Demon versus Daemon

By Linda Mihalic

In ancient Greek and in their mythology, a daemon or daimon is “an attendant, a power or spirit, a genius, a supernatural being whose nature is intermediate between that of a god and that of a human being.”

The “genius of Socrates” is the best known example of a daimon as a guardian spirit (angel) in the pre-Christian era, the classical antiquity of the Greek philosophers. Such a to daimonion is an inward mentor conceived as partaking of the nature of a demon, a spirit, or inspired by one.

1. “δαιμόνιον, δαιμονίου, τό (neuter of adjective δαιμόνιος, δαιμόνια, δαιμόνιον, divine, from δαίμων; equivalent to τό θεῖον); 1. the divine Power, deity, divinity; so sometimes in secular authors as Josephus, b. j. 1, 2, 8; Aelian v. h. 12, 57; in plural καινά δαιμόνια, Xenophon, mem. 1, 1, 1f, and once in the N. T. ξενα δαιμόνια, Acts 17:18.”

2. “a spirit, a being inferior to God, superior to men (πᾶν τό δαιμόνιον μεταξύ ἐστι Θεοῦ τέ καί θνητοῦ, Plato, Symposium 23, p. 202 e. (where see Stallbaum)), in both a good sense and a bad; thus Jesus, after his resurrection, said to his disciples οὐκ εἰμί δαιμόνιον ἀσωματον, as Ignatius (ad Smyrn. 3, 2 [ET]) records it; πνεῦμα δαιμονίου ἀκαθάρτου (genitive of apposition), Luke 4:33; (πονηρόν, Tobit 3:8, 17; δαιμόνιον ἤ πνεῦμα πονηρόν, ibid. ). But elsewhere in the Scriptures used, without an adjunct, of evil spirits or the messengers and ministers of the devil (Winer’s Grammar, 23 (22)): Luke 4:35; Luke 9:1, 42; Luke 10:17; John 10:21; James 2:19; (Psalm 90:6; Isaiah 13:21; Isaiah 34:14; Tobit 6:18 Tobit 8:3; Baruch 4:35).”

A modern definition of demon regards it as “an evil spirit, a source or agent of evil, harm, distress, or ruin.”

An “evil spirit” is sometimes translated as an “unclean spirit” in Scripture. We define an “unclean spirit” as a discarnate soul or group of souls given to mischief in regard to the breath and voice, the spoken word. For example, among the symptoms of schizophrenia and Tourette’s Syndrome we find coprolalia, a complex vocal tic using vulgar, obscene, or swear words, accompanied by compulsive arm movements, facial tics, grunting, groaning, and shouting in Tourette’s.

Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language admirably displays how language drift originating in a culture’s opinions and prejudices mold the subsequent evolving definitions of words: It defines demon as

“a spirit, or immaterial being, holding a middle place between men and the celestial deities of the Pagans. The ancients believed that there were good and evil demons, which had influence over the minds of men, and that these beings carried on an exchange between men and gods, conveying the addresses of men to the gods, and divine benefits to men. Hence demons became the objects of worship. It was supposed also that human spirits, after their departure from the body, became demons, and that the souls of virtuous men, if highly purified, were exalted from demons into gods.

“The demons of the New Testament were supposed to be spiritual beings which vexed and tormented men. And in general, the word, in modern use, signifies an evil spirit or genius, which influences the conduct or directs the fortunes of mankind.”

A gaping chasm separates the definitions of a daemon (daimon) as being a guardian spirit or guardian angel, versus that of a demon, which is defined an evil spirit. The abyss opened wide as the Roman Catholic Church, having become the single acceptable and state-sponsored religion in Europe tightened its grip in the Middle Ages, “the period in European history from the collapse of Roman civilization in the 5th century AD to the period of the Renaissance (variously interpreted as beginning in the 13th, 14th, or 15th century).” From this point, the Church defined demon as an evil spirit. All later Christian sects followed suit.

“The original definitions of ‘daemon’ would include the Holy Spirit.”

The confusion between these classes of beings persists because neither has a physical vehicle, thus they are usually invisible to ordinary human vision as are ghosts, for example. However, they are visible to clairvoyant sight and have been often assumed to be the same.

History and etymology for demon: Middle English (before the 12th century),

“an evil spirit, malignant supernatural being, an incubus, a devil,” from Latin daemon “spirit,” from Greek daimōn “deity, divine power; lesser god; guiding spirit, tutelary deity” (sometimes including souls of the dead); “one’s genius, lot, or fortune.”

“The malignant sense is because the Greek word was used (with daimonion) in Christian Greek translations and the Vulgate for “god of the heathen, heathen idol” and also for “unclean spirit.” Jewish authors earlier had employed the Greek word in this sense, using it to render shedim “lords, idols” in the Septuagint, and Matthew 8:31 has daimones, translated as deofol in Old English, feend or deuil in Middle English.

“The usual ancient Greek sense, “supernatural agent or intelligence lower than a god, a ministering spirit” is attested in English from 1560s and is sometimes written daemon or daimon for purposes of distinction. Meaning “destructive or hideous person” is from 1610s; as “an evil agency personified” from 1712.

“The Demon of Socrates (late 14c. in English) was a daimonion, a ‘divine principle or inward oracle.’ His accusers, and later the Church Fathers, however, represented this otherwise.” – Online Etymology Dictionary

Plato (Cratylus) speculates that the word daimōn (δαίμων “deity”) is synonymous to daēmōn (δαήμων “knowing or wise”); however, it is more probably daiō (δαίω “to divide, to distribute destinies, to allot”).

In Plato’s Apology, Socrates claimed to have a daimonion, a “voice” that warned him but never told him what to do. Socrates never refers to the daimonion as a daimōn, but as an impersonal “something” or “sign”.

In the Symposium, Socrates recounts a conversation he has with a priestess, Diotima, about the nature of Love:

Diotima: “‘But you have admitted that Love, from lack of good and beautiful things, desires these very things that he lacks.’

Socrates: “‘Yes, I have.’

“‘How then can he be a god, if he is devoid of things beautiful and good?’

“‘By no means, it appears.’

“‘So you see,’ she said, ‘you are a person who does not consider Love to be a god.’

“‘What then,’ I asked, ‘can Love be? A mortal?’

“‘Anything but that.’

[202e] “‘Well what?’

“‘As I previously suggested, between a mortal and an immortal.’ “‘And what is that, Diotima?’

“‘A great spirit, Socrates: for the whole of the spiritual1 is between divine and mortal.’

“‘Possessing what power?’ I asked.

“‘Interpreting and transporting human things to the gods and divine things to men; entreaties and sacrifices from below, and ordinances and requitals from above: being midway between, it makes each to supplement the other, so that the whole is combined in one. Through it are conveyed all divination and priestcraft concerning sacrifice and ritual [203a] and incantations, and all soothsaying and sorcery. God with man does not mingle: but the spiritual is the means of all society and converse of men with gods and of gods with men, whether waking or asleep. Whosoever has skill in these affairs is a spiritual man to have it in other matters, as in common arts and crafts, is for the mechanical. Many and multifarious are these spirits, and one of them is Love.’”

1^ Δαίμονες and τὸ δαιμόνιον represent the mysterious agencies and influences by which the gods communicate with mortals.