Keeping in mind Goethe's admission that he uses the term daemonic “nach dem Beispiel der Alten,” it is useful to return in these concluding remarks to the ancient philosopher whose discussion of the daemonic is more detailed and comprehensive than that of any other figure in the canon of classical philosophy: Plato. In their eagerness to interpret one of the most famous appearances of the Socratic daimonion — at 242b–c of Plato's Phaedrus — many commentators have overlooked the pastoral setting of this dialogue. Socrates and Phaedrus are walking outside of the walls of Athens, and Socrates himself takes some time (at 230b–c) to describe the scene of their conversation. It is, he observes,

Later in the dialogue, the story behind the most striking aspect of this setting — the “cicada choir” — is revealed. At 258e–259d we learn that the cicadas were in fact once, before the birth of the Muses, human beings.