Proclus on Socrates' Daemon

Thomas Taylor · Buddhas and Initiates Series · 15 pages

Proclus on the daemon of Socrates, with Thomas Taylor's commentary. The framework is set first: daemons and heroes connect divinity with man, daemons standing close to the divine nature and heroes close to men, so that divinity by its powerful light possesses whatever daemons possess peculiar to inferior beings, while heroes have unity, identity, permanency and virtue only under the condition of plurality, motion and mixture. Three orders of daemons are then distinguished, Proclus insisting that demonstration should begin from things universal before descending to particulars, as the method more natural and better adapted to science. The middle order presides over mankind and over the ascents and descents of souls.

The daemon is placed much higher than the rational soul: it energises the soul and presides over us until we are brought before the judges of our conduct, and where intellect governs the soul, the daemon is the inspector and guardian of mankind and governs the whole of life. The list of what it does is comprehensive — it gives perfection to reason, measures the passions, inspires nature, connects the body, supplies things fortuitous, accomplishes the decrees of fate and imparts the gifts of providence; in short it is king of everything in and about us and pilot of the whole of our life. Hence Socrates was most perfect, being governed by such a presiding power. On the famous voice, Proclus is precise: the daemon did not act externally with passivity but proceeded inwardly through the whole soul, diffusing itself as far as the organs of sense until it became a voice recognised more by consciousness than by sense.

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