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Demons in the Dark: Nightmares and other Nocturnal Enemies of Ancient Egypt
Kasia Szpakowska 
Ancient Egyptian Theology and Demonology: Studies on the Boundaries between the Divine and Demonic in Egyptian Magic, Pages: 63 - 76
Swansea University Author:
Kasia Szpakowska
Abstract
The dream in ancient Egypt functioned as a liminal zone between the land of the living and the farworld. However, dreams and nightmares were also phenomena over which the dreamer had little control, and their permeable boundaries allowed both the divine and the demonic inhabi- tants of the beyond ac...
| Published in: | Ancient Egyptian Theology and Demonology: Studies on the Boundaries between the Divine and Demonic in Egyptian Magic |
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| Published: |
Leuven
Peeters
2011
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa11761 |
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| Abstract: |
The dream in ancient Egypt functioned as a liminal zone between the land of the living and the farworld. However, dreams and nightmares were also phenomena over which the dreamer had little control, and their permeable boundaries allowed both the divine and the demonic inhabi- tants of the beyond access to the visible world. Sometimes the result was a beneficial experience, as is attested in New Kingdom royal texts and elite hymns that relate the awe-inspiring contact a dreamer could have with a god or a goddess. But another more disturbing belief was that dreams could also allow the vulnerable sleeper to be watched or even assaulted by the hostile dead. While today we call these events “anxiety dreams” or “nightmares” and consider them psychological phe- nomena, the Egyptians blamed them on external monsters or demons crossing over from the other side. These entities included the dead, and here it appears that the line between the justified transfigured dead, and the malevolent unjustified dead might not have been an immutable one. Drawing upon both textual and material evidence primarily from the New Kingdom, this paper will explore the identity and nature of the hos- tile entities who dared to disturb the sleep of the living and the methods for their repulsion. |
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| Keywords: |
demonology, nightmares, snakes, fire, magic, religion, Ancient Egypt |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Start Page: |
63 |
| End Page: |
76 |