"The Good Devil" by The Man in a Panther Skin

Abstract

The Man in a Punther Skin mentions Eros from Greek mythology.  In one episode, he (Eros) is Love as a person. In the second episode, he is the feeling of love. This reference is based on Plato's Symposium, where Eros is presented as a good demon or a wise demon.  The context in which Rustav­eli speaks of love as a good devil is unclear to researchers and translators. In this context, Avtandil speaks to Tariel, who is depressed because of his Inconsolable love: Who has heard of a good devil without evil? Researchers have understood the poem's devil (ეშმაკი) in a modern sense.  In the old Georgian translation of the Gospel, the Greek demon (δαίμον)   is translated by the word devil (ეშმაკი). Therefore, according to Rustaveli’s philosophical source, Plato’s Symposium, the text should be understood as follows: in every good devil (in love), there is evil. And the point of view, that in every good devil there is evil, is the position of Neoplatonic philosophy. Dionysius the Areopagite, The Divine Names (4,34): „...And, as for the demons, what they are is both from the Good, and good. But their evil is from the declension from their own proper goods, and a change – the weakness, as regards their identity…”. Rustaveli is based on the translation by Ephraim Mtsire of The Divine Names, where demon (δαίμον) is translated as devil (ეშმაკი), as in The Man in a Panther-Skin.