Life of St. Anthony as a possible source for the depiction of the forces of evil in “Demons” by Dostoevsky

Among the sources that inspired F. M. Dostoevsky to create the novel “Demons” the New Testament was of high priority, as this article puts it. It also uncovers the importance of the author's interpretation of the Gospels of the Church Fathers. The purpose of the article is to determine the text of patristic literature that in all probability encouraged Dostoevsky to picture the forces of Evil in his novel “Demons”. This refers to the Life of St. Anthony by Athanasius of Alexandria. There are no references to this work either in the novel itself or in the commentaries to the Complete works of Dostoevsky. However, the novel “Demons” contains some arguments justifying such a supposition. The present article investigates them. The article also highlights that both European and Russian Art, particularly painting and literature, developed the theme of temptation of Anthony the Great. One of the best-known examples of this representation is the picture “Temptation of St. Anthony” attributed to Brueghel the Younger. In the 19th century this panting was a part of the famous collection of Balbi and was kept in the Royal Palace of Genoa - Balbi Senarega, inspiring Flaubert in 1845 to write the play “The Temptation of St. Anthony” (“ La Tentation de Saint Antoine” ).