Dusios
Encyclopedia
In the Gaulish language
, Dusios was a divine being among the continental Celts who was identified with
the god Pan of ancient Greek religion and with the gods Faunus
, Inuus
, Silvanus
, and Incubus
of ancient Roman religion
. Like these deities, he might be seen as multiple in nature, and referred to in the plural (dusioi), most commonly in Latin
as dusii. Although the Celtic Dusios is not described in late-antique
sources independently of Greek and Roman deities
, the common functionality of the others lay in their ability to impregnate animals and women, often by surprise or force. Dusii continue to play a role in the magico-religious belief systems of Gaul
and Francia as a type of incubus
in early-medieval
paganism and Christianity
.
References to the dusii appear in the writings of the Church Fathers
, where they are treated as demons
. Early Christian writers still regarded the traditional religions of antiquity as potent competing belief systems. Rather than denying the existence of rival gods, they often sought to demonstrate their inferior nature through theological argument, ridicule, or demonization. Saint Augustine
mentions the dusii in a passage criticizing the belief that early in the history of humanity angel
s could have bodily intercourse with mortal women, begetting the race of giants or hero
es. Augustine redefines traditional beliefs within a Christian framework, and in this passage makes no firm distinction between the essential nature of angels and demons:
Isidore of Seville
echoes Augustine closely, but expands the identifications with other divine figures:
Isidore seems to be trying to derive dusius from the adverb
adsidue, "persistently, diligently, constantly." The word may be related to Scandinavian Tusse, "fairy
." More likely, it is related to a semantic field
of Indo-European words, some meaning "phantom, vapor," as for example Lithuanian
dvãse, "spirit, phantom," and dùsas, "vapor"; and others meaning "fury" (Old Irish dás-, "to be in a fury"), particularly in a divine sense, as Greek thuia, "bacchante," and Latin furiae (the Furies). It is also possible, but less likely, that the word is a nominalization
of the Gaulish prefix
dus-, "bad" (cf. Greek dys-). Whitley Stokes
connected the dusii to Slavic dusi ("spirits"), dusa ("soul"), dusmus ("devil"). The Breton
word duz, a type of fairy, goblin
, or changeling
, is derived by many scholars from dusios. Duz sometimes has been proffered as the origin of deuce as a name for "devil
" in the expression "What the Deuce!"
The lexicographer Papias
, writing in the 1040s, says that the Dusii are those whom the Romans call Fauni ficarii. The adjective
ficarius comes from ficus, "fig
," and is applied to Faunus frequently enough to suggest a divine epithet
. "Figgy" may refer to the god's fructifying power, or may be a lewd reference to the faun
s' well-known habits of random penetration (see also Inuus
), as "fig" was Greek slang for "anus" and Latin slang for both "sore anus" and later "vagina". A fertility ritual involving twigs and sap from the male fig tree was carried out by Roman matrons for Juno Caprotina
, later identified with the goatskin-wearing Juno Sospita.
Pliny
notes that the wild fig (called caprificus, "goat-fig, caprifig," because it was food for goats) spawns "flies" or fig wasp
s called ficarii (ficarios culices caprificus generat). The adjective ficarius characterizes the "figgy fauns" and their counterparts the dusii by their swarming, serial acts of fertilization.
In the 8th-century Life of St. Richarius, dusii hemaones or dusii manes also occur in a horticultural setting. Richarius
, born ca. 560 in Amiens
, Picardy
, was converted to Christianity by Welsh missionaries. His vita
records a belief among his fellow Picards in northwest Gaul that the dusi, called maones in some recension
s, steal crops and damage orchards. These agriculturally dangerous beings appear in other medieval authors as Mavones, maones, manes and "Magonians
," the latter being airborne crop-raiders from a mythical land located in the clouds.
It is less than evident how dusii could be a surviving form of the Roman Manes
, infernal gods who were shades of the dead, or be thought of as aerial pirates. Isidore offers a clue when he says the manes are gods of the dead, but their power is located between the moon and the earth, the same cloud region through which the Magonians traveled. This airborne existence recalls Augustine's characterization of the Dusii as "aerial in substance," and points toward the Arthurian "histories" involving incubi daemones, "creatures who mingle the angelic and the demonic, inhabiting the uncertain space between sun and moon." Medieval romance narratives
suggest that women fantasize about these sexual encounters, though a visitation is likely to be represented by male authors as frightening, violent, and diabolic.
