Daemon (mythology) in the context of "Golden age"

A shrine (Latin: scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: escrin "box or case") is a sacred space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of respect, wherein they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated. A shrine at which votive offerings are made is called an altar.

Shrines are found in many of the world's religions, including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese folk religion, Shinto, indigenous Philippine folk religions, and Germanic paganism as well as in secular and non-religious settings such as a war memorial. Shrines can be found in various settings, such as churches, temples, cemeteries, or as household shrines. Portable shrines are also found in some cultures.

Middle Platonism is the modern name given to a revival and outgrowth of Platonic philosophy, lasting from about 90 BC – when Antiochus of Ascalon rejected the scepticism of the new Academy – until the development of neoplatonism under Plotinus in the 3rd century. Middle Platonism absorbed many doctrines from the rival Peripatetic and Stoic schools. The pre-eminent philosopher in this period, Plutarch (c. 45–120), defended the freedom of the will and the immortality of the soul. He sought to show that God, in creating the world, had transformed matter, as the receptacle of evil, into the divine soul of the world, where it continued to operate as the source of all evil. God is a transcendent being, who operates through divine intermediaries, which are the gods and daemons of popular religion. Numenius of Apamea (c. 160) combined Platonism with neopythagoreanism and other eastern philosophies, in a move which would prefigure the development of neoplatonism.

Xenocrates (/zəˈnɒkrəˌtiːz/; Greek: Ξενοκράτης; c. 396/5 – 314/3 BC) of Chalcedon was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, and leader (scholarch) of the Platonic Academy from 339/8 to 314/3 BC. His teachings followed those of Plato, which he attempted to define more closely, often with mathematical elements. He distinguished three forms of being: the sensible, the intelligible, and a third compounded of the two, to which correspond respectively, sense, intellect and opinion. He considered unity and duality to be gods which rule the universe, and the soul a self-moving number. God pervades all things, and there are daemonical powers, intermediate between the divine and the mortal, which consist in conditions of the soul. He held that mathematical objects and the Platonic Ideas are identical, unlike Plato who distinguished them. In ethics, he taught that virtue produces happiness, but external goods can minister to it and enable it to effect its purpose.

In Etruscan mythology, Tuchulcha was a chthonic daemon (not to be confused with the Christian term "demon") with pointed ears (perhaps those of a donkey), hair made of snakes, and a beak (perhaps that of a vulture). Tuchulcha lived in the underworld known as Aita.

Many scholars refer to this deity as male because of masculine features, such as animalistic facial hair that may resemble a beard. According to Nancy de Grummond, "This monster is often referred to as male but in fact is very likely female (or neither gender), for she wears a woman’s dress, has decidedly pale pinkish skin (compare the standard brick-red male flesh of These), and even appears to have breasts." She also identifies the diamond-marking of Tuchulcha's serpents as identifying the poisonous adder (Vipera berus berus). Emeline Hill Richardson and Graeme Barker and Tom Rasmussen also state that Tuchulcha is female. Tuchulcha's garment is known to classical historians as a chiton and is worn by both men and women. As well, the same clothing is worn by another male deity, Charun.