Abstract
Do daimones, as conceived in ancient Greek polytheism, provide solutions to philosophical problems, for gods and men alike ? In her latest book, Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge shows that Greek thinkers (from Homer to the end of the classical period) assumed that daimones performed substantial work in the cosmos. In my talk, I explore how calling upon a daimōn amounts, for the Greeks, to acknowledging that there are pockets of real indeterminacy in the cosmos. Secondly, daimones are supposed to bridge the categorical gap in causal interactions between gods and humanity, thus enabling divine intervention in human affairs. Finally, daimones are used to indicate divine intervention to mankind, when human theories leave gaps in the explanation of natural phenomena. Can a daimōn as conceived by the Greeks be equal to these tasks, solving problems that are not simply part of ancient Greek polytheism, but constitute ongoing challenges for philosophy ? I offer here philosophical reflections to explain the contributions of daimones to Greek cosmology, in order to understand when and why their presence was invoked.
