Demiurge

Word of the Day for Thursday, May 24, 2012

demiurge \DEM-ee-urj\, noun:

1. Philosophy. A. Platonism. The artificer of the world. B. (In the Gnostic and certain other systems) a supernatural being imagined as creating or fashioning the world in subordination to the Supreme Being, and sometimes regarded as the originator of evil.2. (In many states of ancient Greece) a public official or magistrate.

Larger than a character, the river is a manifest presence, a demiurge to support the man and the boy, a deity to betray them, feed them, all but drown them, fling them apart, float them back together.
-- Norman Mailer, The Spooky Art

The gnostics think this world was created by a bad god—a demiurge—who wandered too far from the True God and somehow got perverted.
-- Derek Swannson, Crash Gordon and the Mysteries of Kingsburg

Demiurge meant "a worker for the people" in Ancient Greek, from the roots dḗmio- meaning "of the people" and -ergos, "a worker." 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com