A scientific explanation of how demons affect the psyche might seem to be
extraneous (if they exist they don't need to work simply naturally) if we
define "scientific" as more or less like modern science. But in my work on
David in the Renaissance I keep running across a real fascination with the
medical (and hence scientific, sort of) implications of demonic possession.
The problem, I gather, was whether demons, who don't have bodies, can respond
to music and how. I guess what I'm trying to say is that before science and
superstition went their more or less separate ways there was what one could
call a "science" of demonology: there were rules for demons and they couldnt'
do just anything they liked. Hence (pseudo)scientific theories about demons
and witches, for example. I wish I knew if Spenser literally believed in
demons--not Ficino's daimons but real demons. They are there in the Bible, so
maybe he did. Anne Prescott.
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>All --
>
>I'm still pondering many points in the lively discussion (I guess wet dreams
>really get us where we live), wondering if I have anything to contribute. I
do
>have an immediate response to the idea that demons, as they appear in FQ,
>are 'supernatural': for Spenser, I think not, given the traditions of thought
>and definitions of 'nature' on which he drew. 'Preternatural,' I suppose,
and
>mind-boggling, but one of Spenser's aims as a poet, in my view, was to expand
>and enliven his readers' the epiphenomenal within the phenomenal world. His
>poem features demons (or daimons) from above and from below, all to be
>understood as manifestations of the 'spirit' side of Nature. Think of Nature
>in the Cantos: a boundary figure, representing the nature of Nature and
>associating it with divinity. Think of the Graces on Mt. Acidale: suspected
by
>clueless Calidore of being demons, and so they are in a sense: not
>ontologically separate from the sprites that Archimago calls up, in his
>misappropriation of Venerean energies.
>> Certainly, anyone postulating the existence of demons could also
>> postulate their influence upon the human mind. A scientific explanation
for
>> how, exactly, a demon might affect changes in a human's psyche seems
>> extraneous...especially for a 16th century writer. Demonic influence, by
>> definition, is supernatural...preternatural.
>>
>> MRS
anne prescott
english, barnard college
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