Introduction
At a first sight, the Septuagint (LXX) does not seem to be particularly innovative in the way it refers to foreign gods, to the gods of the nations, or to any recipient of cults which Israelites must avoid. In most cases these gods are simply referred to in a way which we could define as “denotative”: they are called θεοί, i.e., without differentiation from the name of the god of Israelites, as both El and Yhwh can be rendered with θεός. However, in several instances translators adopted a specific “connotative” vocabulary. I refer here to those passages in which foreign gods are qualified as δαιμόνια and/or as εἴδωλα. These qualifications deserve further exploration, as here it turns out that the LXX plays a crucial role in the semantic evolution of both the notions, of “demon” and “idol” respectively. In what follows, I will focus on some linguistic and cultural aspects which are methodologically relevant to appreciate the activity of the translators, on the one hand, a...