In my opinion, however, it is certain wicked demons, and, so to speak,
of the race of Titans or Giants, who have been guilty of impiety towards
the true God, and towards the angels in heaven, and who have fallen from
it, and who haunt the denser parts of bodies, and frequent unclean
places upon earth, and who, possessing some power of distinguishing
future events, because they are without bodies of earthly material,
engage in an employment of this kind, and desiring to lead the human
race away from the true God, secretly enter the bodies of the more
rapacious and savage and wicked of animals, and stir them up to do
whatever they choose, and at whatever time they choose: either turning
the fancies of these animals to make flights and movements of various
kinds, in order that men may be caught by the divining power that is in
the irrational animals, and neglect to seek after the God who contains
all things; or to search after the pure worship of God, but allow their
reasoning powers to grovel on the earth, and amongst birds and serpents,
and even foxes and wolves. For it has been observed by those who are
skilled in such matters, that the clearest prognostications are obtained
from animals of this kind; because the demons cannot act so effectively
in the milder sort of animals as they can in these, in consequence of
the similarity between them in point of wickedness; and yet it is not
wickedness, but something like wickedness,[822] which exists in these
animals.
Footnote 822:
καὶ οὐ κακίαν μὲν, οἱονεὶ δὲ κακίαν οὖσαν.