The Orphic Hymns

giver of wealth whenever he comes brimming into a house, but in turn chilling the life of toiling mortals; for in you are kept the keys of grief and of joy.

Ploutodotēs, "giver of wealth," has a famous ancestor. In Hesiod's Works and Days the men of the golden age become daimones after death, good spirits who roam the earth wrapped in mist as guardians of mortals, "givers of wealth," and Hesiod calls this their royal privilege. The hymn's Daimon comes into a house bryazōn, "brimming," a verb for things that swell and teem with growth. He can also make a life go cold, and the last line puts both in his hands: he keeps the keys of grief and of joy.