DEMON. - In Homer, d. indicates the nature of the god, his mode of manifesting himself, his power, whereas θεός (=god) indicates the divinity in cult and in myth.
The meaning later became broader: d. was used by the tragedians as a synonym for destiny and, often, to indicate semidivine beings, superior to man but inferior to the gods: thus for Hesiod the heroes of the golden age are d., who serve the gods and protect mortals; for Aeschylus Darius is a d., for Euripides Alcestis. For the philosophers the d. was a force that watches over man from birth, guides his will, inspires him to good and to evil; for Socrates it is also the conscience. In cult this name was given to minor divinities, e.g., Mithras, the Sileni, etc. Popular religion gave great importance to the d., in which it saw individual spirits of the lowest rank in the divine hierarchy, protectors or opponents of human activity, personifications of natural forces, the primary origin of diseases. The malevolent d. (souls of the dead, spirits and specters in the retinue of Hecate) brought madness and death to whoever saw them.
Bibliography5 worksP. Regnaud, Le Zaïgava, histoire d'un mot et d'une idée, in Revue de l'histoire des religions, 15 (1887), p. 156 ff.; Waser, s. v. in Pauly-
BIBL.: P. Regnaud, Le Zaïgava, histoire d'un mot et d'une idée, in Revue de l'histoire des religions, 15 (1887), p. 156 ff.; Waser, s. v. in Pauly-Wissowa, IV, II, coll. 2010-12; A. Michel, Les bons et les mauvais esprits dans les croyances populaires de l'ancienne Grèce, in Rev. de l'hist. relig., 37 (1910), pp. 193-215; H. Rose, Numen inest, in Harvard Theological Review, 28 (1935), p. 243 ff.; M. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion, I, Monaco 1941, p. 201 ff.
Banti, Luisa. “Démone.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, col. 1418. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/demone.
MLA
Banti, Luisa. “Démone.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, col. 1418. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/demone.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec4_demone,
author = {Banti, Luisa},
title = {Démone},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {IV},
pages = {1418},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/demone}
}
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