Demons of the Lower Air

This chapter considers demons and their place in late classical and early medieval cosmologies. This discussion is not sequential or linear, nor does it focus on texts in situ. Rather, it accommodates a high level of generalization and acts as a large canopy covering material from across a broad spectrum of time and space in order to clarify terms and assumptions that informed an understanding of magic throughout the first millennium. In the Christian mental universe, demons were at the very center of all magic, so much so that magic itself equated to traffic with demons. Moreover, any active involvement with demons—from blatantly honoring pagan idols, to eating meat cooked at pagan shrines, to casting spells—was magic, even if the persons involved were not intentionally trafficking.