Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 26 (part 1)

ἀκούομεν δὲ καὶ Ὁμήρου τοὺς μὲν ἀγαθοὺς διαφόρως θεοειδέας ἑκάστοτε καλοῦντος καὶ ἀντιθέους καί θεῶν ἄπο μήδεʼ ἔχοντας· τῷ δʼ ἀπὸ τῶν δαιμόνων προσρήματι χρωμένου κοινῶς ἐπί τε χρηστῶν καὶ φαύλων, δαιμόνιε σχεδὸν ἐλθέ· τίη δειδίσσεαι οὕτως Ἀργείους; καὶ πάλιν ἀλλʼ ὅτε δὴ τὸ τέταρτον ἐπέσσυτο δαίμονι ἶσος· καὶ δαιμονίη, τί νύ σε Πρίαμος Πριάμοιό τε παῖδες τόσσα κακὰ ῥέζουσιν, ὅ,τʼ ἀσπερχὲς μενεαίνεις Ἰλίου ἐξαλαπάξαι ἐυκτίμενον πτολίεθρον; ὡς τῶν δαιμόνων μικτὴν καὶ ἀνώμαλον φύσιν ἐχόντων καὶ προαίρεσιν. ὅθεν ὁ μὲν Πλάτων Ὀλυμπίοις θεοῖς τὰ δεξιὰ καὶ περιττὰ τὰ δʼ ἀντίφωνα τούτων δαίμοσιν ἀποδίδωσιν. ὁ δὲ Ξενοκράτης καὶ τῶν ἡμερῶν τὰς ἀποφράδας καὶ τῶν ἑορτῶν, ὅσαι πληγάς τινας ἢ κοπετοὺς ἢ νηστείας ἢ δυσφημίας ἢ αἰσχρολογίαν ἔχουσιν, οὔτε θεῶν τιμαῖς οὔτε δαιμόνων οἴεται προσήκειν χρηστῶν, ἀλλʼ εἶναι φύσεις ἐν τῷ περιέχοντι μεγάλας μὲν καὶ ἰσχυράς, δυστρόπους δὲ καὶ σκυθρωπάς, αἳ χαίρουσι τοῖς τοιούτοις, καὶ τυγχάνουσαι πρὸς οὐθὲν ἄλλο χεῖρον τρέπονται· τοὺς δὲ χρηστοὺς πάλιν καὶ ἀγαθοὺς ὅ θʼ Ἡσίοδος ἁγνοὺς δαίμονας καὶ φύλακας ἀνθρώπων προσαγορεύει, πλουτοδότας καὶ τοῦτο γέρας βασιλήιον ἔχοντας.

As we read Homer, we notice that in many different places he distinctively calls the good godlike and peers of the gods and having prudence gained from the gods, but that the epithet derived from the demigods (or daemons) he uses of the worthy and worthless alike; for example: Daemon-possessed, come on! Why seek you to frighten the Argives Thus ? and again When for the fourth time onward he came with a rush, like a daemon; and Daemon-possessed, in what do Priam and children of Priam Work you such ill that your soul is ever relentlessly eager Ilium, fair-built city, to bring to complete desolation ? The assumption, then, is that the demigods (or daemons) have a complex and inconsistent nature and purpose; wherefore Plato assigns to the Olympian gods right-hand qualities and odd numbers, and to the demigods the opposite of these. Xenocrates also is of the opinion that such days as are days of ill omen, and such festivals as have associated with them either beatings or lamentations or fastings or scurrilous language or ribald jests have no relation to the honours paid to the gods or to worthy demigods, but he believes that there exist in the space about us certain great and powerful natures, obdurate, however, and morose, which take pleasure in such things as these, and, if they succeed in obtaining them, resort to nothing worse. Then again, Hesiod calls the worthy and good demigods holy deities and guardians of mortals and Givers of wealth, and having therein a reward that is kingly. Plato calls this class of beings an interpretative and ministering class, midway between …