The Kakodaimonistai (ancient Greek κακοδαιμονισταί, singular κακοδαιμονιστής, worshippers of the evil daemon) were a dining club in ancient Athens that consisted of the poet Kinesias and his companions Apollophanes, Mystallides, and Lysitheus. They are attested in a speech by Lysias criticizing Kinesias. They chose the name to ridicule the gods and Athenian custom. One of the ways in which they did this was by dining on unlucky days (ἡμέραι ἀποφράδες), holidays set apart for fasting, in order to test the gods. All of the kakodaimonistai except Kinesias died young, possibly due to excessive consumption of alcohol.
The name Kakodaimonistai, which has been translated as "devil-worshippers" or "the bad luck club", was a parody of the name Agathodaimonistai used by some respectable social clubs. Such monthly banqueting fraternities were common at the time.
References
- Lysias, fragment 143.
- ^ Dodds 1951, p. 188.
- Meijer 1981, p. 216.
- Sedley 2013, p. 6.
- Mikalson 1975, p. 22.
Works cited
- Dodds, E. R. (1951). The Greeks and the irrational. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-00327-9.
- Hadjimichael, Theodora A. (2019-08-20). "On Kinesias' Musicopoetic Paranomia". Greek and Roman Musical Studies. 7 (2): 284–307. doi:10.1163/22129758-12341351. eISSN 2212-9758. ISSN 2212-974X.
- Meijer, P. A. (1981-01-01). "Philosophers, inellectuals and religion in Hellas". Faith, Hope and Worship. BRILL. pp. 216–263. ISBN 978-90-04-29669-5.
- Mikalson, Jon D. (1975). "Ήμέρα άποφράσ". The American Journal of Philology. 96 (1). JSTOR 293586.
- Sedley, David (2013-11-21). From the Pre-Socratics to the Hellenistic Age. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199644650.013.002.
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