The Western concept of "magic" as the demonized other of religion is usually held to originate within early Christian representations of pagan idoloty. This article argues instead that the magic-religion dichotomy was first shaped within pagan monotheistic dicourse. Late pagan thinkers were deeply preoccupied with the reconciliation of theology and cult. They questioned whether the older traditions of cult sacrifice were compatible with the worship of one supreme God. The most prevalent way of addressing this tension was to argue that rituals were address to daimons. Ritual actions that fell outside the bounds of monotheistic piety were illegitimate and magical. The category "magic" as religion's oppositve thus evolved out of tensions between pagan monotheism and daimonology.
"Whereas Plato separates the Formal cause from i ts ateriate participants, and posits a One over the Many, Aristotle insists that the universa l species-form must reside in its singular members." This is the kind of simplistic and fo rmulaic account of the difference between the Platonic and Aristotelian metaphysics that o ne might expect to discover in any standard textbook on the history of philosophy. For the purp oses of a general introduction to the subject it is perhaps adequate; but for th e serious scholar it represents, at best, only one side of the truth. Separation ( chwrismos) for Aristotle, as for Plato, is one of the chief attributes of the primary substance. A ristotle does not reject the idea of separate forms; he clarifies and develops it, so as to pur ge it of certain paradoxical implications which are attendent upon its more traditio nal formulations. This paper is an exploration of two central aspects of the Aristotelia n development of the Platonic concept of separation:
It is stated in the holy scriptures or books, dear lady, that there exists a race of daimons who have commerce with women. Hermes made mention of them in his Physika; in fact almost the entire work, openly and secretly, alludes to them. It is related in the ancient and divine scriptures that certain angels lusted for women, and descending from the heavens, they taught them all the arts of nature. On account of this, says the scripture, they offended god, and now live outside heaven—because they taught to men all the evil arts which are of no advantage to the soul.
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