DÆMON

DÆMON (δαίμων), a name given by the ancients to certain spirits or genii, which they say appeared to men, either to do them service or to injure them.

The Greek word δαίμων is derived, according to Plato,¹ from δαίω, knowing or intelligent; but according to others from δαίω, to distribute. This is the derivation given by the scholiast on Homer.² Either of these derivations agrees with the office ascribed to demons by the

Dæmon. ancient heathens, as the spirit intrusted with the inspection and government of mankind. For, according to the philosophers, dæmons held a middle rank between the celestial gods and men upon earth, and carried on all intercourse between them; conveying the addresses of men to the gods, and the divine benefits to men. It was the opinion of many, that the celestial divinities did not themselves interpose in human affairs, but committed the entire administration of the government of this lower world to these subaltern deities: Neque enim pro majestate deum celestium fuerit hæc curare.¹ Cuncta celestium voluntate, numine, et auctoritate, sed dæmonum obsequio, et opera et ministerio fieri arbitrandum est.² Hence they became the objects of divine worship. "If idols are nothing," says Celsus,³ "what harm can there be to join in the public festivals? If they are dæmons, then it is certain that they are gods, in whom we ought to confide, and to whom we should offer sacrifices and prayers to render them propitious."

Several of the heathen philosophers held that there were different kinds of dæmons; that some of them were spiritual substances of a more noble origin than the human race, and that others had once been men.

But those dæmons who were the more immediate objects of the established worship among the ancient nations were human spirits, such as were believed to become dæmons or deities after their departure from their bodies. Plutarch teaches, "that according to a divine nature and justice, the souls of virtuous men are advanced to the rank of dæmons; and that from dæmons, if they are properly purified, they are exalted into gods, not by any political institution, but according to right reason." The same author says in another place,⁴ "that Isis and Osiris were, for their virtue, changed from good dæmons into gods, as were Hercules and Bacchus afterwards, receiving the united honours both of gods and dæmons." Hesiod and other poets, who have recorded the ancient history or traditions on which the public faith and worship were founded, assert, that the men of the golden age, who were supposed to be very good, became dæmons after death, and dispensers of good things to mankind.

Though dæmon is often used in a general sense as equivalent to a deity, and is accordingly applied to fate or fortune, or whatever else was regarded as a god, yet those dæmons who were the more immediate objects of divine worship amongst the heathens were human spirits, as is shown by Farmer in his Essay on Miracles.

The word dæmon is used indifferently in a good and in a bad sense. In the former sense, it was very commonly employed amongst the ancient heathens. "We must not," says Menander, "think any dæmon to be evil or hurtful to a good life, but every god to be good." Nevertheless, those are certainly mistaken who affirm that dæmon was not used to signify an evil being until after the times of Christ. Pythagoras believed in dæmons who afflicted with diseases both men and cattle.⁵ Zaleucus, in his preface to his laws,⁶ supposes that an evil dæmon might be present with a man, to influence him to injustice. The dæmons of Empedocles were evil spirits, and exiles from heaven; and Plutarch, in his life of Dion, says that it was the opinion of the ancients that evil and mischievous dæmons, out of envy and hatred to good men, oppose whatsoever they do. Scarcely did any opinion more generally prevail in ancient times than this, that as the departed souls of good men became good dæmons, so the departed souls of bad men became evil dæmons.

It has been generally thought, that by dæmons we are to understand devils, in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament; but others think that the word in that version is applied to the ghosts of such dead men as the heathens deified. That dæmon often bears the same meaning in the New Testament, is shown at large by Mr Joseph Mede, in his works; and that the word is applied always to human spirits in the New Testament, Mr Farmer has attempted to show in his Essay on Dæmoniacs. As to the meaning of the word dæmon in the writings of the fathers of the Christian church, it is used by them in the same sense as it was by the heathen philosophers, especially the latter Platonists; that is, sometimes for departed human spirits, and at other times for such spirits as had never inhabited human bodies. In the fathers, indeed, the word is more commonly employed in an evil sense, than in that of the ancient philosophers. Besides the two kinds of dæmons before mentioned, the fathers, as well as the ancient philosophers, believed in a third, namely, such as sprang from the congress of superior beings with the daughters of men. In the theology of the fathers, these were the worst kind of dæmons.

Different orders of dæmons had different stations and employments assigned them by the ancients. Good dæmons were considered as the authors of good to mankind; whereas evil dæmons brought innumerable ills both upon men and beasts. Amongst evil dæmons there was a great distinction with respect to the offices assigned them; as some compelled men to wickedness, and others stimulated them to madness.