Inancient Greek literature, aneidolon (/aɪˈdoʊlɒn/;[1]Ancient Greek:εἴδωλον 'image, idol, double, apparition, phantom,ghost'; plural:eidola oreidolons) is aspirit-image of a living or dead person; a shade or phantomlook-alike of the human form. In the Homeric epic, it plays two functions: one as an image of the dead; and, as the deceasedin propria persona.[2]
The concept ofHelen of Troy's eidolon was explored both byHomer andEuripides. Homer uses the concept as a free-standing idea that gives Helenlife after death. Euripides entangles it with the idea ofkleos, the one being the product of the other.[3][4] Both Euripides andStesichorus, in their works concerning theTrojan Horse, use the concept of the eidolon to claim that Helen was never physically present in the city at all.[5]
The concept of the eidola of the dead has been explored in literature regardingPenelope, who in later works was constantly laboring against the eidola ofClytemnestra and later ofHelen herself.[3] Homer's use of eidola also extends to theOdyssey where, after the death of thesuitors of Penelope,Theoclymenus notes that he sees the doorway of the court filled with them.[6]
InDream-Land, an 1844 poem byEdgar Allan Poe, an eidolon rules over a realm haunted by "ill angels only" and reserved for the ones whose "woes are legion" and who "walk in shadow".[7]
Walt Whitman's 1876 poem,Eidolon, used a much broader understanding of the term, expanded and detailed in the poem. In Whitman's use of the term, we can see the use broaden to include the concept of an oversoul composed of the individual souls of all life and expanding to include the Earth itself and the hierarchy of the planets, Sun, stars and galaxy.[8]
Sandeep Parmar'sEidolon won the Ledbury Prize for a second collection.[9]
In the Italian Disney comic bookPKNA, there is a character named Odin Eidolon who is a body double for the character One.[10]
Eidolons are prominently featured in Kazuhiro Fujita’s manga “ The Ghost and the Lady”. Here, they are featured as demonic entities that attach themselves to living humans and gain power from the negative emotions of the living.