Book Description

The edited volume comprises eleven studies exploring manifestations of the “supernatural” from Antiquity to the present day: vampires and zombies, witches and demons, diviners and clerics, physicians and members of Sufi orders, inquisitors and exorcists, hypnotists and hallucinogenic plants, flying eggs and drunken hens. The authors grapple with old and new demons, present beliefs and practices, and explore the fluid boundaries between the realms of the natural and the supernatural across different places and times.

By painting a dynamic and complex picture beyond schematic dichotomies between “superstition” and “science” or “reason”, they demonstrate how ideas about the supernatural, the paranormal or the metaphysical reflect sensibilities, fears, aspirations and ideological, cultural, and religious stakes. It should come as no surprise, then, that the supernatural has been constantly present in various forms of cultural production (from ancient letters and medieval chronicles to scholarly treatises, and from literary texts to films and graphic novels), while it has also become a subject of academic research.

Authors: Vyron Antoniadis, Maria Christina Chatziioannou, Androniki Dialeti, Stefanos Dimitriadis, Kostis Gotsinas, Konstantinos Irodotou, Giorgos Plakotos, Vangelis Sarafis, Marinos Sariyannis, Kostas Sarris, Stamatis Zochios