Daimonion (Ancient Greek: δαιμόνιον, daimónion; Latin: genius) is the name given in ancient literature to an inner voice which, according to tradition, gave philosopher Socrates warning signs to prevent him from making wrong decisions. Socrates considered the originator of these signs to be a deity whom he did not specify. He followed the beckoning voice, which was always given without explanation and which, according to him, always proved to be useful and helpful. If the daimonion remained silent, he interpreted this as approval of his behavior. As he talked about his experiences with the inner advisor, his relationship with the mysterious entity was widely known in his hometown Athens. Opponents accused him of introducing a religious innovation. This accusation contributed to his being sentenced to death and executed in 399 BC.
Credible contemporary information on the daimonion is scarce. The main sources are descriptions by Socrates' pupils Plato and Xenophon. The phenomenon, already considered mysterious in antiquity, led to the creation of legends and gave rise to various explanations. Platonists regarded the sign giver as a high-ranking daimon, a divine spirit being that acted as the philosopher's personal guardian spirit. Christian authors saw the advisor partly as a guardian angel and partly as a malevolent demon.
In modern research, opinions differ on the interpretation of the sources. A central topic of discussion is the question of how Socrates could reconcile his claim to be guided only by reason with following unfounded advice of unclear origin.
Meaning of the word
The word daimonion ('deity', 'demon') is the nounification of the neuter form of the adjective daimónios ('divine', 'demonic'), which is derived from the noun daimon (Greek δαίμων daímōn 'divine being', 'demon'). According to a widespread but controversial research opinion, Plato uses it as an elliptical expression, i.e. as an adjective, whereby the corresponding noun - in this case sign - is omitted. Then the meaning is the divine/demonic sign; meaning the communication of the inner voice.Luc Brisson: Socrates and the Divine Signal according to Plato’s Testimony: Philosophical Practice as Rooted in Religious Tradition. In: Pierre Destrée, Nicholas D. Smith (Hrsg.): Socrates’ Divine Sign: Religion, Practice, and Value in Socratic Philosophy, Kelowna 2005, p. 1–12, here: 2 f.; Pierre Destrée: The Daimonion and the Philosophical Mission – Should the Divine Sign Remain Unique to Socrates? In: Pierre Destrée, Nicholas D. Smith (Hrsg.): Socrates’ Divine Sign: Religion, Practice, and Value in Socratic Philosophy, Kelowna 2005, p. 63–79, here: 64. According to an alternative interpretation, Plato, like his contemporary Xenophon, uses the word as a noun with the meaning 'the divine in general', 'an undefined deity'. Then it is not the sign that is meant, but its creator.Louis-André Dorion: L’autre Socrate, Paris 2013, S. 287–290. Vgl. Andrei Timotin: La démonologie platonicienne, Leiden/Boston 2012, p. 53 f. and Anm. 49.
In Greek mythology, popular religion and philosophy, a daimon is either a god or a god-like spirit being that occupies a middle position between gods and humans. Such an intermediary being, a "demon", can be helpful or hostile. They are therefore not demons in the sense of the Christian idea of the consistently malicious nature of all demons, which still persists today. In the sources, the term daimon is used in particular when talking about an influence from a superhuman sphere, which is not attributed to a specific known god, but to an unknown higher power.Michael Bingenheimer (Übersetzer): Lucius Apuleius von Madaura: De deo Socratis. Der Schutzgeist des Sokrates, Frankfurt 1993, p. 36–40; Andrei Timotin: La démonologie platonicienne, Leiden/Boston 2012, p. 16–19. Accordingly, the corresponding adjective daimonios and its substantivization also refer to an unspecified divine entity. This vagueness is an important aspect of the philosophical use of words by the early Socratics, the disciples of Socrates. The vague, abstract term daimonion is intended to indicate that the signs of the divine authority are perceived, but that the originator itself remains obscure and can therefore only be described in general terms as "something divine". It is unclear whether the sign giver is one of the gods of popular religion or an independent "demonic" spirit being that makes contact with Socrates, or a mysterious, purely inner entity that only operates in Socrates' mind.Pierre Destrée, Nicholas D. Smith (Hrsg.): Socrates’ Divine Sign: Religion, Practice, and Value in Socratic Philosophy, Kelowna 2005, p. VIII f.
Reports from the classical era
Common to all accounts of Socrates' contemporaries is that the daimonion appears as a warning authority that discourages individual mistakes without giving reasons or further explanation. The Daimonion's warnings are imperceptible to those around him; Socrates is the only one who hears the voice. He is only ever the passive recipient of surprising warning signals that "happen" to him. It never happens that he takes the initiative, asks for a sign or tries to learn something from the divine authority. In Plato's account, the daimonion's warnings relate exclusively to individual imminent decisions in the respective concrete situation; general knowledge is not imparted.Luc Brisson: Socrates and the Divine Signal according to Plato’s Testimony: Philosophical Practice as Rooted in Religious Tradition. In: Pierre Destrée, Nicholas D. Smith (Hrsg.): Socrates’ Divine Sign: Religion, Practice, and Value in Socratic Philosophy, Kelowna 2005, p. 1–12, here: 4 f., 11. Socrates interprets the absence of a warning sign as the tacit consent of the higher power to his current intention. Since the daimonion gives no reasons or evaluations, it bears no resemblance to a moral sense or a voice of conscience.Bruno Centrone: Il daimonion di Socrate nello pseudoplatonico Teage. In: Gabriele Giannantoni, Michel Narcy (Hrsg.): Lezioni socratiche, Napoli 1997, p. 329–348, here: 342. His suggestions not only serve to avoid ethically relevant wrong decisions, they also generally prevent an "incorrect" approach, even in trivial cases, which would be unsuccessful or have negative consequences.Mark A. Joyal: ‘The Divine Sign Did Not Oppose Me’: A Problem In Plato’s Apology? In: Mark Joyal (Hrsg.): Studies in Plato and the Platonic Tradition, Aldershot 1997, p. 43–58, here: 44–46.
