24191587-greek-divination-a-study-of-its-methods-and-principles

8/7/2019 24191587-Greek-Divination-A-Study-of-Its-Methods-and-Principles

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GREEK DIVINATIONA STUDY OF ITS METHODS

AND PRINCIPLES

BYW. R. HALLIDAY, B.A., B.Litt.

LECTURER ON GREEK HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGV IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW;SOMKTIMK SCHOLAR OP NEW COLLEGE, CRAVEN FELLOW IN THE UNIVERSITY

OF OXFORD, AND STUDENT pF THE BRITISH SCHOOL OF ATHENS

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITEDST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1913


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COPYRIGHT


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DEN GELEHRTEN DERKONIGLICHEN FRIEDRICH-WILHELMS-UNIVERSITAT ZU BERLIN

HOCHACHTUNGSVOLL ZUGEEIGNET


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PREFACETo apologise too profoundly for the publicationof a book is to insult the reader to whom it isoffered, but at the same time I should like it tobe clear, particularly as I have not hesitated toexpress my opinions with some downrightness,that no one is more conscious of the incomplete-ness and immaturities of this little essay thanits author. The crudities which have beenpurged on reviewing it after two fallow yearssuggest the innumerable errors of judgmentthat may still remain. In excuse for these itmay be urged that maturity of judgment comesonly with experience and knowledge, and thatthe particular branch of investigation to whichthis study belongs presents data so manifoldand so varied that their acquisition and assimi-lation must necessarily be a long process. Butdespite its defects its publication appearedworth the while. Some of the suggestionsare, I think, new and worth consideration if


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X GREEK DIVINATIONnot acceptance by students of anthropologyor Greek religion, and some of the materialcollected, even if the results deduced from itseem faulty, may, I hope, prove serviceableto inquirers in the same field.

I may perhaps venture to add that withvery few subsequent additions the material wascollected during my fourth year as a classicalscholar of New College, Oxford, and the firstyear of my tenure of the Craven Fellowship,which was spent at Berlin. In these days,when much is talked of Reform and Researchat Oxford, a specimen of what has been doneby an ordinary scholar under existing conditionsmay be of some interest. And the objects ofthe reformers* zeal are sometimes driven toreflect on themselves and on that rather highlycoloured simulacrum which represents them onthe prospectus of Research and Reform. Myexperience, such as it has been, has taught mebut one fixed conviction, and that a negativeone. Research and specialised work should onno account be a feature of pre-graduate study.Personally I have not merely felt that the threeyears spent in attaining my degree were fromthe point of view of my particular investigationsof absolutely vital assistance, but I have even onoccasion regretted that the full four years'


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PREFACE XIcourse had not increased the weapons in myarmoury before I began my quest. To thoseoccupied with Reform at our older UniversitiesI offer this datum, which is less an opinionthan a recorded experience.

For the scope of the treatise, I had originallyintended to attempt something more commen-surate with its title. But the occupati6n oflearning and teaching other things appears tooffer in the immediate future no prospect of pro-longed periods of attention to the subject, anda more ambitious work would in all probabilityget little under way. As it stands the essay islimited to the principles and the origins of themethods of divination practised in ancientGreece, It does not attempt to deal withoracles, though it has something to say of themethods practised at oracular shrines. It isprimarily an analysis of method rather than anhistorical account, and the significance of oraclesbelongs in reality to a wider investigation ofthe history of Greek culture and the influenceexerted on each other by religious and politicalinstitutions.My debts to my teachers are many. Thegreatest I owe to Professor Gilbert Murrayand Dr. L. R. Farnell of Oxford, and Miss JaneHarrison of Cambridge. Miss Harrison in


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xii GREEK DIVINATIONparticular has shown unwearying kindness insuggestion, comment, criticism and encourage-ment, and the most patient tolerance of thesometimes fractious disagreement of a beginner.I regret that other occupations prevented myreading her Themis in time to acknowledge byreference to the printed page some of the manysuggestions which I have derived from herconversation or correspondence. To Mr. R. R.Marett, too, I owe a debt of gratitude for helpand direction in that science of which he isnow the official representative at Oxford. In alesser degree many other distinguished Englishanthropologists have laid me under an obligationwhich I hope has not lacked the inadequateacknowledgment of footnotes.

