Michael Psellus on the Operation of Daemons

golden? Herm. I know that, at all events. Soc. Well, then, he speaks thus respecting it:

‘When destiny concealed this generation
They were called pure subterranean Intelligences² [Daimones],
Excellent, Avertors of evils, Protectors of mortal men.’

Herm. What, then, pray? Soc. I think he calls a generation the golden [generation], not as though produced from gold, but because excellent and glorious; and I conjecture it is for analogous reasons he says we are an iron generation. Herm. You say the truth. Soc. You think, then, he would say, if anyone of the present age were excellent, he belonged to the golden age? Herm. It is but the natural inference. Soc. Who are excellent but the wise? Herm. The wise, none else. Soc. This, therefore, he specially intimates respecting Intelligences, that he designated them Intelligences because wise and intelligent, and in our ancient speech the word occurs. Accordingly not only Hesiod, but many other poets also, call them appropriately thus. How many, too, are in the habit of saying, when a good man dies, that he obtains a glorious lot, and dignity, and becomes an intelligence, designating him thus owing to his wisdom? In the same manner I aver that the intelligent man is every good man, and that the same, whether living or dead, is intellectual, and is correctly called all intelligence.” —Plutarch, who flourished in the second century, gives the following as his doctrine of daemons:—“According to a divine nature and justice, the souls of virtuous men are advanced to the rank of daemons; if they are properly purified, they are exalted into gods, not by any political institution, but according to right reason.” The same author says in another place (de Isis et Osiris, p. 361), that Isis and Osiris were for their virtue changed into gods,

² We have rendered this word, δαιμονες, intelligences, and will throughout. Were we to render it daemons, it would be impossible to convey the agreeable play on the word which afterwards occurs.