As Socrates used to tell his large circle of friends and acquaintances about his experiences with the higher power, they were generally known, and much talked about in Athens. The daimonion was one of the peculiarities that made Socrates stand out to his fellow citizens as a strange outsider.Michael Bingenheimer (Übersetzer): Lucius Apuleius von Madaura: De deo Socratis. Der Schutzgeist des Sokrates, Frankfurt 1993, p. 59.
The main contemporary sources are reports by two of Socrates' students, Plato and Xenophon. The most important information can be found in the Apology of Socrates, Plato's literary version of the defense speech that Socrates gave before the Athenian People's Court when he was accused of godlessness and seducing the youth in 399 BC. According to the Apology, the charge was that he disregarded the gods of the state cult and introduced new daimonia - divine beings, powers or effects - i.e. an illegal cult. This apparently referred to his daimonion.Platon, Apologie des Sokrates 24b–c. Vgl. Thomas C. Brickhouse, Nicholas D. Smith: Socrates on Trial, Oxford 1989, p. 34–36.
In his defense speech, Socrates explains why he gives advice to private individuals but does not appear before the People's Assembly as an orator and advisor to the crowd and intervene in politics. The daimonion, his inner voice, rightly warned him against such political activity. The reason for this, in his view, is that someone like him, who is not prepared to accept injustice under any circumstances, must oppose the rulers in a democracy as well as in an oligarchy. However, one cannot be politically successful with such an attitude. Those who consistently stand up for Justice will even be killed if they interfere in politics, and that would serve no one.Platon, Apologie des Sokrates 31c–33a. Vgl. Thomas C. Brickhouse, Nicholas D. Smith: Socrates on Trial, Oxford 1989, p. 169–173; Gregory Vlastos: Socrates. Ironist and moral philosopher, Cambridge 1991, p. 286 f.
In the Apology, Socrates describes the daimonion as "something divine and daimonic" that happens to him. According to him, the divine voice has only intervened since his childhood to dissuade him from certain intentions; it never makes recommendations. The Daimonion often interrupts him in the middle of a speech. So far, it has often intervened to dissuade him from doing something, always when he was about to misbehave, even on minor occasions. Socrates speaks of a "sign from the god" that always warns him against taking the wrong steps, but is now silent with regard to the trial and the impending death penalty. He concludes from the absence of the divine warning that the recklessness and frankness with which he appears in court and accepts a death sentence cannot be a bad thing and that there is no reason to consider death an evil. Otherwise the daimonion would have intervened and stopped him.Platon, Apologie des Sokrates 31c–d, 40a–c. Vgl. Thomas C. Brickhouse, Nicholas D. Smith: Socrates on Trial, Oxford 1989, p. 237–256.
The daimonion is also mentioned in some of Plato's fictional, literary Dialogues, in which the author has his teacher Socrates appear as an interlocutor, the daimonion is mentioned. In the Euthyphro, we learn that the accusation against Socrates was based on the accusation that he was inventing new gods. This accusation referred to the philosopher's claim that he was hearing the divine voice.Platon, Euthyphron 3b. Vgl. Maximilian Forschner (Übersetzer): Platon: Euthyphron, Göttingen 2013, p. 52–58. In the Euthydemus Socrates recounts that one day the "usual divine sign" prevented him from getting up and leaving the changing room of the Lykeion Gymnasion. Because he had stayed, a philosophical conversation then ensued with people who had come in.Platon, Euthydemos 272e–273a. In the Politeia, Socrates alludes in passing to the daimonion's warning against political activity and remarks that he does not know whether he is the only person to receive such a sign.Platon, Politeia 496c. In the Phaedrus, the voice comes to stop Socrates from setting off on a walk; the reason is that he should first clear his conscience and rectify a transgression committed immediately beforehand. Socrates understands what the voice means, he already suspected it beforehand: he has spoken ill of the god Eros and thus committed a slander. He now has to recant this.Platon, Phaidros 242b–243b. Vgl. Ernst Heitsch (Translator): Platon: Phaidros, Göttingen 1993, p. 89. In the Theaetetus, Socrates talks about pupils who had separated from him but later asked to be admitted again. In some of these cases, the daimonion had indicated to him that he should reject the petitioner.Platon, Theaitetos 151a.
The daimonion is also mentioned in First Alcibiades, a dialog written either by Plato himself or in his circle. There Socrates says that "a certain daimonic obstacle" had previously prevented him from approaching the young Alcibiades, but now it no longer put up any resistance. Apparently, according to Socrates, the deity had not allowed the conversation in the past because Alcibiades, the future famous politician and strategist, was still too immature and a meeting with him would therefore have been fruitless.Alkibiades I 103a–b, 105d–106a, 124c–d. Vgl. Klaus Döring (Übersetzer): Platon: Erster Alkibiades, Göttingen 2016, p. 67–70, 114 f.