To the many learned men of the Universityof Berlin I have ventured to dedicate this bookas an unworthy token of my appreciation oftheir great hospitality and kindness. No onewho has been a foreign student at a Germanuniversity can forget the generosity with whichare heaped upon him every possible assistancein his work and every attention calculated tomake his sojourn in a foreign land enjoyable.In Berlin University the stranger meets with anHomeric welcome. And in particular I mustthank my friend Dr. K. Th. Preuss, Direktor


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PREFACE xiiiof the Museum fur Volkerkunde, not only forpleasant hours spent under his hospitable roof,but also for the many suggestions both in thematter of literature and theory for which I amindebted to his great knowledge of Americanethnology.

Finally, to my friend Mr. A. G. Heath,Fellow of New College, Oxford, who under-took the laborious task of reading the work inproof, my thanks are due for many correctionsand suggestions.

W. R. HALLIDAY.Glenthorne, 1 91 2.


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CONTENTSCHAPTER I

PAGEIntroductory ....... i

CHAPTER IIMagic lo

CHAPTER HIRitual 22

CHAPTER IVDivination and Magic The Acceptance of

Omens 40

CHAPTER VManteis 54

CHAPTER VIThe Ordeal 99

XV


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PAGE

xvi GREEK DIVINATIONCHAPTER VII

Divination at Sacred Springs . . . .116CHAPTER VIII

LEKANOMANCY 145

CHAPTER IXOmens and Sub-Rites . . . 163

CHAPTER XKleromancy 205

CHAPTER XINecromancy . ... 235

CHAPTER XIIAugury . . 246

CONCLUSION 272

APPENDIX . . . . . . .277BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX 283GENERAL INDEX 293


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CHAPTER IINTRODUCTORYIn the following pages the attempt has beenmade to give some account of the methods ofdivination employed by the ancient Greeks,together with an analysis of the underlyingprinciples or presuppositions which, howeverunconsciously, moulded their forms and main-tained their vitality. The dangers and diffi-culties of such an undertaking are obvious.Such analysis must always be philosophicalrather than historical in the sense of present-ing a series of facts in a strict sequence ofchronology. The fossils with which thestudent of religion must work are stratifiedculturally not chronologically, and their co-ordination must always bear something of anarbitrary aspect.

Again, the last fifty years have revolutionisedalike the study of ** natural man" and that of


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2 GREEK DIVINATION chap.the origins of Greek civilisation. But in neitherdirection have the feet of science reached firmground ; we have fled the worse, but have notyet found the better. On the one hand, theresults of Ethnology are as yet uncertain andinsecure, and, despite the courageous attemptof M, Reinach, the time when a satisfactorysketch of the course of religious developmentcan be written has not yet arrived. On theother hand, while a corner of the curtain whichveils the prehistoric period of Aegean historyhas been raised, our knowledge alike of victorsand of vanquished in that struggle between anancient civilisation and the invasion of an alienstock is meagre indeed. We are still gropingin a Dark Age ; and the instruments at ourdisposal are faulty. We possess a mass ofmythology ; much of it of late tradition, andsome of it to a considerable degree workedover.^ In the light of survivals in cult, hints

^ Apart from the fact that almost every Greek mythographer isbiassed by some theory, whether it be an interest in astronomy,Euhemerism, etymology, rationalism, or philosophic allegory, thatcurious phenomenon of the exploitation of mythical history frompolitical motives, a process partly deliberate and partly unconscious,shows us how much our material must already in antiquity have beenmodified and worked over. The great examples are, of course, the sagaof the Dorian invasion and the Heraklidai, or the story of the colonisa-tion of Ionia : cf. the use of mythical history in politics and diplomacy inHerodotos i. 82, vi. 138 foil., iv. 33 (with Pausanias i. 21, 2}, iv.179, v. 94, vii. 150, 159, 161 ; Diodoros iv. 23. 2-3.


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INTRODUCTORY 3of the popular byways of religious practice, andthe observed phenomena in the religious beliefsof other races at various stages of culture, weare tempted to guess the nature of the causeswhich gave rise to these traditions. Employ-ing these instruments, analysis can give us abroad outline of the course of a development,whose stages it is impossible to date, a geneticnot an historical account. And even herethere is always the danger that we may havewholly misinterpreted the nature of the fact tobe explained, or, witness the discussions of thesupposed vestiges of Totemism in ancientGreece, that we are explaining obscuruTn perobscitrius.

