eidolon

[ahy-doh-luhn]

noun

plural

eidola, eidolons 

1. a phantom; apparition.

2. an ideal.

eidolon

/ aɪˈdəʊlɒn /

noun

1. an unsubstantial image; apparition; phantom

2. an ideal or idealized figure

Word History and Origins

Origin of eidolon¹

First recorded in 1820–30; idol

Word History and Origins

Origin of eidolon¹

C19: from Greek: phantom, _idol

Example Sentences

A dark wisp of smoke—Percy guessed it must be an eidolon—seeped into a Cyclops, made the monster hit himself in the face, then drifted off to possess another victim.

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“The eidolons—the possessing spirits. They’re still here, in this room.”

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Helen doesn’t ask anyone at Prime Space to explain her mission’s name, Eidolon, but if she’d checked Wikipedia, she would have learned that an eidolon is a phantom in human form.

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Still it exists, and it is there that the astral eidolons of all the beings that have lived, animals included, await their second death.

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There is no such thing as the god Apollo, and 227science makes a clean sweep of Apollo and Dionysos and all such fictitious objectivities; they are eidola, idols, phantasms, not objective realities.

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Related Words

• demon 
• devil 
• phantom 
• shadow 
• soul 
• specter 
• vampire 
• vision