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{{short description|Lesser divinity or personified abstract concept in classical Greek mythology}}
{{Hatnote|This article is about the semi-divine beings of Classical Greek mythology. For the evil spirits, see [[Demon]]. For other uses, see [[Demon (disambiguation)]] (includes daemon disambiguation) or [[Daimon (disambiguation)]].}}
[[File:Minoan genius.png|thumb|Two [[Minoan Genius]] performing a libation over an altar]]
The '''daimon''' ({{lang|grc|δαίμων}}), also spelled '''daemon''' (meaning "god", "godlike", "power", "fate"),<ref>A. Delahunty, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Nvu17oLIQNgC&dq=daemon+daimon&pg=PA90 ''From Bonbon to Cha-cha: Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases'' (p. 90)], Oxford University Press, 2008 {{ISBN|0199543690}}</ref><ref>J. Cresswell, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LGGCBAAAQBAJ&dq=daim%C5%8Dn+word+etymology&pg=PA146 ''Little Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins'' (p. 146)], Oxford University Press, 2014.</ref> denotes an "unknown superfactor", which can be either good or hostile.<ref>Wiebe, G. (2020, June 30). demons in Christian thought. Oxford Classical Dictionary. Retrieved 12 Dec. 2024, from https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-8290.</ref> The daimonic manifests as a penetration into the [[Cosmos|order of the known and explainable world]].<ref name=":0">Frey-Anthes, Henrike. ''Unheilsmächte und Schutzgenien, Antiwesen und Grenzgänger: Vorstellungen von" Dämonen" im alten Israel''. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2007. 4-5</ref> For Christian thinkers, the daimonic was associated with non-rational divine inspiration and, due to lack of its predictability, considered evil.<ref name=":1">Nicholls, A. (2021, February 23). Daemonic. ''Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature.'' Retrieved 17 Nov. 2025, from <nowiki>https://oxfordre.com/literature/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.001.0001/acrefore-9780190201098-e-1118</nowiki>.</ref> For modern non-Christian thinkers, such as [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], the daimon remained neutral.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />

In [[ancient Greek religion]] and [[Greek mythology|mythology]] a daimon was imagined to be a lesser [[deity]] or guiding spirit.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Ddai%2Fmwn ''daimōn'' "δαίμων"]. ''[[A Greek–English Lexicon]]''.</ref> The word is derived from [[Proto-Indo-European]] *déh₂i-mō ~ *dh₂i-mn-és 'divider, apportioner(?)'.<ref>{{cite-book|first=Guus|last=Kroonen|authorlink=Guus Kroonen|entry=*tīman-|title=Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic|year=2013|location=Leiden, Boston|publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]]|page=517|url=https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-proto-germanic|series=Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series|isbn=978-90-04-18340-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite-book|first=Robert S. P.|last=Beekes|authorlink=Robert S. P. Beekes|year=2010|title=Etymological Dictionary of Greek|url=https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek_202306|location=Leiden, Boston|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004174207|pages=297-298|volume=I|entry=δαίομαι|series=Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series|others=with the assistance of Lucien van Beek}}</ref> Daimons were possibly seen as the [[Ensoulment#Ancient Greeks|souls of men]] of the [[golden age]], [[Tutelary deity|tutelary deities]], or the forces of fate.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2323243 2323243] [[Perseus Digital Library]] Consulted 2017-05-05</ref>

==Description==
{{See also|Tutelary deity#Near East and Mediterranean}}

Daimons are lesser [[divinity|divinities]] or spirits, often [[personification]]s of [[abstraction|abstract]] concepts, beings of the same nature as both mortals and deities, similar to [[ghost]]s, [[chthonic]] heroes, [[spirit guide]]s, forces of nature, or the deities themselves (see Plato's ''[[Symposium (Plato)|Symposium]]''). Even though the term derives from Greek philosophy, anthropology agrees on that daimons are universal across human cultures.<ref name=":0" /> According to Hesiod's myth, "great and powerful figures were to be honoured after death as a daimon…"<ref name="Burkert1985"/> A daimon is not so much a type of quasi-divine being, according to [[Walter Burkert]], but rather a non-personified "peculiar mode" of their activity.{{Citation needed|date = May 2021}} According to the [[Animism|Animism-theory]] by [[Edward Burnett Tylor|Tylor]] and similar to [[William Robertson Smith|William Robertson Smith's]] theory on [[Totemism]], belief in gods evolved from daimons — including [[Ghost|ghosts]] and [[jinn]] — into gods.<ref name=":0" />

