Question for Hellenic 'pagans': the Agathos Daimon

[David19]

Recently, after reading up on the Hellenic religion, i came across the term Agathos Daimon, i know that daimon, originally, meant a supernatural being, between gods and humanity, but what is the Agathos Daimon, i came across this site, http://www.widdershins.org/vol10iss8/06.htm, and from what i'm understanding, it seems to be an angelic type guardian of people (is it similar to a Guardian Angel that Catholic's have?), and i was just wondering, does anyone do any rituals or make liberations to it (as, from what i've understood, that's what was done, and i think in turn it provided you with protection (and other things?)).

Also, if you do honour it in anyway, do you have an altar or a shrine for it, or were/are liberations the only thing done for it?.

And, i have another general question about daimons, if you don't mind, i've read that in Hellenic belief, when the dead enter the Hades, they become daimons, and i was just wondering if that was true ('cause i've also heard the dead, in Hellenic belief, aren't 'shades' of themselves, and don't remember much (don't they need blood to remember and talk or something and generally give them more energy?).

Anyway, thanks for any help and answers you can give :).

[Twinkle]

I can only answer your question from my personal experience. I worship all the gods...and the agaithos Daemon is usually associated with Hermes and Zeus as a protector of the home.

I personally do not honor it specifically...but there are ways that honor all the gods simultaneously....incense burning is one way to honor all of them.

[Twinkle]

In my studies I haven't run across the dead becoming daemons...but here's how the Greeks viewed them:

This is from Wikipedia
In Greece and Rome

For Greeks and Romans, daemons ("replete with knowledge", "divine power", "fate" or "god") were not necessarily evil. Socrates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Socrates) claimed to have a daimonion, a small daemon, that warned him against mistakes but never told him what to do or coerced him into following it. He claimed that his daimon exhibited greater accuracy than any of the forms of divination (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divination) practised at the time. The Hellenistic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic) Greeks divided daemons into good and evil categories: eudaemons (also called kalodaemons) and kakodaemons, respectively. Eudaemons resembled the Abrahamic idea of the guardian angel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel); they watched over mortals to help keep them out of trouble. (Thus eudaemonia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaemonia), originally the state of having a eudaemon, came to mean "well-being" or "happiness".) A comparable Roman genius (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius_%28mythology%29) accompanied a person or protected and haunted a place (genius loci (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius_loci)).
[edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daemon_%28mythology%29&action=edit&section=2)]

[Tim]

and from what i'm understanding, it seems to be an angelic type guardian of people (is it similar to a Guardian Angel that Catholic's have?), and i was just wondering, does anyone do any rituals or make liberations to it (as, from what i've understood, that's what was done, and i think in turn it provided you with protection (and other things?)).
The Agathos Daimon are "good spirits who protected and bestowed blessings on mankind" ...and many people interpret the beings as similar to guardian angels.

Also, if you do honour it in anyway, do you have an altar or a shrine for it, or were/are liberations the only thing done for it?.
At a minimum for the Agathos Daimon one should do offerings and libations at every meal.

And, i have another general question about daimons, if you don't mind, i've read that in Hellenic belief, when the dead enter the Hades, they become daimons, and i was just wondering if that was true ('cause i've also heard the dead, in Hellenic belief, aren't 'shades' of themselves, and don't remember much (don't they need blood to remember and talk or something and generally give them more energy?).
You may be confusing Daimons with Heroes... from a philosophical point of view... and the idea of unity with the One... spiritual evolution... increased levels of awareness... humanity exists at the lowest levels of existence with the least amount of unity with the One... higher and higher levels of consciousness and awareness will create higher levels of unity and thus one moves up the hierarchy.