("On Lothar
's divorce"): "Certain women have even been found to have submitted to sleeping with Dusii in the form of men who were burning with love." In the same passage, Hincmar warns of sorceresses (sorciariae), witches (strigae
), female vampires (lamiae
), and magic in the form of "objects bewitched by spells, compounded from the bones of the dead, ashes and dead embers, hair taken from the head and pubic area of men and women, multicoloured little threads, various herbs, snails' shell and snake bits."
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The form Dusiolus, a diminutive
, appears in a sermon
with the beings aquatiquus (from aqua, "water") and Geniscus
, possibly a form of the Roman Genius
or the Gallic Genius Cucullatus whose hooded form suggested or represented a phallus
. According to "country people" (rustici homines), these and witches (striae) threaten infants and cattle.
Gervase of Tilbury
(ca. 1150–1228) deals with dusii in his chapter on lamiae and "nocturnal larvae". Although he draws directly on Augustine, calling the dusii incubi and comparing them to Silvanuses and Pans, he regards them as sexually threatening to both men and women.
The dusios merges later with the concept of the wild man
; as late as the 13th century, Thomas Cantipratensis claimed dusii were still an active part of cult practice and belief. In his allegory
on bees, Thomas declares that "we see the many works of the demon Dusii, and it is for these that the folk used to consecrate the cultivated groves
of antiquity. The folk in Prussia
still reckon that the forests are consecrated
to them; they don't dare cut them down, and never set foot in them, except for when they wish to make sacrifice in them to their own gods." In the 17th century, Johannes Praetorius rather wildly conjectured that dusios ought to be drusios, connected to the god Silvanus
and the woodlands and to the word "druid." The 19th-century Irish folklorist Thomas Crofton Croker
thought the dusii were a form of woodland or domestic spirits, and deals with them in a chapter on elves
.
Gaulish language
The Gaulish language is an extinct Celtic language that was spoken by the Gauls, a people who inhabited the region known as Gaul from the Iron Age through the Roman period...
, Dusios was a divine being among the continental Celts who was identified with
Interpretatio graeca
Interpretatio graeca is a Latin term for the common tendency of ancient Greek writers to equate foreign divinities to members of their own pantheon. Herodotus, for example, refers to the ancient Egyptian gods Amon, Osiris and Ptah as "Zeus", "Dionysus" and "Hephaestus", respectively.-Roman...
the god Pan of ancient Greek religion and with the gods Faunus
Faunus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the horned god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan....
, Inuus
Inuus
In ancient Roman religion, Inuus was a god, or aspect of a god, who embodied copulation. The evidence for him as a distinct entity is scant. Servius says that Inuus is an epithet of Faunus , named from his habit of intercourse with animals, based on the etymology of ineundum, "a going in,...
, Silvanus
Silvanus (mythology)
Silvanus was a Roman tutelary deity of woods and fields. As protector of forests , he especially presided over plantations and delighted in trees growing wild. He is also described as a god watching over the fields and husbandmen, protecting in particular the boundaries of fields...
, and Incubus
Incubus
An incubus is a male demon that has sexual intercourse with sleeping women.Incubus may also refer to:- Film :* Incubus , a film in Esperanto starring William Shatner* Incubus , a horror film starring Tara Reid...
of ancient Roman religion
Religion in ancient Rome
Religion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...
. Like these deities, he might be seen as multiple in nature, and referred to in the plural (dusioi), most commonly in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
as dusii. Although the Celtic Dusios is not described in late-antique
Late Antiquity
Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed...
sources independently of Greek and Roman deities
Religion in ancient Rome
Religion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...
, the common functionality of the others lay in their ability to impregnate animals and women, often by surprise or force. Dusii continue to play a role in the magico-religious belief systems of Gaul
Roman Gaul
Roman Gaul consisted of an area of provincial rule in the Roman Empire, in modern day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and western Germany. Roman control of the area lasted for less than 500 years....
and Francia as a type of incubus
Incubus
An incubus is a male demon that has sexual intercourse with sleeping women.Incubus may also refer to:- Film :* Incubus , a film in Esperanto starring William Shatner* Incubus , a horror film starring Tara Reid...
in early-medieval
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
paganism and Christianity
Christianity and Paganism
Early Christianity developed in an era of the Roman Empire during which many religions were practiced, that are, due to the lack of a better term, labeled paganism."Paganism", in spite of its etymological meaning of "rural", has a number of distinct meanings...
