Ancient Greek

Noun

δαίμων • ‎(daímōn) m, f ‎(genitive δαίμονος); third declension

1. god, goddess
   • Homer, Iliad 1.222
   • Homer, Iliad 3.420
   • Homer, Odyssey 6.172
   • Homer, Odyssey 21.196
   1. divine power, deity
      • Homer, Iliad 17.98
      • Herodotus, Histories 1.111
      • Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1443
      • Lysias, Collected Works 135.33
      • Aeschines, Collected Works 69.38
      • Aristophanes, The Birds 544
   2. guardian spirit (Latin genius), and so one's fate, destiny, fortune
      • Homer, Odyssey 5.396, (compare 10.64)
      • Homer, Odyssey 11.61
      • Homer, Iliad 8.166
      • Aeschylus, The Persians 158
      • Aeschylus, The Persians 601
      • Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1342
      • Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 705
      • Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 812
      • Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 76
      • Antiphon of Rhamnus, Collected Works 122.44
2. departed soul
   • Hesiod, Works and Days 121
   • Hesiod, Works and Days 312
   • Aeschylus, The Persians 620
   • Euripides, Alcestis 1003
3. (ecclesiastical) demon, evil spirit

Usage notes

While δαίμων was sometimes used interchangeably with θεός ‎(theós), when used together in a context, a δαίμων is usually a lower god than a θεός ‎(theós).

Inflection

Derived terms

• δαιμόνιος ‎(daimónios)
• εὐδαίμων ‎(eudaímōn)
• κακοδαίμων ‎(kakodaímōn)

Descendants

• Latin: daemon
• English: daimon

References

• δαίμων in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• δαίμων in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• δαίμων in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• «δαίμων» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• «δαίμων» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• «δαίμων» in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (© 2006–2016)
• δαίμων in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• “G1142”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English-Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • deity idem, page 206.
  • demon idem, page 209.
  • destiny idem, page 217.
  • divinity idem, page 244.
  • doom idem, page 247.
  • familiar idem, page 305.
  • fate idem, page 309.
  • Fate idem, page 1010.
  • fortune idem, page 340.
  • Fortune idem, page 1011.
  • genius idem, page 357.
  • god idem, page 365.
  • goddess idem, page 365.
  • lot idem, page 501.
  • luck idem, page 503.
  • spirit idem, page 802.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume I, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 297