It is these difficulties and deficiencies ofdata and method which lead some Englishscholars, distinguished for their knowledge ofanthropology no less than for their classicallearning, to plead for a reaction against the toohasty application of the theories of the ethno-logists to the problems of Greek Religion.Despite, however, their warning and the diffi-culties of the quest, it appears to me to beof service to grope for greater understandingof that ** Lower Stratum '* of religious thoughtto which Miss Harrison first drew our atten-tion. A new point of view has to be found, now


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GREEK DIVINATION CHAP.that the old spectacles prove to be misleading.When M. Bouchd Leclerq wrote his greatwork on classical divination, the point of viewfrom which the scholar started was that ofregarding the Greek as springing upon theworld full armed, like Athena from the headof Zeus, reason incarnate. Certain forms ofdivination he invented on quasi - inductivegrounds, other methods he adopted wholesalefrom alien civilisations, and in particular allideas and practices connected with inspirationwere to be of foreign importation.^ To-day itis impossible to work thus with the antithesisof rational Greece and the emotional Orient.The problems of origin and development haveassumed a new importance, as we have learnedhow near lay Hellenic civilisation to the bar-barism from which it emerged triumphant.And to recognise in the Greek a man of likepassions with the rest of humanity is toappreciate, not to detract from, the splendourof his achievement.

It is, I believe, essential to the understandingof Greek religion to recognise the importanceof what may be termed the "pre-Olympian

^ Bouch^ Leclerq, Histoire de la Divination dans PAniiquiti,iii. p. 88; Rohde, Psyche, 2, pp. 56-61. Dr. Farnell rightly protestsagainst such a point of view, Cults ofthe Greek States^ iv. pp. 190-191.


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6 GREEK DIVINATIONsome respects, again, the Olympian worshipwas too formal and political for the ordinary-man in ordinary times ; their temples, whichserved as national treasuries, and their ritual,which provided the relaxation of a publicholiday,^ were unable to satisfy his spiritualand personal aspirations. The reaction isas old as the popularity of Dionysos andthe Mysteries ; it reaches its highest andperhaps its lowest manifestations in themysticism of Orphism and Neo - Platonism.The ritual of the Homeric trinity was unableto supply the religious needs of an essentiallyreligious people,^ and there resulted a castback to the vital beliefs of the Lower Culture,which were capable of development and re-interpretation. Some traces of this movementwe shall discuss later in the relation of thewonder-workers of late antiquity to the seersof mythical tradition, and in the history ofthe popularity of Augury. Fruits of it wererevivals such as that of the worship of ZeusKouros preserved in the Palaikastro hymn.^

^ Thukydides ii. 38 and the complaint as to the number of thesebank holidays, [Xen.] IIoX. ^A6. iii. 2.

? Even the position of Apollo as recognised by Plato in the Republicis based rather on sentiment and political tradition than on thepersonal ties which bind God and worshipper in the more intimate andspiritual religions.

^ See Bosanquet, Murray, and Miss Harrison in B.S.A. xv.


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INTRODUCTORY 7The movement is an epitome, under specialracial conditions, of the general progress ofreligious belief, the interaction of ritual andmeaning.

The study, then, of the primitive elementspreserved in Greek tradition, and the attemptto sketch in outline the ideas which lie behindthe religion of the Greece of history, needno apology. The beliefs embodied in whatMiss Harrison has called the Lower Stratummust always have played a part in Helleniclife, and to the understanding of the develop-ment of Orphism and the religious philosophiesthey are of the first importance. In thespecial field of divination the recognition andanalysis of these primitive ideas must modifythe attitude with which the phenomena wereformerly regarded. No longer content withthe theory that divination comes into beingin part as the revelation of God to man andin part as an arbitrary invention based upona mistaken process of reasoning, we mustendeavour to seek for its raison ditre behindthe period of Olympian theology, and beforethe formation of an elaborate science.Approached in this way, I believe that methodsof divination can be shown to fall into twogreat species. On the one hand, there is the


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8 GREEK DIVINATION chap.tendency for magic to shade into mere divina-tion, for the magician to become the diviner,and for the spell to become a mere predic-tion. On the other hand, to the psychologyof anxious moments and solemn occasionsmay be traced the growth of the sub- riteof divination and the observance of omens.It is in this second category that is to befound the origin of the so-called ** inductivearts," and the general causes for their exist-ence reveal the belief in their efficacy as ahuman weakness, not as an arbitrary andpuerile folly.