In [[Hesiod]]'s ''[[Theogony]]'', [[Phaethon (son of Eos)|Phaëton]] becomes an incorporeal ''daimon'' or a divine spirit,<ref>"ποιήσατο, δαίμονα δῖον"; Hesiod, ''Theogony'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=ED319EE8D7A9AC490B9C44B7C684D2AB?doc=Hes.+Th.+980&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0129 991.]</ref> but, for example, the ills released by [[Pandora]] are deadly deities, ''[[Keres (mythology)|keres]]'', not ''daimones''.<ref name="Burkert1985"/> From Hesiod also, the people of the [[Golden Age]] were transformed into ''daimones'' by the will of [[Zeus]], to serve mortals benevolently as their guardian spirits; "good beings who dispense riches…[nevertheless], they remain invisible, known only by their acts".<ref>Hesiod, ''[[Works and Days]]'' 122-26.</ref> The ''daimones'' of venerated [[Greek hero|hero]]es were localized by the construction of shrines, so as not to wander restlessly, and were believed to confer protection and good fortune on those offering their respects.<ref name="Burkert1985"/>

One tradition of Greek thought, which found agreement in the mind of [[Plato]], was of a daimon which existed within a person from their birth, and that each individual was obtained by a singular daimon prior to their birth [[Cleromancy|by way of lot]].<ref name="Burkert1985"/>

== In mythology ==

[[Homer]]'s use of the words ''theoí'' ({{lang|grc|θεοί}}, "gods") and ''daímones'' ({{lang|grc|δαίμονες}}) suggests that, while distinct, they are similar in kind.<ref>As par example in [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0217%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D222 Hom. Il. 1.222]: {{lang|grc|ἣ δ᾽ Οὔλυμπον δὲ βεβήκει δώματ᾽ ἐς αἰγιόχοιο Διὸς μετὰ δαίμονας ἄλλους}}: "Then she went back to Olympus among the other gods [daimones]".</ref> Later writers developed the distinction between the two.<ref>p. 115, [[John Burnet (classicist)|John Burnet]], ''Plato's Euthyprho, Apology of Socrates, and Crito'', Clarendon 1924.</ref> Plato in ''[[Cratylus (dialogue)|Cratylus]]''<ref>''"Because they were wise and knowing ({{lang|grc|δαήμονες}}) he called them spirits ({{lang|grc|δαίμονες}}) and in the old form of our language the two words are the same"'' – Cratylus [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0172%3Atext%3DCrat.%3Asection%3D398b 398 b]</ref> speculates that the word ''daimōn'' ({{lang|grc|δαίμων}}, "deity") is synonymous to ''daēmōn'' ({{lang|grc|δαήμων}}, "knowing or wise");<ref>Entry [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Ddah%2Fmwn δαήμων] at ''[[LSJ]]''</ref> however, it is more probably ''daiō'' ({{lang|grc|δαίω}}, "to divide, to distribute destinies, to allot").<ref>[http://archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/dict?name=lsj&lang=el&word=dai%2fmwn&filter=GreekXlit "daimōn"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807043158/http://archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/dict?name=lsj&lang=el&word=dai%2fmwn&filter=GreekXlit |date=2011-08-07 }}, in [[Henry Liddell|Liddell, Henry]] and [[Robert Scott (philologist)|Robert Scott]]. 1996. ''[[A Greek-English Lexicon]]''.</ref>

===Socrates===
{{main|Daimonion (Socrates)}}

[[File:Alcibades being taught by Socrates, François-André Vincent.jpg|thumb|249x249px|Socrates with Alcibiades and the Daimonion. Oil painting by François-André Vincent, 1776, in the Musée Fabre, Montpellier]]
In Plato's ''[[Symposium (Plato)|Symposium]]'', the priestess [[Diotima of Mantinea|Diotima]] teaches [[Socrates]] that love is not a deity, but rather a "great daimōn" (202d). She goes on to explain that "everything daimōnion is between divine and mortal" (202d–e), and she describes daimōns as "interpreting and transporting human things to the gods and divine things to men; entreaties and sacrifices from below, and ordinances and requitals from above..." (202e). In Plato's ''[[Apology (Plato)|Apology of Socrates]]'', Socrates claimed to have a ''daimōnion'' (literally, a "divine something")<ref>Plato, ''Apology'' 31c–d, 40a; p. 16, Burnet, ''Plato's Euthyprho, Apology of Socrates, and Crito''.</ref> that frequently warned him—in the form of a "voice"—against mistakes but never told him what to do.<ref>pp. 16–17, Burnet, ''Plato's Euthyprho, Apology of Socrates, and Crito''; pp. 99–100, M. Joyal, "''To Daimonion'' and the Socratic Problem", ''Apeiron'' vol. 38 no. 2, 2005.</ref> The Platonic Socrates, however, never refers to the ''daimonion'' as a ''daimōn''; it was always referred to as an impersonal "something" or "sign".<ref>p. 16, Burnet, ''Plato's Euthyprho, Apology of Socrates, and Crito''; p. 63, P. Destrée, "The ''Daimonion'' and the Philosophical Mission", ''Apeiron'' vol. 38 no. 2, 2005.</ref> By this term he seems to indicate the true nature of the human [[soul]], his newfound [[self-consciousness]].<ref>Paolo De Bernardi, ''Socrate, il demone e il risveglio'', from "Sapienza", no. 45, ESD, Naples 1992, pp. 425–43.</ref> [[Paul Shorey]] sees the ''daimonion'' not as an inspiration but as "a kind of ''spiritual tact'' checking Socrates from any act opposed to his true moral and intellectual interests."<ref>''The Republic'', volume 2, p. 52, note, italics added.</ref>

