A further characterization of the mythological symbolism is that a daemon is something that is not visible yet is always present and working its will. In the "Theages", attributed to Plato, Socrates describes his own personal daemon to be something like the modern concept of a moral conscience: "The favour of the gods has given me a marvelous gift, which has never left me since my childhood. It is a voice that, when it makes itself heard, deters me from what I am about to do and never urges me on".