Wise Demons

Info about the word demon found in book "The Dialogues of Plato".

The Greek conception of a demon appears in the works of Plato and many other ancient authors, but without the evil connotations which are apparent in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible and in the Greek originals of the New Testament.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon


Socrates. And therefore I have the most entire conviction that he called them demons, because they were demons (knowing or wise), and in our older Attic dialect the word itself occurs. Now he and other poets say truly, that when a good man dies he has honor and a mighty portion among the dead, and becomes a demon; which is a name given to him signifying wisdom. And I say too, that every wise man who happens to be a good man is more than human both in life and death, and is rightly called a demon.

http://ethics.sandiego.edu/books/plato/cratylus/plato_cratylus.htm


Etymology

The idea of demons is as old as religion itself, and the word demon seems to have ancient origins. The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the etymology of the word as Greek daimon, probably from the verb daiesthai meaning "to divide, distribute." The Proto-Indo-European root deiwos for god, originally an adjective meaning "celestial" or "bright, shining" has retained this meaning in many related Indo-European languages and cultures (Sanskrit deva, Latin deus, German Tiw, Welsh [Duw],]), but also provided another other common word for demon in Avestan daeva.

In modern Greek, the word daimon(Greek: δαίμων) has the same meaning as the modern English demon. But in Ancient Greek, δαίμων meant "spirit" or "higher self", much like the Latin genius. This should not, however, be confused with the word genie, which is a false friend or false cognate of genius.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon

What is good in this world?
And, what is evil?

The good
signified by angels.

The evil
signified by demons.

Yet, in philosophy,
demon signifies wisdom.

For Socrates once said to Cratylus,
"When a good man dies
he has honour and a mighty portion among the dead
and becomes a demon;
which is a name signifying wisdom.
Every wise man who happens to be a good man
is more than human both in life and death
and is rightly called a demon."


Could what was considered evil
actually just be wise?

And, how many wise demons
walk among us in the universe?

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• allpoetry
• Greek
• philosophy
• Socrates
• Cratylus
• demon
• wisdom

[CalgarSkull]

Demons?? Fiction!

[HaleyMary]

Philosophy. :)

[StevenErnest]

I like the poem you wrote, cool!

Yes, I don't think demon's are necessarily evil, it depends on the context. Angels probably had a better public relations firm, and got a better rep.

There's that William Blake quote, about the demons supposedly writhing in agony in hell, are actually delighting in bliss!

I looked into the spelling, "daemon," when I heard about The Golden Compass/His Dark Materials trilogy; there, they're like higher selves, in animal form.

[HaleyMary]

Glad you liked the poem. I don't know that William Blake quote. I'll have to look that up.

Thanks for the comment. :)

[pansgrove]

FIVE STARS and I put this video on my fav. list.

[Brasik1]

The book of Enoch is enlightening. Whatever name you give these fallen creatures they are a far more serious a matter than your early studies have yet revealed.

[Naiant]

You need to work out the pronunciations of the words you're going to use before you sit down before the camera. Stumbling over them makes you less convincing.

Also, the way the video was structured it was difficult to tell that "daimon" and "deus" don't come from the same PIE root.

[20lbsledge]

Did you know that Christ is known as the Agathadaemon?

[GrailcodeDotNet]

Don't trust the classical writers, they are like the stupid bohemians of today, no offense, they don't know shit.

[taishing711]

vapor rises, and liquid sinks

the notion asks the scientific relaxed observation give the understanding in any realm, physical mental, and spiritual(the more intuitive sensitive nature, for those with unfavorable recall of the notion 'spiritual')

[HaleyMary]

Thanks, Warren. I actually didn't know that about the word demon either until I started reading up on philosophy. One of the things I like about writing about cosmology and philosophy in my poetry, is I never know what I will learn about next. :)

[CalgarSkull]

Silly....I mean it's a bit like a ghost story to have such things ....I don't know philoshpy right