.
In Augustine and Isidore
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come...
, where they are treated as demons
Christian demonology
Christian demonology is the study of demons from a Christian point of view. It is primarily based on the Bible , the exegesis of these scriptures, the scriptures of early Christian philosophers and hermits, tradition, and legends incorporated from other beliefs.-Development:In monotheistic...
. Early Christian writers still regarded the traditional religions of antiquity as potent competing belief systems. Rather than denying the existence of rival gods, they often sought to demonstrate their inferior nature through theological argument, ridicule, or demonization. Saint Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
mentions the dusii in a passage criticizing the belief that early in the history of humanity angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
s could have bodily intercourse with mortal women, begetting the race of giants or hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
es. Augustine redefines traditional beliefs within a Christian framework, and in this passage makes no firm distinction between the essential nature of angels and demons:
One often hears talk, the reliability of which must not be doubted, since it is confirmed by a number of people who know from their own or others' experience, that Silvani and Pans, commonly called incubi, have often appeared to women as wicked men, trying to sleep with them and succeeding. These same demons, whom the GaulsGaulsThe Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish....
name Dusii, are relentlessly committed to this defilement, attempting and achieving so many things of such a kind that to deny it would seem brazen. Based on this, I dare not risk a definitive statement as to whether there might be some spirits, aerial in substance (for this substance, when it is set in motion by a fan, is perceived as sensation within the body and as touch), who take bodily form and even experience this sexual desire, so that, by any means they can, they mingle with women sensually. But that the holy angels of God in no way fell in like manner during that era — that I would believe.
Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville
Saint Isidore of Seville served as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "le dernier savant du monde ancien"...
echoes Augustine closely, but expands the identifications with other divine figures:
The 'hairy ones' (pilosi) are called in Greek Pans, in LatinLatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
Incubi, or InuiInuusIn ancient Roman religion, Inuus was a god, or aspect of a god, who embodied copulation. The evidence for him as a distinct entity is scant. Servius says that Inuus is an epithet of Faunus , named from his habit of intercourse with animals, based on the etymology of ineundum, "a going in,...
from their entry (ineundo) with animals everywhere. Hence also Incubi are so called because wrongful sex is incumbent on them. For often the wicked ones come into the presence of women also, and succeed in sleeping with them. The Gauls call these demons Dusii, because they seduce relentlessly.
Isidore seems to be trying to derive dusius from the adverb
Adverb
An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
adsidue, "persistently, diligently, constantly." The word may be related to Scandinavian Tusse, "fairy
Fairy
A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
." More likely, it is related to a semantic field
Semantic field
A semantic field is a technical term in the discipline of linguistics to describe a set of words grouped by meaning in a certain way. The term is also used in other academic disciplines, such as anthropology and computational semiotics.-Definition and usage:...
of Indo-European words, some meaning "phantom, vapor," as for example Lithuanian
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
dvãse, "spirit, phantom," and dùsas, "vapor"; and others meaning "fury" (Old Irish dás-, "to be in a fury"), particularly in a divine sense, as Greek thuia, "bacchante," and Latin furiae (the Furies). It is also possible, but less likely, that the word is a nominalization
Nominalization
In linguistics, nominalization or nominalisation is the use of a verb, an adjective, or an adverb as the head of a noun phrase, with or without morphological transformation...
of the Gaulish prefix
Prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...
dus-, "bad" (cf. Greek dys-). Whitley Stokes
Whitley Stokes
Whitley Stokes, CSI, CIE was an Irish lawyer and Celtic scholar.-Background:He was a son of William Stokes , and a grandson of Whitley Stokes , each of whom was Regius Professor of Physic at the University of Dublin...
connected the dusii to Slavic dusi ("spirits"), dusa ("soul"), dusmus ("devil"). The Breton
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
word duz, a type of fairy, goblin
Goblin
A goblin is a legendary evil or mischievous illiterate creature, a grotesquely evil or evil-like phantom.They are attributed with various abilities, temperaments and appearances depending on the story and country of origin. In some cases, goblins have been classified as constantly annoying little...
, or changeling
Changeling
A changeling is a creature found in Western European folklore and folk religion. It is typically described as being the offspring of a fairy, troll, elf or other legendary creature that has been secretly left in the place of a human child. Sometimes the term is also used to refer to the child who...