Regarding the charge brought against Socrates in 399 BC, Plato surmised "Socrates does wrong because he does not believe in the gods in whom the city believes, but introduces other daemonic beings..." Burkert notes that "a special being watches over each individual, a ''daimōn'' who has obtained the person at his birth by lot, is an idea which we find in Plato, undoubtedly from earlier tradition. The famous, paradoxical saying of [[Heraclitus]] is already directed against such a view: 'character is for man his daimon{{'"}}.<ref name="Burkert1985"/>

== Age of Enlightenment ==
During the [[Age of Enlightenment]], the daimon went through a revival. [[German language|German]] polymath and writer [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]] (1749–1832), considers the daimonic to be neither necessarily good nor evil, neither divine, nor natural:<ref name=":0" /><blockquote>Er glaubte in der Natur, der belebten und unbelebten, der beseelten und unbeseelten, etwas zu entdecken, das sich nur in Wider sprüchen manifestierte und deshalb unter keinen Begriff, noch viel weniger unter ein Wort gefasst werden könnte. Es war nicht göttlich, denn es schien unver nünftig; nicht menschlich, denn es hatte keinen Verstand; nicht teuflisch, denn es war wohltätig; nicht englisch, denn es ließ oft Schadenfreude merken.

He believed he had discovered something in nature, both animate and inanimate, soulful and inanimate, that manifested itself only in contradictions and therefore could not be grasped by any concept, much less by a word. It was not divine, for it seemed irrational; not human, for it had no intellect; not diabolical, for it was benevolent; not angelic, for it often displayed malicious glee.<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>

==Categories==
{{over-quotation|date=June 2025}}
[[File:Woman mirror tambourine MBA Lyon L631.jpg|thumb|230px|Winged [[genius (mythology)|genius]] facing a woman with a tambourine and mirror, from southern Italy, about 320 BC]]

The [[Hellenistic]] Greeks divided daemons into good and evil categories: ''[[agathodaímōn]]'' ({{lang|grc|ἀγαθοδαίμων}}, "noble spirit"), from ''agathós'' ({{lang|grc|ἀγαθός}}, "good, brave, noble, moral, lucky, useful"), and ''[[kakodaímōn]]'' ({{lang|grc|κακοδαίμων}}, "[[malevolent spirit]]"), from ''kakós'' ({{lang|grc|κακός}}, "bad, evil"). They resemble the Christian [[guardian angel]] and adversarial [[demon]], respectively. ''[[Eudaimonia]]'' ({{lang|grc|εὐδαιμονία}}) came to mean "well-being" or "happiness". The comparable Roman concept is the ''[[genius (mythology)|genius]]'' who accompanies and protects a person or presides over a place (see ''[[genius loci]]'').

A distorted view of [[Homer]]'s daemon results from an anachronistic reading in light of later characterizations by [[Plato]] and [[Xenocrates]], his successor as head of the [[Platonic Academy|Academy]], who saw the daemon as a potentially dangerous lesser spirit:<ref name="Burkert1985">{{cite book |first=Walter |last=Burkert |year=1985 |title=Greek Religion |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-36281-9 |lccn=84025209 |url=https://archive.org/details/greekreligion0000burk |url-access=registration |pages=[https://archive.org/details/greekreligion0000burk/page/179 179]–181, 317, 331, 335}}</ref><ref>Samuel E. Bassett, "ΔΑΙΜΩΝ in Homer" ''The Classical Review'' '''33'''.7/8 (November 1919), pp. 134-136, correcting an interpretation in Finsler, ''Homer'' 1914; the subject was taken up again by F.A. Wilford, "DAIMON in Homer" ''Numen'''''12''' (1965) pp. 217–32.</ref> Burkert states that in the ''[[Symposium (Plato)|Symposium]]'', Plato has "laid the foundation" to imagine the ''daimon'' as being with [[Eros]], who as a mediator is neither god nor mortal but in between. His metaphysical doctrine of an <blockquote><poem>incorporeal, pure actuality, ''energeia'' ... identical to its performance: ‘thinking of thinking’, ''noesis noeseos'' is the most blessed existence, the highest origin of everything. ‘This is the god. On such a principle heaven depends, and the cosmos.’

