Daimon in the context of "Cult image"

A tutelary (/ˈtjuːtəlɛri/; also tutelar) is a deity or a spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of "tutelary" expresses the concept of safety and thus of guardianship.

In late Greek and Roman religion, one type of tutelary deity, the genius, functions as the personal deity or daimon of an individual from birth to death. Another form of personal tutelary spirit is the familiar spirit of European folklore.

The Dionysia (/ˌdaɪ.əˈnɪzi.ə, ˌdaɪ.əˈnɪʃi.ə, ˌdaɪ.əˈnɪʃə/; Greek: Διονύσια) was a large festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central events of which were processions and sacrifices in honor of Dionysus, the theatrical performances of dramatic tragedies and, from 487 BC, comedies. It was the second-most important festival after the Panathenaia. The Dionysia actually consisted of two related festivals, the Rural Dionysia and the City Dionysia, which took place in different parts of the year.

In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, including the ancient religions of Egypt, Greece and Rome, and Hinduism, cult images in a temple may undergo a daily routine of being washed, dressed, and having food left for them. Processions outside the temple on special feast days are often a feature. Religious images cover a wider range of all types of images made with a religious purpose, subject, or connection. In many contexts "cult image" specifically means the most important image in a temple, kept in an inner space, as opposed to what may be many other images decorating the temple.

The term idol, usually pejorative in English (except in Indian English where it usually carries no hostile implication), is an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship, while idolatry is the worship of an "idol" as though it were God. Anthropologists reporting on many cultures are generally sceptical that images themselves are in fact regarded as deities within religions, rather than representations of deities; this, however, has been since antiquity the recurrent charge of those opposed to religious images.

In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a Zeitgeist (German pronunciation: [ˈtsaɪtɡaɪst] ; lit. 'spirit of the age'; capitalized in German) is a way of referring to the intellectual, cultural, ethical and political climate of a given epoch in world history. It is often described as an invisible agent, force, or daemon that seems to dominate the characteristics of a particular period. The term is usually associated with Georg W. F. Hegel, contrasting with Hegel's use of Volksgeist ("national spirit") and Weltgeist ("world-spirit"), although the word itself predates Hegel and was popularized by Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

The expression belongs to a wider family of notions such as "spirit of the age", "spirit of the times" or genius saeculi ("spirit of the century"), which had circulated in Latin and the major European languages since the early modern period to express the idea that people's thoughts and actions are shaped by the social environment of their time rather than only by timeless truths or individual genius. In 1769 Herder translated the Latin phrase genius seculi used by the philologist Christian Adolph Klotz as Zeitgeist in his aesthetic essay Kritische Wälder, and the term was taken up in later discussions of philosophy of history and history of ideas. Other philosophers who were associated with related ideas include Herbert Spencer and Voltaire.