Agathodaemon
Agathos Daimon | |
---|---|
Fertility, grain, health | |
Major cult centre | Alexandria, Egypt |
Animals | Snakes |
Symbol | Horn of Plenty |
Day | 2 February (Gregorian) 25 Tybi (Egyptian) |
Gender | Male |
Consort | Tyche Agathe |
Equivalents | |
Pre-Ptolemaic Egyptian equivalent | Shai |
Agathos Daimon (ἀγαθός δαίμων, agathós daímōn, lit. 'noble spirit')
Early history
Agathos Daimon was attested in domestic context in Greece as early as the fifth century BC, and yet he was typically not represented there in the form of a snake, as opposed to in Alexandria, where he was abundantly so represented.[2]
- "His origin in Alexandria is a matter of dispute, with two conflicting views either painting Agathos Daimon as a Greek cultural importation later identified with Serapis and with Egyptian gods Šai (Shai), Knephis (Kneph), Khnum, Soknopis,[3] or as a Hellenized native Egyptian household god.[4] Quaegebeur points out the near absence of Greek sources of the Ptolemaic age for the cult of Agathos Daimon, contrasted with the abundance of Egyptian attestations of the god Šai in this age and the poignant evidence of the Oracle of the Potter ..."[5]
The Oracle of the Potter, an Egyptian nationalistic text, predicted the coming doom of Alexandria, with the local gods Knephis (also often represented as a serpent) and Agathos Daimon leaving the city for Memphis, and the defeat of the Macedonian invaders, and their 'age of chaos'.
Greek classical period
Though he is noted in
Agathos Daimon was the spouse or companion of
Agathos Daimon was also identified with Zeus Meilichios, as well as with Serapis.[12]
In Egypt, a similar deity was Shai, who was known as the god of fate. His worship went back as far as the time of Akhenaten in the New Kingdom.
Egyptian late antiquity
In the
See also
Footnotes
- Ancient Greek: ἀγαθοδαίμων, agathodaímōn)
References
- OCLC 837855776.
- ^ Krzysztof Nawotka, The Alexander Romance by Ps.-Callisthenes: A Historical Commentary, [2017], pp.106-8; (cited in earlywritings.com, 2023)
- ^ For this view see: Fraser, P.M. 1972. Ptolemaic Alexandria, Vols i–iii. Oxford. i, 209–212
- ^ Quaegebeur, J. 1975. Le dieu égyptien Shaï dans la religion et l’onomastique. Leuven. pp. 170–176
- ^ Krzysztof Nawotka, The Alexander Romance by Ps.-Callisthenes: A Historical Commentary, [2017], pp.106-8; (cited in earlywritings.com, 2023)
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, viii. 36. § 3
- ^ Martin P. Nilsson, Greek Folk Religion. (Columbia University Press), 1981:33, 70, 73.
- ^ Fraser, Peter M. (1972). Ptolemaic Alexandria. Vol. I. Oxford: Claredon Press. p. 210.
- ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Agathodaemon", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston, p. 65, archived from the original on 2005-10-26, retrieved 2008-05-05
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b Chisholm 1911, p. 371.
- ^ Harrison 1922, pp. 355–ff, 543.
- ^ João Pedro Feliciano 2016, The Agathos Daimon in Greco-Egyptian religion. The Hermetic Tablet: The Journal of Ritual Magic 3 (2016), 171–92
- ^ Illustrated in W. Fauth, Helios Megistos: zur synkretistischen Theologie der Spätantike (Leiden: Brill) 1995:85.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Agathodaemon". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 371. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Bibliography
- Harrison, Jane Ellen (1922). Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (3rd ed.). pp. 355–ff, 543.