daimon
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dai·mon
(dī'mōn') 
also de·mon or dae·mon (dē'mən)
n. Greek Mythology
also de·mon or dae·mon (dē'mən)n. Greek Mythology
- An inferior deity, such as a deified hero.
- An attendant spirit; a genius.
[Greek daimōn.]
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In Plato's Symposium, something intermediate between the human and the divine, although in previous Greek thought just the divine, not personalized as any one particular God. The need for intermediaries between the sublunar world of change and happenstance, and the supralunary or timeless celestial world, becomes a staple of Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism. A daimon can also refer to one's self, or an aspect of oneself: this is the usage that survives in phrases like ‘Van Gogh's artistic demon’.
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American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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