So-Called Possession in Pre-Christian Greece

Abstract

In 1909 Julius Tambornino published what has remained the standard collection of material relevant to the belief in demonic possession in pagan and Christian antiquity.1 The views advanced by Tambornino have been generally accepted. As H. J. Rose puts it: That a human being might become possessed by a supernatural power was a fairly common ancient belief. The effect might be a prophetic frenzy, as in the case of the Pythia; such a person was EV0EoE. It might also be some terrifying disease, as epilepsy.... Later, under Oriental influence (cf., e.g., the numerous references to demoniacs in the New Testament), the belief grew stronger and commoner, and mentions of magical cures and the activity of exorcists, pagan and Christian, are extremely frequent. 2 Possessed (like besessen, possede) is used by extension to describe one who is mad, or even under unusual compulsion from an idea or passion, but in the strict sense it refers to a person who has been entered by an alien being who assumes control of him, as we know the phenomenon from late antiquity and the Middle Ages.3 It has been generally agreed that, although a belief in possession in the strict sense was not common among the enlightened in Greek antiquity, the belief itself was ancient, and persisted as a folk belief either from pre-Greek times or from its introduction in the seventh century B.C. or thereabouts.4