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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Prime_Evil" data-source="post: 3629019" data-attributes="member: 11984">IMHO, the treatment of Celestials in early D&D seems to owe a lot to late Platonism. Large chunks of the celestial hierarchy is drawn from late classical literature, especially Plotinus, Porphyry, and Iambilichus (e.g. Solars, Planetars, Archons). The same sources influenced early Christian thought by way of the works of Pseudo-Dionysus the Aereopagite. The use of the term Deva to describe the Celestial beings is a little odd in this context as it appears to be drawn from Hindu mythology rather than Western mythology. I suspect that Gygax may have been thinking of the Daeva of Zoroastrian mythology rather than the Hindu concept, but have no way of proving this. The concept of Movanic Deva and Monadic Deva shows a clear Gnostic influence.   It should be also noted that the names of many of the demon lords are drawn from Classical sources. Demogorgon comes from annotations to Statius's Thebaid and was taken up by later writers (notably Milton in Paradise Lost). Orcus was a god of the underworld from Roman mythology who was identified  with the Greek god Hades. He seems to be of Etruscan origin. Dispater is actually a generic term derived from the Latin words dives ('rich') and pater ('father'). Dispater was a title applied by Classical authors to various Roman and Celtic gods of the dead. The name appears a couple of times in Caesar's Gallic Wars.</blockquote>