Who was Agathodaemon?

Q: Who was Agathodaemon?

Agathodaemon (Greek Agathos Daimon, “the Good Spirit” or “Good Deity”) was a benevolent divine power honoured in Greek daily life, above all at the drinking party, where a toast of unmixed wine was drunk in his name during the meal. In the literature he has no myths of his own.

Agathodaemon

Agathodaemon (Greek Agathos Daimon, “the Good Spirit” or “Good Deity”) was a benevolent divine power honoured in Greek daily life, above all at the drinking party, where a toast of unmixed wine was drunk in his name during the meal. In the literature he has no myths of his own. The ancient sources show a cult and a custom: a toast of unmixed wine, a sanctuary at Lebadea, and a figure of speech for a stroke of luck.

What a Daimon Was

The Greek word daimon means a divine power or spirit, not a ghost. Hesiod says that the men of the golden age became pure spirits on the earth after their death, good ones who ward off evil and watch over mortal men (Hesiod, Works and Days 121–123). The name Agathodaemon belongs to this idea of a kindly power that looks after people.

The Toast of the Good Spirit

The best-attested cult act was the toast. Diodorus says that when unmixed wine is brought during a meal, it is the custom to greet it with the words “To the Good Deity!”, and when the cup mixed with water is passed around afterwards, to cry “To Zeus the Saviour!”; he explains that wine taken neat brings madness, but mixed with the rain of Zeus it is a blessing (Diodorus 4.3.4). Aristophanes mentions the custom in jest. In the Knights, the slave Demosthenes says he would rather drink “unmixed wine of the Good Spirit” than bull’s blood, and when he asks for a full cup of neat wine, Nicias hands it to him with the words “take it and pour a libation to the Good Spirit” (Aristophanes, Knights 85, 105–106). In the Wasps, the old juror Philocleon swears by the same custom: if he does not keep to the terms of the debate, may he never again drink his jury pay neat “to the Good Spirit” (Aristophanes, Wasps 523–525).

Plutarch connects the Good Spirit with the new wine. At Thebes, he says, it was the custom on the sixth day of the month Prostaterius to sacrifice to the Good Spirit and taste the new wine, and the day on which the new wine was first drunk was called the day of the Good Spirit, the same day that the Athenians called the cask-opening (Plutarch, Table Talk 3.7.1, 8.10.3).

A Sanctuary at Lebadea

Pausanias describes the oracle of Trophonius at Lebadea in Boeotia. A man who has decided to consult the oracle first stays for a set number of days in a building that is sacred to the Good Spirit and Good Fortune, and after coming back from the underground chamber he is brought to the same building (Pausanias 9.39.5, 9.39.13).

Good Luck as a Figure of Speech

The expression “by the Good Spirit” could also stand for a stroke of luck. In the Peace, the chorus tells the Greeks to seize the moment, since a gift of the Good Spirit is at hand (Aristophanes, Peace 300).