Amente Demons and Christian Syncretism

Abstract

Abstract Drawing on a range of apocalyptic and magical texts from Roman and Byzantine Egypt, this paper argues that the Coptic Christian depiction of vicious underworld demons, so often cited as evidence of “Egyptian survivals,” in fact owes more to Jewish apocalyptic literature than ancient Egyptian mortuary texts - that scribes only recalled Egyptian traditions in the course of reutilization and interpretation of para-biblical apocalyptic traditions. Secondly, the paper attributes the development of this Coptic underworld demonology to the creative agency of scribes in late antique Egyptian Christianity, in whose own subcultures and practices any model of demonological syncretism must be situated.