In the monotheism of the mind, philosophical speculation has reached an end-point. ... In Plato there is an incipient tendency toward the [[apotheosis]] of ''[[nous]]''. ... He needs a closeness and availability of the divine that is offered neither by the stars nor by metaphysical principles. Here a name emerged to fill the gap, a name which had always designated the incomprehensible yet present activity of a higher power, ''daimon''.<ref name="Burkert1985"/></poem></blockquote> Daemons scarcely figure in [[Greek mythology]] or [[Art in ancient Greece|Greek art]]: they are felt, but their unseen presence can only be presumed,{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}}. The exception is the ''agathodaemon'', honored in ceremonial wine-drinking --especially at the sanctuary of [[Dionysus]]-- and represented in [[iconography]] by the [[chthonic]] [[Serpent (mythology)|serpent]].

Burkert suggests that, for Plato, theology rests on two [[Theory of Forms|Forms]]: the Good and the Simple; which "Xenocrates unequivocally called the unity god" in sharp contrast to the poet's gods of epic and tragedy.<ref name="Burkert1985"/> Although much like the deities, these figures were not always depicted without considerable moral ambiguity: <blockquote><poem> Indeed, Xenocrates ... explicitly understood ''daemones'' as ranged along a scale from good to bad. ... [Plutarch] speaks of ‘great and strong beings in the atmosphere, malevolent and morose, who rejoice in [unlucky days, religious festivals involving violence against the self, etc.], and after gaining them as their lot, they turn to nothing worse.’ ... Quite when the point was first made remains unanswerable. Much the same thought as [Plato's] is to be found in a late Hellenistic composition, the ''Pythagorean Commentaries'', which draws on older popular representations: ‘The whole air is full of souls. We call them ''daemones'' and heroes, and it is they who send dreams, signs and illnesses to men; and not only men, but also to sheep and other domestic animals. It is towards these ''daemones'' that we direct purifications and [[apotropaic magic|apotropaic rites]], all kinds of divination, the art of reading chance utterances, and so on.’ ... This account differs from that of the early Academy in reaching back to the other, Archaic, view of ''daemones'' as souls, and thus anticipates the views of Plutarch and Apuleius in the Principate ... It clearly implies that ''daemones'' can cause illness to livestock: this traditional dominated view has now reached the intellectuals.<ref name="AnkarlooClark1999">{{cite book |first1=Bengt |last1=Ankarloo |first2=Stuart |last2=Clark |year=1999 |title=Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Ancient Greece and Rome |volume=2 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-1705-6 |lccn=99002682 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C80ooPNa0nEC&pg=PA226 |page=226}}</ref></poem></blockquote>

In the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] or early [[Classical Greece|Classical]] period, the ''daimon'' had been democratized and internalized for each person, whom it served to guide, motivate, and inspire, as one possessed of such good spirits.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}} Similarly, the first-century Roman [[imperial cult]] began by venerating the ''[[Genius (mythology)#Imperial genii|genius]]'' or ''[[numen]]'' of [[Augustus]], a distinction that blurred in time.

==See also==
{{div col begin|colwidth=9em}}
* [[Anito]]
* [[Anthelioi]]
* [[Eudaemon (mythology)|Eudaimon]]
* [[Fravashi]]
* [[Fylgja]]
* [[His_Dark_Materials|His Dark Materials]]
* [[Hyang]]
* [[Kami]]
* [[Koalemos]]
* [[Moral imperative]]
* [[Shoulder angel]]
* [[Unclean spirit]]
* [[Xian (Taoism)]]
* [[Yaksha]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|daemon}}
{{Commons category}}
*[https://ce399.typepad.com/weblog/2009/11/exorcism-in-north-africa-localizing-the-unholy.html Maureen A. Tilley, "Exorcism in North Africa: Localizing the (Un)holy"] explores the meanings of ''daimon'' among Christians in Roman [[Africa (province)|Africa]] and exorcism practices that passed seamlessly into Christian ritual.
*[https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.toc.html Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol V:] Cyprian, "On the Vanity of Idols" e-text Daemons inhabiting the images of gods
*[https://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/personifications.html Abstract Personifications (a list of daimones of Greek mythology)]
{{Greek religion}}

[[Category:Daimons| ]]
[[Category:Christianity and Hellenistic religion]]
[[Category:Divinity]]
[[Category:Greek deities]]
[[Category:Demigods in classical mythology]]
[[Category:Hellenistic deities]]
[[Category:Creatures in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Socrates]]
[[Category:Concepts in ancient Greek philosophy of mind]]
[[Category:Concepts in ancient Greek ethics]]

Daimon - Revision history

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