Most people are familiar with the term Demogorgon. It is the name of a monster in Dungeons and Dragons and also the name of a monster in the American science fiction horror web television series Stranger Things. The story of how the name Demogorgon came about, though, is actually really bizarre.
As it turns out, this famous monster most likely originates from a single scribal error made by an unknown copyist in an unknown manuscript sometime around 2,000 years ago or so. Somehow, from these humble origins, Demogorgon went on to be mentioned by great writers including Christopher Marlowe and John Milton before eventually becoming one of the most iconic monsters of today.
An ancient scribal error
The Ancient Greek word δημιουργός (dēmiourgós) is a term that was commonly used in Pythagorean and Platonic philosophical circles to describe a craftsman-like figure who was thought to have created the cosmos. At some point, though, it seems a scribe misread the accusative form of this word—δημιουργόν (dēmiourgón)—and copied it as δημογοργόν (dēmogorgón), a completely meaningless word.
The word demogorgon is first attested in an ancient commentary traditionally attributed to the scholar Lactantius Placidus (lived c. 350 – c. 400 AD) on the Thebaid, an epic poem written in Latin by the Roman poet Publius Papinius Statius (lived c. 45 – c. 96 AD). The surviving text of Lactantius Placidus’s commentary states regarding the Thebaid 4.516:
“Dicit deum Demogorgona summum, cuius scire nomen non licet.”
This means:
“He speaks of the Demogorgon, the supreme deity, whose name it is not permitted to know.”
Eventually, the belief that this “demogorgon” was the oldest of all divinities became thoroughly entrenched in the Latin west as part of the canonical mythology. The Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio (lived 1313 – 1375) helped popularize the term demogorgon by using it in his influential Latin treatise on mythology Genealogia Deorum Gentilium.
ABOVE: Nineteenth century illustration intended to represent the fourteenth-century Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio, who helped popularize the term demogorgon
An occult entity
Over time, the identity of the demogorgon shifted. During the Early Modern Period (c. 1450 – c. 1750), it was common for writers to appropriate the names of classical deities as names of demons, since many people believed that the deities that had been worshipped in classical times were actually demons. Thus, the demogorgon went from being a vague ancestral deity in Renaissance mythography to a malevolent demon of Hell.
The Dutch demonologist Johann Weyer (lived 1515 – 1588) listed Demogorgonas one of the demons of Hell in Book Two of his demonological treatise De Praestigiis Daemonum et Incantionibus ac Venificiis. Similarly, in Act I, Scene III of The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, written at some point between 1589 and 1592 by the English playwright Christopher Marlowe (lived 1564 – 1593), the name Demogorgon occurs as part of the Latin incantation delivered by Doctor Faustus to summon the demon Mephistopheles:
“Sint mihi dii Acherontis propitii! Valeat numen triplex Jehovoe!
Ignei, aerii, aquatani spiritus, salvete! Orientis princeps
Belzebub, inferni ardentis monarcha, et Demogorgon, propitiamus
vos, ut appareat et surgat Mephistophilis Dragon, quod tumeraris:
per Jehovam, Gehennam, et consecratam aquam quam nunc spargo,
signumque crucis quod nunc facio, et per vota nostra, ipse nunc
surgat nobis dicatus Mephistophilis!”
ABOVE: Title page of a 1620 printed edition of the play The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, written by the English playwright Christopher Marlowe. The frontispiece depicts Doctor Faustus summoning Mephistopheles. In the play, Demogorgon is one of the infernal names spoken by Faustus during the summoning.
“Demogorgon” is also mentioned in Book Two of the epic poem Paradise Lost, written by the English poet John Milton (lived 1608 – 1674) and originally published in 1667, as the name of one of the inhabitants of the realm of Chaos, through which Satan, the protagonist of the poem, must pass on his journey from Hell to Earth. Here is the passage in which Demogorgon is mentioned, which occurs in Book Two, lines 959 through 967:
“When straight behold the throne
of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread
wide on the wasteful deep! With him enthroned
sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things,
the consort of his reign. And by them stood
Orcus and Hades, and the dreaded name
of Demogorgon; Rumour next, and Chance,
and Tumult and Confusion, all embroiled,
and Discord with a thousand various mouths.”
As a result of all these passages from literature associating Demogorgon with Satan, demons, Hell, and black magic, Demogorgon came to be thought of as the name of some kind of horrible, malevolent demon. Despite this, Demogorgon’s appearance remained ambiguous. You will notice that none of the sources I have mentioned have given any kind of detailed description of Demogorgon’s appearance. Other sources are no more descriptive.
