2'22 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. 



submerged, was said to have been derived by Solon 

 from the same source. 



PJato supposed that the Deity delegated the power 

 of creating to beings inferior to himself, denomi- 

 nated daemons ; perhaps, with the notion that man 

 alone, who was exclusively gifted with intellect, was 

 the work of the Deity himself* ; and Plutarcht, in 

 speaking of these intermediate beings, observes, 

 " that some suppose what is rehited of Isis, Osiris, 

 and Typho, to be the adventures of the grand 

 Daemons or Genii ; an order of beings, which some 

 of the wisest of the Greeks philosophers, as Plato, 

 Pythagoras, Xenocrates, and Chrysippus, agreeably 

 to what they learnt from the ancient theologists, be- 

 lieved to be much more powerful than mankind, and 

 of a nature superior to them, though inferior to the 

 pure nature of the Gods, as partaking of the sensa- 

 tions of tiie body, as well as of the perceptions of 

 the soul, and consequently liable to pain or pleasure, 

 and to all other appetites and affections ; whicli af- 

 fections were supposed to have a greater influence 

 over some than others, different degrees of virtue 

 and vice being found in these Genii, as in man." 

 According to Plato, they were " a middle order 

 of beings between Gods and men, interpreters of 

 the will of the former to mankind, ministering to 

 their wants, carrying their prayers to heaven, and 

 bringing down from thence, in return, oracles, and 

 all other blessings of life ; " and, as Empedocles 

 supposed, " obnoxious to punishment for whatever 



* Vide suj)ra, p. 1S6. note J. 

 f Pint, de Is. s. 25. 



