CHAPTER 2

OF GODS, DAEMONS, HEROES

Next to the supreme God, there are three kinds of intelligibles: gods, daemons, heroes. That Pythagoras thus distinguished them is manifest from his precept that we must in worship prefer gods before daemons, heroes before men.771 But in Iamblichus, he seems either to observe a different method, or to confound the terms; teaching first of gods, then of heroes, last of daemons; which order perhaps is the same with that of the Golden Verses.⁷⁷²

First, as decreed, th' immortal Gods adore,
Thy Oath keep: next great Heroes, then implore
Terrestrial Daemons with due sacrifice.⁷⁷³

By Terrestrial Daemons seems to be understood not Princes (as Hierocles) but the daemons themselves, confined to several offices upon earth; For,

“All the air is full of souls, which are esteemed daemons and heroes. From these are sent to men dreams and presages of sickness and of health; and not only to men, but to sheep also, and to other cattle. To these pertain expiations, and the warding off of evil, and all divinations, Cledons and the like.”⁷⁷⁴