, is derived by many scholars from dusios. Duz sometimes has been proffered as the origin of deuce as a name for "devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
" in the expression "What the Deuce!"
Agricultural associations
Papias (lexicographer)
Papias was a Latin lexicographer from Italy. Although he is often referred to as Papias the Lombard, little is known of his life, including whether he actually came from Lombardy...
, writing in the 1040s, says that the Dusii are those whom the Romans call Fauni ficarii. The adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
ficarius comes from ficus, "fig
Common fig
The Common fig is a deciduous tree growing to heights of up to 6 m in the genus Ficus from the family Moraceae known as Common fig tree. It is a temperate species native to the Middle East.-Description:...
," and is applied to Faunus frequently enough to suggest a divine epithet
Epithet
An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...
. "Figgy" may refer to the god's fructifying power, or may be a lewd reference to the faun
Faun
The faun is a rustic forest god or place-spirit of Roman mythology often associated with Greek satyrs and the Greek god Pan.-Origins:...
s' well-known habits of random penetration (see also Inuus
Inuus
In ancient Roman religion, Inuus was a god, or aspect of a god, who embodied copulation. The evidence for him as a distinct entity is scant. Servius says that Inuus is an epithet of Faunus , named from his habit of intercourse with animals, based on the etymology of ineundum, "a going in,...
), as "fig" was Greek slang for "anus" and Latin slang for both "sore anus" and later "vagina". A fertility ritual involving twigs and sap from the male fig tree was carried out by Roman matrons for Juno Caprotina
Juno (mythology)
Juno is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome. Her Greek equivalent is Hera...
, later identified with the goatskin-wearing Juno Sospita.
Pliny
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
notes that the wild fig (called caprificus, "goat-fig, caprifig," because it was food for goats) spawns "flies" or fig wasp
Fig wasp
Fig wasps are wasps of the family Agaonidae which pollinate figs or are otherwise associated with figs, a coevolutional relationship that has been developing for at least 80 million years...
s called ficarii (ficarios culices caprificus generat). The adjective ficarius characterizes the "figgy fauns" and their counterparts the dusii by their swarming, serial acts of fertilization.
In the 8th-century Life of St. Richarius, dusii hemaones or dusii manes also occur in a horticultural setting. Richarius
Richarius
Richarius was a Frankish hermit, monk, and the founder of two monasteries. He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.-Life:...
, born ca. 560 in Amiens
Amiens
Amiens is a city and commune in northern France, north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardy...
, Picardy
Picardy
This article is about the historical French province. For other uses, see Picardy .Picardy is a historical province of France, in the north of France...
, was converted to Christianity by Welsh missionaries. His vita
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
records a belief among his fellow Picards in northwest Gaul that the dusi, called maones in some recension
Recension
Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author...
s, steal crops and damage orchards. These agriculturally dangerous beings appear in other medieval authors as Mavones, maones, manes and "Magonians
Magonia (mythology)
According to the treatise on weather magic composed by Carolingian bishop Agobard of Lyon in 815, Magonia is the name of the cloud realm from where felonious aerial sailors were said to have come....
," the latter being airborne crop-raiders from a mythical land located in the clouds.
It is less than evident how dusii could be a surviving form of the Roman Manes
Manes
In ancient Roman religion, the Manes or Di Manes are chthonic deities sometimes thought to represent the souls of deceased loved ones. They were associated with the Lares, Genii, and Di Penates as deities that pertained to domestic, local, and personal cult...
, infernal gods who were shades of the dead, or be thought of as aerial pirates. Isidore offers a clue when he says the manes are gods of the dead, but their power is located between the moon and the earth, the same cloud region through which the Magonians traveled. This airborne existence recalls Augustine's characterization of the Dusii as "aerial in substance," and points toward the Arthurian "histories" involving incubi daemones, "creatures who mingle the angelic and the demonic, inhabiting the uncertain space between sun and moon." Medieval romance narratives
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
suggest that women fantasize about these sexual encounters, though a visitation is likely to be represented by male authors as frightening, violent, and diabolic.
Surviving tradition
Dusii are among the supernatural influences and magical practices that threaten marriages, as noted by Hincmar in his 9th-century treatise De divortio LothariiDe divortio
The De Divortio is an extended mid ninth-century treatise written by Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims , which survives in a single manuscript, Paris BnF. lat. 2866. It explores the issues arising from the attempt by Lothar II, king of Lotharingia , to rid himself of his wife Teutberga and replace her...
