referred to (Works and Days, 109 sqq.) two kinds of Dæmons are described. The dwellers in the Golden Age are transformed, after their sleep-like death on earth, into Terrestrial Dæmons :—
"When earth's dark breast had closed this race around,
Great Jove as demons raised them from the ground;
Earth-hovering spirits, they their charge began,
The ministers of good, and guards of man.
Mantled with mist of darkling air they glide,
And compass earth and pass on every side;
And mark, with earnest vigilance of eyes,
Where just deeds live, or crookèd wrongs arise."[1]
They are virtuous, holy beings, endowed with immortality—"Jove's immortal guardians over mortal men."[2] The races of the Silver Age become Subterranean powers, blessed beings, but inferior in honour to the former class, and distinctly described as mortal.[3] Hesiod says nothing about Evil Dæmons, although the disappearance of the Brazen Race furnished an opportunity for their introduction into his scheme of supernatural beings. But once the existence of beings inferior to the gods in the celestial hierarchy obtained a recognition in popular tradition, however vague the recognition might be, the conception would tend to gather strength and definiteness from the necessity,
- ↑ Hesiod: Works and Days, 122-125 (Elton's translation).
- ↑ Works and Days, 253. Cf. the beautiful fragment from
Menander preserved by Plutarch, De Tranquillitate Animi, 474 B:—
"By every man, the moment he is born,
There stands a guardian Dæmon, who shall be
His mystagogue through life." - ↑ Works and Days, 141-2.
