VOX PATRUM 78 (2021) 89-120 DOI: 10.31743/vp.12302 Ilaria L.E. Ramelli1 Plagues and Epidemics Caused by D(a)emons in Origen and Porphyry and Potential Interrelations 1. Introduction Plagues and epidemics affected the early Roman Empire, such as the “Antonine Plague”, testified to by Galen, De indolentia, and other imperial writers2. Such phenomena, which would intensify in late antiquity, elicited philosophical and religious responses. Those by Origen and Porphyry, and the latter’s relation to that of Origen, are particularly interesting. Therefore, I set out to investigate how Origen, an early Christian writer, theologian, and pastor, referred to plagues, epidemics, and misfortunes, and how he construed these phenomena in his theology, literary works, and pastoral practice. A comparison with Porphyry will be offered, who testified that he met Origen in his youth and knew his works and ideas3, and is likely to 1 Prof. Dr. Ilaria Ramelli FRHistS, Professor of Theology; of Patristics and Church History; Senior Fellow/Member (Durham University; KUL; Sacred Heart University; Erfurt MWK; Cambridge University); e-mail:
[email protected]; ORCID: 0000- 0003-1479-4182. This project has benefitted from my Research Professorship in Patristics and Church History, KUL: this article has been founded by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education within the “Regional Initiative of Excellence” programme in 2019- 2022, project number: 028/RID/2018/19. 2 R. Flemming, Galen and the Plague, in: Galen’s treatise De indolentia in Context, ed. C. Petit, Leiden 2018, p. 219-244. See also L’impatto della ‘Peste Antonina’ , ed.