The Concepts of Daimonion and Daimōnin Plato's Texts: An Analysis in the Context of Apology and Symposium

It is possible to say that Plato's texts are heavily intertwined with mythological elements or narratives. One of the main reasons for this fact can be found that the characters in the dialogues are constructed in a way that vividly conveys the spirit of the period. However, some terms or concepts that were present in the cultural atmosphere of the period and in the vocabulary of every philosopher writing at that time make the understanding of the texts extremely difficult, especially when the metaphorical contexts are taken into account. Among such concepts, there are daimonion and daim & omacr;n and their grammatical derivatives, which are extremely difficult to translate into different languages. Moreover, when the last-mentioned concepts are being connected with the terms such as theos and its derivatives, which altogether can be considered to be in the same semantic family, it becomes even more difficult to understand some Platonic texts. This article primarily aims to analytically distinguish between the daimonion and daim & omacr;n narratives in the Apology and the Symposium. Secondly, via referring to other Platonic texts, the question of whether these concepts can be understood on common ground is discussed.