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Introduction
A famous demon ("bes" in russian) of the Cape Besov Nos of the Onego Lake (Fig. 1: 1) is known, probably, to everybody who is concerned about rock art of the Northern Europe. A lot of ideas were written about it and its neighboring figures: fantastic interpretations and exciting discussions about its demonic nature and meaning for the ancient people (Brusov 1937; Linevsky 1939; Laushkin 1962; Stolyar 1978; 2000; Zhulnikov 2006; and others).
A demon
We'll cross demon with classic typological method. Formally, the demon is described as follows: a full-face anthropomorphic figure, body of rectangular shape, a rectangular head on a long neck, legs bent at the knees and feet pointing outward in different directions, arms bent at the elbows and forearms are raised up, fingers spread wide. A deep crack passes along the demon on the Besov Nos that divides the body lengthwise into two equal parts, ends in the head, to the sides of the mouth on the spot and left eye (Ravdonikas 1936: Table. 29).
Demons
Are there such images in the rock art of the Northern Europe? There are. First of all, one next to the Besov Nos in a group of rock carvings in the estuary of the Vodla River (Fig. 1: 2) is a part of the whole assemblage of the Onego petroglyphs (Poikalainen, Ernits 1998: 143-145). One in Calmn-Varre on the Ponoy River in the center of the Kola Peninsula (Fig. 2: 2) (Shumkin 1990; 2000: 221; Gurina 2005: 27), and nine on the Lake Kanozero in the southern part of the Kola Peninsula (Fig. 3) (Kolpakov, Shumkin 2012: 291). They differ from the Besov Nos demon so that the body and the head are not rectangular, as well the fact that every figure is clearly identified as male because a phallus is depicted. A kind of exception is the second Onego demon from Vodla. The sex of the figure is indicated by a triangle pointing upwards on the proper place of the full face body. It can be interpreted to be a phallus, as well as a vulva. Thus, both Onego demons are specific in that their sex is not obvious.
To assign the figures of a "demon" to a specicific type, I do not...