The principle of organic development mustimplicitly direct the course of our inquiry. Itis so obvious in its application that to stateit seems almost banal. Its existence, however,has often been tacitly ignored by investigatorswho would not perhaps deny its truth. Alldevelopment, to state it in brief, proceeds byan increasing individualisation. The genea-logical tree spreads ever wider branches witheach generation. The growth of depart-mentalism and specialisation is characteristicof all organic development. In the human raceas a whole the degree of variation betweenindividuals in physical or mental structure varieswith the stages of culture from which the


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INTRODUCTORY 9examples are drawn. In the history of aparticular art or science you may trace thegenealogy of the poet and the doctor back toa common source or forward to the yet widervariations of their subdivisions. The processof organic development is an increasing dif-ferentiation of species within the genus and ofindividuals within the species. Roughly it istrue to say that this process is characterisedby the increasing articulation of what is latentor undeveloped in the preceding stages. Inthe earlier stages of religious developmentparticularly the difficulty lies often far more inthe description or definition in words of aparticular phenomenon than in understandingits nature or feeling its force.


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CHAPTER IIMAGIC

Nigromantia sciri libere potest, sed operari sine daemonumfamiliaritate nullatenus valet. ^

The view that the magic art developed as aquasi-science which misapplied the categoriesof cause and effect is now generally discredited.Mr, Marett in the articles reprinted in TheThreshold of Religion, Mr. Hartland implicitlyin his earlier work and explicitly in his addressesto the British Association in 1906 and theInternational Congress for the History ofReligions in 1908, MM. Hubert et Mauss inthe seventh volume of L'Annde Sociologique,have delivered crushing blows. It is nowrecognised by the majority of ethnologists thatmagical action of necessity implies the settingin motion of some non- natural power, andthat even in its most formal development it is

^ Quoted in Comparetti, Virgil in the Middle Ages (trans. Benecke),p. 291.

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CHAP. II MAGIC IInever the logical connection of cause and effectwhich makes its formulae or its rites efficacious,but the power of the magician, or that inherentin the rites or formulae in virtue of theirabnormal character. For this power, whichlends efficacy to the magic act, the Melanesianword mana has been adopted by ethnologistsas a convenient term.Among many of the lower races with whomwe are acquainted, everything and everybodyhas this mana, and the difference between themagician and his fellows is one of degree ratherthan of kind.^ The ordinary man can workmagic, but the magician has stronger manaand can work more powerful magic. And thisforce can be acquired or increased. A Haidashaman, for instance, ** may start with a com-paratively feeble spirit and acquire strongerand stronger ones.*'^ It is obvious that theproportion of power which belongs to themagician per se, and the amount which is dueto spiritual inspiration or to acquisition, willvary in different stages of culture and theology,and is often indeed but ill-defined. " L espritque possede le sorcier, ou qui possede le sorcierse confond avec son 4me et sa force magique :

* See riartland, Address to the British Association^ 1906, pp. 4-6.'^ Swanton, _/?JK/ North Pacific Expedition^ v. i, p. 38,


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12 GREEK DIVINATION chap." 1sorcier et esprit portent souvent le meme nom

For our purpose the distinction is immaterial.At the moment of magical action the magicianputs into motion some non- natural powerand it is to the acquisition of this power thathis initiatory ceremonies are directed. Theshaman may have magic crystals or the magicshell forced into his body, or he may receivehis power in the visitation of a trance or dream.He has often to learn the tricks of his tradelike the initiates in the Mide wiwin, but suchknowledge profits him nothing without theshooting with the migis or magic shell by whichhe is killed to be reborn to a new life of power.^And the power acquired by the magician maybe lost. The end of the Kurnai Tankli's careeris not without pathos. *' From that time Icould pull things out of people and throw thekin like light in the evening at people to hurtthem. About three years ago I took to drink-ing and then lost all my kin and all my power,and have never been able to do anything since.I used to keep it in a bag of ring-tailed opossumskin in a hole in a tree. One night I dreamedmy wife threw some kruk {menses) on me.

^ Hubert et Mauss, VAnnie Sociologique, vii. p. 87 ; cf. ib. p. 36.^ Hoffman, " The Mid^ wiwin of the Objibwa," Seventh Annual

Report of the American Bureau of Ethnology, p. 218 foil.


