In his treatise against Marcion, Tertullian merges the conceptual worlds of sicknesses and demons: ‘To liberate men from demons is a cure of sickness’ (‘ceterum et a daemoniis liberare curation est valetudinis’: Adversus Marcionem 4.8.5, trans. Annette Weissenrieder). Tertullian's words, which form part of his vituperative against Marcion, require us to reflect not only on the complex relationships between demons and illness in antiquity, but also on the manifold frameworks and genres through which early Christian demonic discourse unfolded. Such relationships, frameworks and genres stand at the heart of the volume under review, which is based on an international conference that took place in 2015 under the auspices of the Collaborative Research Centre ‘Transformations of Antiquity’ in Berlin.

Eva Elm provides a short introductory essay, which highlights some key primary sources in the study of late antique demonology; offers a brief survey of scholarship on demons in late antiquity; and summarises the essays that follow. Christoph Markschies inaugurates the thematic essays with an analysis of demons and disease in early Christianity, which focuses on how demons functioned as an explanatory tool for diseases and cures and how Christians ‘transformed’ prior ‘pagan’ traditions about these otherworldly beings. Engaging with both material (for example, a few amulets) and literary sources (for example, Calcidius, Commentarius in Platonis Timaeum), Markschies underscores the diverse ways in which Christian scribes and authors navigated the traditions about the demonic that they inherited (for example, appropriation, encapsulation and reinterpretation/inversion). Annette Weissenrieder continues the reflection on the complex interface of demons and illness through her study of the Vetus Latina Luke, contending that the exorcism accounts in this translation are best understood in light of Roman medicine and, therefore, present Jesus as more of a healer than an exorcist. Nicole Hartmann traces the shifting roles of daimones (not ‘demons’) in early Christian martyrologies. Hartmann argues that, although these beings emerge as a major theme in the fourth century ce and beyond, the earliest martyrdom texts rarely mention daimones in their narratives. When daimones do in fact appear in the early martyrdom texts, the authors attribute to them differing qualities and associations (for example, their [non-]existence and the diabolical source of their agency). Emmanouela Grypeou provides an impressive survey of the early Jewish and Christian traditions of the tormenting – and often monstrous – entities (for example, good and evil angels, Satan, Tartarouchos/Telemouchos and death personified [cf. Abbaton]). She notes the general development in the depiction of these tormenters (for example, from angels to demons [especially within the Latin tradition after the fifth century ce]) and their torments, which as time progresses become ‘more organized, more detailed and more horrifying’ (p. 91).

Turning to the genre of hagiography, Robert Wiśniewski argues through a helpful overview of fourth- and fifth-century ce Latin Lives of the saints that early Christian hagiographers were not particularly interested in demons or demonic threat per se. Instead, they used these otherworldly foes as literary tools to highlight themes, such as the temptations and triumphs of monks and their extraordinary powers and sanctity. Eva Elm's essay underscores how Jerome's Vita Hilarionis exemplifies the largely externalising feature of demonic onslaught in the Latin West (for example, their impact on the monastic community and on Christian engagement with pagan and heretical ‘others’), which stands in contrast to the more internalised struggles of demons in the eastern tradition, especially in the Vita Antoni. Nienke Vos examines embedded stories in Vita Martini 21 and 24 through the analytic lens of discourse linguistics. Vos concludes that Sulpicius Severus uses the confusion spawned by the devil in these passages (for example, the devil appearing as a finely clad Christ) as a tool to clarify and highlight Martin's virtus (principally discernment) and humility, which, in turn, provide an ideal model for Christian asceticism. Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe investigates the various ways demons interact with human readers and listeners through speech in hagiographies (for example, Jerome's Life of Hilarion) and in liturgical hymns (for example, Ephrem's madrashe) from late-antique Syria and Palestine. Lunn-Rockliffe contends that ‘novelistic hagiographies’ tend to take a more removed stance toward demonic speech and, therefore, deploy third-person ‘diegetic’ narratives, while liturgical hymns are by and large ‘mimetic’, with extended first-person demonic discourses. In an epilogue to the volume, Jan N. Bremmer provides a discussion on the etymology of the term daimôn and helpfully synthesises the essays in the volume, with short – though interesting – reflections on demons, inter alia, from the perspectives of their individual/collective classification, their geographical location, their gender, their language, their relation to the devil and their activities.

The editors should be congratulated on putting together an interesting and informative volume that details numerous perceptions of demons in late antiquity. The reader will certainly encounter a wide range of (mostly) early Christian literary sources (for example, the essays of Grypeou and Wiśniewski) and confront new ways of reading those sources (for example, the essays of Vos and Lunn-Rockliffe). The volume also usefully brings to the fore differences between eastern and western demonological traditions, which certainly deserves subsequent study. Of course, like most edited volumes, this volume has gaps. For instance, more space could have been devoted to the presentation of demons in the material record – the inclusion of amulets in the essay by Markschies is a notable exception in this regard – and on demons outside of the Christian tradition during the late antique period. Nevertheless, this volume helpfully provides readers with a focused engagement on how diverse Christian literary sources grapple with the nature and activity of demons and apply narratives about these (other-)worldly beings to various discursive, social and religious ends.