Abstract
There are three occurrences of the word daimôn in the corpus of Empedocles' verses at our disposal. Fr. 59.1 DK offers two occurrences in the singular. Fr. 115.5 has one occurrence in the plural. Moreover, the context in which some of Empedocles' verses are quoted indicates that they refer to one or more daimones. The texts concerned will be presented and commented on, and research will be undertaken to shed light on the possible relationship between Empedocles' occurrences and the polytheistic uses of the word daimôn reported in Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge's book.
Six of these uses already seem relevant to the discussion :
- the Homeric use for a god not identified by the protagonist(s),
- the Hesiodic use for divine servants of a great god,
- the daimonized human soul,
- the curse of a lineage, linked to an ancestral fault,
- employment within a divine hierarchy (theos vs. daimôn),
- the share of life, moira, and the daimōn who distributes.
It remains to be discussed and, if possible, agreed upon what Empedocles may have borrowed from the daimones of the polytheism of his time when he staged his own daimones.
