Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 26 (part 2)

ὅ τε Πλάτων ἑρμηνευτικὸν τὸ τοιοῦτον ὀνομάζει γένος καὶ διακονικὸν ἐν μέσῳ θεῶν καὶ ἀνθρώπων, εὐχὰς μὲν ἐκεῖ καὶ δεήσεις ἀνθρώπων ἀναπέμποντας, ἐκεῖθεν δὲ μαντεῖα δεῦρο καὶ δόσεις ἀγαθῶν φέροντας, Ἐμπεδοκλῆς δὲ καὶ δίκας φησὶ διδόναι τοὺς δαίμονας ὧν ἂν ἐξαμάρτωσι καὶ πλημμελήσωσιν, αἰθέριον μὲν γάρ σφε μένος πόντονδε διώκει, πόντος δʼ ἐς χθονὸς οὖδας ἀπέπτυσε, γαῖα δʼ ἐς αὐγὰς ἠελίου ἀκάμαντος, ὁ δʼ αἰθέρος ἔμβαλε δίναις· ἄλλος δʼ ἐξ ἄλλου δέχεται, στυγέουσι δὲ πάντες· ἄχρι οὗ κολασθέντες οὕτω καὶ καθαρθέντες αὖθις τὴν κατὰ φύσιν χώραν καὶ τάξιν ἀπολάβωσι.

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 …