ABOVE: Illustration of Satan from c. 1866 by the French illustrator Gustave Doré for John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Demogorgon is listed among the inhabitants of Chaos in Book Two of Paradise Lost.
Dungeons and Dragons
It was the roleplaying fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons that first endowed Demogorgon with a specific appearance. The character Demogorgon was first introduced to the game in the 1976 supplementary rulebook Eldritch Wizardry, written by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume. In the game, Demogorgon is portrayed as an eighteen-foot-tall reptilian monster with two heads resembling those of mandrills or possibly baboons. It has legs resembling the legs of a chicken and arms ending in long tentacles resembling those of octopodes.
Although the Dungeons and Dragons version of Demogorgon was originally just a terrifying, extremely powerful monster, in subsequent iterations of the game, a whole mythology has developed surrounding him. In the game, Demogorgon possesses powers of mind control and can bend the wicked to his will. Looking at the Demogorgon’s symbol can make people go evil or insane. He also has a cult of humans who worship him.
In present versions of the game, Demogorgon’s two heads are named Aameul and Hethradiah. The heads are rivals and each head is constantly seeking to destroy the other. Aameul prefers to use tricks and deception over devastation; whereas Hethradiah prefers to simply destroy.
ABOVE: Image of the profile for the Demogorgon from the original 1976 supplemental rulebook
Stranger Things
Prior to the release of the first season of Stranger Things on 15 July 2016, Demogorgon was already well known to readers of classic literature and players of Dungeons and Dragons, but the television show definitely brought the monster to much greater prominence.
In Stranger Things, the monster that is referred to as “the Demogorgon” is a horrifying vaguely humanoid creature from another dimension referred to as “the Upside Down.” The monster has slimy skin, a tall, thin body that looks unnaturally elongated, and a featureless face that opens to reveal a flower-like mouth with five “petals” lined with sharp teeth. It cannot speak, but it does make all kinds of growling and shrieking sounds.
The actual name of the creature—if it has one—has not yet been revealed, but the characters in the show all refer to it as “the Demogorgon” after the monster from Dungeons and Dragons.
ABOVE: Image of the monster referred to as “the Demogorgon” from the television show Stranger Things
Conclusion
As strange and silly as it sounds, it seems that a minor transcription error in some long-lost Greek manuscript of some unknown Platonic treatise made by some anonymous scribe around 2,000 years ago gave us the name of one of the most iconic television monsters of the past decade. If the scribe copying that manuscript had just read a bit more carefully and copied the Greek word δημιουργόν correctly, then the Demogorgon monsters from Dungeons and Dragons and Stranger Things would have a completely different name.
I suppose this just shows that how directly the past can affect us. History works in strange and mysterious ways. Nearly all the works written in antiquity have been lost, but yet something as seemingly silly and inconsequential as a typo can affect an entire culture millennia later. It makes you wonder how our actions in the present will affect the future.
What will “covfefe” mean in a thousand years, do you suppose?
I imagine someone will come up with a creative explanation for it eventually. Trump’s original tweet was, “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.” I am sure he actually meant to type “Despite the constant negative press coverage…” but either fell asleep while tweeting or accidentally bumped the f and e keys a few times before accidentally hitting “send.” I imagine someone at some point will probably come up with a whole elaborate explanation that covfefe is a mystical word known only to initiates of a certain ritual sect that conveys immunity to aspersions cast by media outlets—or something like that. 😉
Can you comment on how we know it’s a copying error for δημιουργός? I admit I’d always assumed it was based on a compound of δαίμων and γοργών (meaning a ‘Gorgon of divine status’ or similar). I guess there are reasons for preferring the copying error idea?
I initially assumed that the name was a compound of δαίμων and γοργών too, but, if we look at the context in which the word is first attested, it seems far more consistent with the interpretation that the name arose as a copying error for δημιουργός. The Lactantius Placidus commentary states regarding the Thebaid 4.516, “Dicit deum Demogorgona summum, cuius scire nomen non licet.” (“He speaks of the Demogorgon, the supreme god, whose name it is not permitted to know.”)
Obviously, we can’t be absolutely certain of where the author of the commentary got this word from, but the description given in the commentary sounds a lot more like the demiurge than a “daimon-Gorgon.” (It’s hard for me to imagine someone describing a Gorgon of daimon status as the “summus deus.”)
I won’t rule out the possibility, though, that whoever made the scribal error that turned δημιουργός into δημογοργόν may have made it because they were thinking of words δαίμων and γοργών.
Good stuff, thanks!
Satan sees Chaos, Night, Demogorgon, etc., while crossing “the Abyss,” a region between Hell and Earth.