Nightmares and dreamscapes for disobedient childrens

 According to the Greeks, demons are not necessarily bad and evil, as we think of the word ‘demon’ nowadays. It’s got some pejorative content these days. Demons accompany people from birth to death and even beyond. Then there are those who become demons themselves, but that’s a different story. These daemons can be good or bad: the goods are named agathodaimons, the bads are named kakodaimons. Socrates himself also had a demon whose word he heard and protected him from many evils. These demons are sometimes executors of the will of the gods, of powers higher than them, and sometimes they act at their own discretion. However, they are also specifically evil. Like Lamia.

  Either way, demons have a very important, indisputable role to play in people’s lives. Namely, disciplining children. Nothing is a better and older way than to promise a disobedient seedling a bugbear, a witch, a bugaboo, or a dream eater. In the imagination of a fresh mind, a young spirit, demons come to life, - and discipline or just protect them from bad things. Of course, this is certainly not an EU-compliant way of education today, but where was Brussels in ancient times? And what scared them then?

  With Gorgo anyway. The monster, whose snakes curl instead of hair and everyone froze to stone at the sight, could have occupied a prominent place in the nightmares of minors. Then there’s the donkey-legged and cannibal Empusa. And Lamia. And let us not forget Akko who steals children and devours their tender flesh. Child-eating ghosts were commonly referred to as Mormyls. Oh, and there are the legendary monsters. The Manticor, Chimera, Minotaur, Scylla, or even the Hydra. The whole Bestiarium. Who will protect you from such beasts? Of course Heracles!