Daimonic

The idea of the daimonic typically means quite a few things: from befitting a demon and fiendish, to be motivated by a spiritual force or genius and inspired. As a psychological term, it has come to represent an elemental force which contains an irrepressible drive towards individuation. As a literary term, it can also mean the dynamic unrest that exists in us all that forces us into the unknown, leading to self-destruction and/or self-discovery.

The term is derived from Greek "δαίμων" (daimon, gen. daimonos): "lesser god, guiding spirit, tutelary deity", by way of Latin—dæmon: "spirit". "Daimon" itself is thought to be derived from daiomai, with the meaning of to divide or to lacerate.Marie-Louise von Franz delineated the term daiomai (see ref.), and indicates that its usage is specifically when someone perceived an occurrence which they attributed to the influence of a divine presence, amongst the examples provided by Franz, are from attributing to a daimon the occurrence of a horse becoming or being startled.

For the Minoan (3000-1100 BC) and Mycenaean (1500-1100 BC), "daimons" were seen as attendants or servants to the deities, possessing spiritual power. Later, the term "daimon" was used by writers such as Homer (8th century BC), Hesiod, and Plato as a synonym for theos, or god. Some scholars, like van der Leeuw, suggest a distinction between the terms: whereas theos was the personification of a god (e.g. Zeus), daimon referred to something indeterminate, invisible, incorporeal, and unknown.

During the period in which Homer was alive, people believed ailments were both caused and cured by daimons.

Heraclitus Of Ephesus, who was born about 540 B.C., wrote:

ēthos anthropōi daimōn

which is translated as, the character (ēthos) of a human (anthropōi) is the daimōn, or sometimes the character of a person is Fate, and the variation An individuals character is their fate (idem "Man's character is his fate").

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