Literary notes about daimon (AI summary)
In literature, the term "daimon" is employed as a multifaceted concept that embodies both an inner guiding spirit and a source of creative inspiration. Authors often invoke it to describe a force within a person that drives artistic genius or moral insight, as seen when a creative daimon gives rise to songs of sorrowful love [1] or when Plato portrays it as the guiding voice of Socrates [2]. At the same time, the daimon appears as an intermediary between the divine and the mortal—sometimes nurturing love or wisdom [3, 4], other times even manifesting as a profound, sometimes unsettling presence in one’s life [5]. This dual character, functioning as both an inner essence and an external, animating force, illustrates the rich, symbolic role the daimon plays across various literary traditions.
- But his creative daimon knew it perfectly, and in those days begat some of his loveliest songs of sorrowful love.
— from Jean-Christophe Journey's End by Romain Rolland - Plato tells us that he spoke of his “daimon” as of the one who led and guided him.
— from The Spiritual Guidance of Man and of Mankind by Rudolf Steiner - What Heraclitus calls the "daimon" in man (see p. 49) is connected with the idea of love.
— from Christianity as Mystical Fact, and the Mysteries of Antiquity by Rudolf Steiner - “Eros, O Socrates, is a daimon, a great daimon, and everything of this nature is intermediate between God and man.
— from The Christ Myth by Arthur Drews - Whoever has experienced this, in him is the daimon.”
— from The Christ Myth by Arthur Drews
