The Daimon
A spirit poised between gods and men — sometimes a guiding inner voice, sometimes the lesser power that shapes a person's fortune.
Daimōn began in Homer (c. 8th century BCE) as a vague divine power or allotted fate, distinct from the named Olympian gods. Over time it took on sharper roles: Hesiod imagined the golden race becoming guardian daimones; Socrates spoke of his daimonion, an inner divine sign that warned him away from wrong action; and Plato, in the Symposium, cast Eros as a great daimon mediating between gods and mortals. Later Platonists and Stoics built entire hierarchies of intermediary daimones — an idea that eventually fed the word's Christian narrowing into 'demon.' The concept matters as the Greek model of intermediary spiritual beings bridging heaven and earth.
How it traveled
- OdysseyIos · -700explains
- IliadIos · -700explains
- AgamemnonAthens · -458explains
- HistoriesThurii (Magna Graecia) · -425explains
- MemorabiliaAthens · -354explains
- LawsAthens · -348explains
- AeneidRome · -19explains
- MetamorphosesTomis (Constanța) · 8explains
- De Defectu OraculorumChaeronea · 120explains
- De Genio SocratisChaeronea · 120explains
- De Iside et OsirideChaeronea · 120explains
- De Sera Numinis VindictaChaeronea · 120explains
- Civil WarsAlexandria · 165explains
- Ad Se IpsumVindobona (Vienna) · 170explains
- Description of Greece— · 180explains
- Philopseudes sive incredulusSamosata · 180explains
- Vitae philosophorum— · 240explains
- EnneadesRome · 270explains
- Res GestaeRome · 400explains
- Midrash Tanchuma BuberTiberias · 600
- Sefer HaIkkarimSoria · 1425
- Abarbanel on TorahNaples · 1505
- Pardes RimmonimTzfat · 1548
- Sha'ar HaGilgulimTzfat · 1570
- Praeparatio Evangelica—explains
- Contra Celsum—explains
- De MysteriisApameaexplains
- Jewish Antiquities—explains
- Homiliae [Sp.]—explains
- OrationesPrusaexplains
- DialexeisTyreexplains
- Suidae lexicon—explains
- De Somniis (lib. i-ii)—redefines
- Demonstratio Evangelica—explains
- Historical LibrarySyracuse (Sicily)explains
- Historia Ecclesiastica—explains
- De abstinentiaRomeexplains
- De BellisConstantinople (Istanbul)explains
- Scholia in Iliadem—explains
- Oratio ad Graecos—explains
Key passages(20)
Catena In Lucam (Typus B) (e codd. Paris. Coislin. 23 + Oxon. Bodl. Misc. 182) · Catenae (Novum Testamentum)
Catena In Matthaeum (Catena Integra) (E Cod. Paris. Coislin. Gr. 23) · Catenae (Novum Testamentum)
Catena In Matthaeum (Catena Integra) (E Cod. Paris. Coislin. Gr. 23) · Catenae (Novum Testamentum)
Homiliae [Sp.] · Clemens Romanus (Clement of Rome)
Homiliae [Sp.] · Clemens Romanus (Clement of Rome)
Praeparatio Evangelica · Eusebius of Caesarea
Praeparatio Evangelica · Eusebius of Caesarea