A daimon, according to Patrick Harpur, is an entity that is both material and non-material. A fairy would be an example. Regarding viruses, he writes: "The tiny agents of disease such as bacteria and viruses are, like subatomic particles, daimonic entities whose existence was postulated hypothetically - that is, imagined - before they were 'discovered'. This is not to say that they do not exist; it is only to say that their existence is not only literal, even though we demonise them, ward them off and exorcize them in the literalised rituals we call vaccination, disinfection etc.
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| THE BOOK THAT GOT ME THINKING MYTHOLOGICALLY |
Viruses in particular have been fashionable in recent times. They are blamed for more and more diseases whose causes are uncertain. They may be different viruses - or, more alarmingly, they may be the same viruses which have mutated. The elusive, shape-changing nature of viruses suggests they are the usual daimons. Moreover, there is a dark suspicion that the mass of 'wonder-drugs' we have invented do not necessarily cure diseases but suppress them...."
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