("On Lothar
Lothair II of Lotharingia
Lothair II was the second son of Emperor Lothair I and Ermengarde of Tours. He was married to Teutberga, daughter of Boso the Elder. He is the namesake of the Lothair Crystal, which he probably commissioned, and of the Cross of Lothair, which was made over a century after his death but...
's divorce"): "Certain women have even been found to have submitted to sleeping with Dusii in the form of men who were burning with love." In the same passage, Hincmar warns of sorceresses (sorciariae), witches (strigae
Strix (mythology)
Strix was the Ancient Roman and Greek word for owl. In folklore it was considered a bird of ill omen that fed on human flesh and blood, a product of metamorphosis...
), female vampires (lamiae
Lamia (mythology)
In ancient Greek mythology, Lamia was a beautiful queen of Libya who became a child-eating daemon. Aristophanes claimed her name derived from the Greek word for gullet , referring to her habit of devouring children....
), and magic in the form of "objects bewitched by spells, compounded from the bones of the dead, ashes and dead embers, hair taken from the head and pubic area of men and women, multicoloured little threads, various herbs, snails' shell and snake bits."
Diminutive
In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
, appears in a sermon
Sermon
A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...
with the beings aquatiquus (from aqua, "water") and Geniscus
Geniscus
Geniscus is a deity who appears in a sermon of Saint Eligius along with Neptune, Orcus, Minerva and Diana. These are all, the Christian homilist says, "demons" who should not be believed in or invoked...
, possibly a form of the Roman Genius
Genius (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, the genius was the individual instance of a general divine nature that is present in every individual person, place or thing.-Nature of the genius:...
or the Gallic Genius Cucullatus whose hooded form suggested or represented a phallus
Phallus
A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...
. According to "country people" (rustici homines), these and witches (striae) threaten infants and cattle.
Gervase of Tilbury
Gervase of Tilbury
Gervase of Tilbury or Gervasius Tilberiensis was a 13th century canon lawyer, statesman and writer, apparently born in either East Tilbury or West Tilbury, in Essex, England.-Life and works:...
(ca. 1150–1228) deals with dusii in his chapter on lamiae and "nocturnal larvae". Although he draws directly on Augustine, calling the dusii incubi and comparing them to Silvanuses and Pans, he regards them as sexually threatening to both men and women.
The dusios merges later with the concept of the wild man
Wild man
The wild man is a mythical figure that appears in the artwork and literature of medieval Europe, comparable to the satyr or faun type in classical mythology and to Silvanus, the Roman god of the woodlands.The defining characteristic of the figure is its "wildness"; from the 12th century...
; as late as the 13th century, Thomas Cantipratensis claimed dusii were still an active part of cult practice and belief. In his allegory
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
on bees, Thomas declares that "we see the many works of the demon Dusii, and it is for these that the folk used to consecrate the cultivated groves
Nemeton
A nemeton was a sacred space of ancient Celtic religion. Nemeta appear to have been primarily situated in natural areas, and, as they often utilized trees, they are often interpreted as sacred groves. However, other evidence suggests that the word implied a wider variety of ritual spaces, such as...
of antiquity. The folk in Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
still reckon that the forests are consecrated
Sacred grove
A sacred grove is a grove of trees of special religious importance to a particular culture. Sacred groves were most prominent in the Ancient Near East and prehistoric Europe, but feature in various cultures throughout the world...
to them; they don't dare cut them down, and never set foot in them, except for when they wish to make sacrifice in them to their own gods." In the 17th century, Johannes Praetorius rather wildly conjectured that dusios ought to be drusios, connected to the god Silvanus
Silvanus (mythology)
Silvanus was a Roman tutelary deity of woods and fields. As protector of forests , he especially presided over plantations and delighted in trees growing wild. He is also described as a god watching over the fields and husbandmen, protecting in particular the boundaries of fields...
and the woodlands and to the word "druid." The 19th-century Irish folklorist Thomas Crofton Croker
Thomas Crofton Croker
Thomas Crofton Croker was an Irish antiquary, born at Cork. For some years, he held a position in the Admiralty, where his distant relative, John Wilson Croker, was his superior....
thought the dusii were a form of woodland or domestic spirits, and deals with them in a chapter on elves
Elf
An elf is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine beings endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind...
.