Quando il Sole fa paura: il terrore meridiano e i suoi demoni nella letteratura moderna

The aim of this paper is to show the vitality of the so called ‘noonday terror’. This concept appears to be well-established in ancient Greek – and, generally, mediterranean – culture and it seems to have been partially embodied by the biblical noonday demon, through which it reached Modern literary production. After outlining the meaning of midday in mediterranean antiquity, this study will discuss the noonday demon of biblical tradition, from the translation issue of the Septuagint to its success in the context of early Christian monasticism as the demon of ‘acedia’. Some selected texts from the XIX and XX century will be illustrated in order to show the vitality of the subject in Modern literature. All texts, although they are cronologically and geographically distant, make use of midday and its demon as a source of terror and anguish in a demonic way.