolent or malevolent. The fundamentalmoral character of spirits is often described as morally ambivalent or neutraltowards humans. The attitude and conduct of humans themselves has astrong influence on the reaction of the supernatural in a folktale.The Western literature has made use of a particular, emphatically dualisticdemonological heritage, which I outline in chapter one. Some of thebest known works of European literary tradition contain a great deal of demonicmaterial. Dante Alighieri created a monument to the Middle Ages inhis famous Commedia (1314-1321). 4 The invisible realities of Christian theologyare illustrated in one hundred cantos, as Dante gives a vivid descriptionof his tripartite journey through the worlds beyond the grave – first, Inferno,then Purgatorio, and finally Paradiso. Combining sophisticated allegoricalsymbolism with realistic (and often cruel) descriptions of the sufferingsinners, the Inferno culminates in a confrontation with the Devil.Dante’s description of his vision is well worth quoting:If once he was as fair as now he’s fouland dared to raise his brows against his Maker,it is fitting that all grief should spring from him.Oh, how amazed I was when I looked upand saw a head – one head wearing three faces!One was in front (and that was a bright red),the other two attached themselves to this onejust above the middle of each shoulder,and at the crown all three were joined in one:The right face was a blend of white and yellow,the left the color of those people’s skinwho live along the river Nile’s descent.Beneath each face two mighty wings stretched out,the size you might expect of this huge bird(I never saw a ship with larger sails):not feathered wings but rather like the onesa bat would have. He flapped them constantly,keeping three winds continuously in motion4 “Comedy” as a title suggests that the direction of the poem is from darkness to light,from misfortune to happiness (and is thereby “untragic” according to the Aristotelianclassification; see chapter 13 of Poetics [Aristotle 1982, 57-58]). Dante’s poem was made“divine” (La divina commedia) in the 1555 edition.