About Daimon Classics

Some books survive because they keep being right. These works have been read for two thousand years because they ask the questions every generation must answer for itself.

Daimon Classics adapts the great works of ancient philosophy into clear, modern English. Series One is six volumes on self-knowledge from Plato, Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Aristotle. Three are available now. Three more arrive this year.

These books are for anyone willing to read. The student who cannot afford an academic edition. The reader who picked up a Penguin translation and stalled on page twelve. The person returning to philosophy after twenty years and finding the language has not gotten any easier. The high school senior encountering Socrates for the first time. The grandparent who read these books once and wants them back.

No academic apparatus. No assumed background. Just the ideas, in their full force.

Every volume is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. You can read it free. You can share it. You can quote it. You can use it in classrooms, study groups, prisons, or anywhere else it might help. Classical philosophy has been free for two thousand years. We are not the ones to start charging.

Kindle editions are available now on Amazon. Paperbacks launch May 21, 2026.

Every volume is an adaptation, not a translation. We work from a public-domain translation, preserve every argument of the original, and bring the language into modern English a reader can actually hear. Each volume names its source translator and the public-domain edition we worked from. You will find that note inside each book's front matter.

Every volume closes with a section called Know Your Daimon: Reflection Prompts. These are questions drawn from the text, written for the reader who finished the book and wants to do something with it. They are not homework. They are not a quiz. They are an invitation to sit with the ideas for a few minutes and see what they ask of you.

The name comes from Heraclitus, who wrote that a person's character is their daimon. Your character is what is shaping your life. The prompts are designed to help you see it more clearly.

Daimon Classics is a sister project to Know Your Ethos, a self-knowledge instrument we built alongside the imprint. The books and the app share the same philosophical anchor: the classical idea that knowing yourself is the practical work of a life.

The books give you the ideas. Know Your Ethos helps you see how they show up in your own life. If the reflection prompts at the end of each volume resonate, the app is where that work continues.

Visit Know Your Ethos →

Daimon Classics is edited by Nathan Biles. The imprint is part of Alexandria Solutions LLC.