Abstract
An initial investigation into the epic corpus attributed to Homer reveals a few rare occurrences of daimōn in the plural, in strict synonymy with theoi (Hom., Il., I, 222; VI, 113-115; XXIII, 595). The daimones therefore participate, in one way or another, in divine status. As for the expression δαίμονι ἶσος, " similar to a daimōn ", or " equal to a daimōn ", it implies that a divine action is in progress, through the figure of the warrior so qualified in theIliad, be it Diomedes made clairvoyant by Athena's action, Patroclus bearing Achilles' weapons or Achilles himself(e.g. V, 459 ; XVI, 705-706 ; XX, 447-448). The expression πρὸς δαίμονα is in the same register (XVII, 99 ; XVII, 104), and its occurrences enable us to sketch out a first hypothesis : the reference to the daimōn, in these cases, draws the effect of a divine action on a human being whose limits are pushed beyond what is expected and who appears in a " suprahuman " dimension in the strict sense. Apart from this formula daimoni isos and assimilated, the action of a god, translated by daimōn, can be in the register of persuasion, audacity, cunning or blindness, but can also go beyond the register of a purely mental hold and manifest itself concretely : this is the case, for example, when the string of a bow breaks when all the conditions were met for this not to happen (XV, 467-470). Consequently, the daimōn is not, as we often read, an indefinable power in itself. Rather, the use of this term reflects the ignorance of the identity of its agent by the one who suffers it. The only case of a daimōn whose divine identity is known to the protagonist who feels its hold is in Song III (419-420), when Aphrodite appears to Helen in the guise of a Spartan spinner on the ramparts of Troy. But Helen's clairvoyance is far greater than that of mortals, and this passage, which closely mingles theos, daimōn and identified divinity, supports the hypothesis of the daimōn as " divine manifestation " potentially identifiable if not always identified.
