Demiurge

In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge (/ˈdɛmiˌɜːrdʒ/) is an artisan-like figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe. The term was subsequently adopted by the Gnostics. Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not necessarily the same as the creator figure in the familiar monotheistic sense, because both the demiurge itself plus the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are considered either uncreated and eternal, or the product of some other being, depending on the system.

The word "demiurge" is an English word from a Latinized form of the Greek δημιουργός, dēmiourgos, literally "creator", and which was originally a common noun meaning "craftsman" or "artisan", but gradually it came to mean "producer" and eventually "creator". The philosophical usage and the proper noun derive from Plato's Timaeus, written c. 360 BC, in which the demiurge is presented as the creator of the universe. This is accordingly the definition of the demiurge in the Platonic (c. 310–90 BC) and Middle Platonic (c. 90 BC – 300 AD) philosophical traditions. In the various branches of the Neoplatonic school (third century onwards), the demiurge is the fashioner of the real, perceptible world after the model of the Ideas, but (in most Neoplatonic systems) is still not itself "the One". In the arch-dualist ideology of the various Gnostic systems, the material universe is evil, while the non-material world is good. Accordingly, the demiurge is malevolent, as linked to the material world.

Demiurge (magistrate)

A demiurge was a magistrate in Peloponnesian and other Ancient Greek city-states, including Corinth, Mantinea and Argos, and in their colonies, such as the Doric colony of Cnidus in Asia Minor. The English word for the title is an Anglicisation of Attic-Ionic δημιοργός, but because it was most commonly used by Doric Greek speakers, the original word in Greek has various alternate spellings (see below).

In the Achaean League, the assembly of members was presided over by ten elected demiourgoi; Corinth sent epidemiourgoi annually to Potidaea to report to the Spartan harmosts. The term is variously rendered δαιμουργός (daimourgos), δαιμωργός (daimorgos), and δαμιεργός (damiergos) in Doric Greek, and δημιοργός (demiorgos) in Ionic Greek on the island of Samos. In the Archaic Argolid, the demiurge seems to have served as a judge, and when one was lacking, his role could be fulfilled by a hierogrammat, according to an inscription from Mycenae recorded in the Inscriptiones Graecae IV, 493.

List of Marvel Comics characters: D

Daddy Longlegs

Daddy Longlegs first appeared in Spider-Woman #47 (December 1982), and was created by Mark Gruenwald. Ramsey Kole is a dancer of short stature who steals and drinks some experimental chemicals that Bill Foster was working on, and grows to a height of 15 feet with extremely long arms and legs. Spider-Woman intervenes when he attacks the audience at a theatre, and after she defeats him, he is taken away by the Locksmith along with a number of other superhumans. Daddy Longlegs is later restored to normal by Dr. Karl Malus, who used samples from Kole to purify the Pym Particles.

Daemos

Daemos is one of the Inheritors and the eldest son of Solus, and brother to Verna, Jennix, Morlun, Karn, Brix and Bora. Like the rest of the Inheritors, Daemos has the ability to drain the life force from other beings through physical contact. Depending on the power of the individual he drains, Daemos' powers and vitality can increase substantially. Daemos also has superhuman strength, speed, reflexes and durability. Daemos is physically larger than his siblings.