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11 MAGIC 13After that I could do nothing, and my kinwent from my bag, I don't know where. Ihave slept under the tree where I left it,thinking my power might come back, but Ihave never found the kin, nor can I dream anymore of it." ^ Indeed it will be found thateverywhere a magical action, in its simplestform a mere act of volition on the part of aperson with power,^ finds its goal through thepossession of fnana by the agent or by the

^ Howitt,y.^. /. xvi. p. 52. For the sources of power of Australianmedicine-men see further Hewitt, Native Tribes ofSouth-East Australia^pp. 404-413 ; Spencer and Gillen, The Native Tribes of CentralAustralia, pp. 522-529 ; MM. Hubert et Mauss, L ^Origine desPouvoirs magiques dans les Sociit^s AustralientteSj republished in1909 in Melanges d^Histoire des Religions, p. 131 foil. For instancesof the source of the magician's powers in other parts of the world, seeHartland's Address to the British Association, 1906, p. 11 foil. In theTrobriands, ** sorcery, devil-working, whatever name you like to giveit and whatsoever form it takes, means and implies * the power ofmaking dead,"* Papua Reports, 1907, p. 65. In Melanesia thewizard is a man who is saka, i.e. possessed of mana, Codrington,The Melanesians, p. 190. The shaman of the Cherokees is adawehi, " the word used to designate one supposed to have supernaturalpowers and applied alike to human beings and to the spirits in-voked in the formulas," Mooney, *' Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee,"A.R.A.B.E. vii. p. 346. Instances might be multiplied indefinitely.

'^ Thus in Germany the Alp can be sent against an enemy by asimple act of volition, Grimm, ap, Croker, Fairy Legends, iii. p. 124.The German word used for casting a spell is verwiinschen. So inGrimm, Kinder- und Hausmdrchen, No. 97, " Das kleine Mannchenaber war zornig geworden und hatte einen bosen Wunsch getan."Similarly among the Takelma "a powerful shaman might also reachhis victim by merely * wishing' him ill or (mentally) * poisoning' him,"Sapir, " Religious Ideas of the Takelma Indians,"yi?ra/^ AmericanFolklore, xx. p. 41.


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14 GREEK DIVINATION chap.instruments which he has power to wield.And it is important to note that even in theMiddle Ages science was not accounted magicalqua science but because of its supposed char-acter.^ It made possible the production ofstrange effects by evil, because unintelligible,means. The scientist must have sold hissoul to the Devil or possess a familiar. Oneremembers the admission of Mr. Marsh ofDunstable, a good astrologer coupled by Aubreywith the famous Sir Richard Napier. ** Mr.Marsh did seriously confess to a friend of minethat astrology was but the countenance, andthat he did his business by the help of theBlessed Spirits with whom only them of greatpiety, humility, and charity could be acquainted,and such a one he was.*'^

All magic, then, consists of the bringingof mana into play, and where every one pos-sesses mana in some degree, it is in a sensea battle of magic powers. The orenda of

^ MM. Hubert et Mauss in VAnnie Sociologique^ vii., make someilluminating comments on the formal art of magic in the Middle Ages.On p. lOO they remark of the alchemists, " En tete de chaque chapitrede leurs manuels, on trouve des exposes de doctrine. Mais jamais lasuite ne repond au commencement. L'idee philosophique est simple-ment prefix^e, k la fa5on d'un en-tete, d'une rubrique."

2 Aubrey, Miscellanies ^ p. 171. Similarly the accused in witchcrafttrials often allege the source of their power to be the fairies or benevolentspirits. Scott, Letters on Demonology, v. ; id,^ Border Minstrelsy, ii.PP- 293-305.


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II MAGIC 15the successful Iroquois hunter is said to con-quer the orenda of his quarry.^ As I havetried to show elsewhere,^ two principles aretacitly implied in magical conflict; (i) thatevery one has mana\ (2) that in the conflictof manas victory goes to the stronger of thetwo or to the aggressor, i.e. to that partywhich asserts its personality the stronger.The machinery of magical rites consists inthe bringing of personalities into contact withmana or with contagious qualities, which areafter all but mana specialised. The widearea of personality, as it is conceived in theLower Culture,^ provides the modes of contactseeing, touching, spitting on, speaking to, the

^ Hewitt, Atnerican Anthropologist^ 2nd series, iv. p. 38. **Onvoit partout chez les Hourons, des luttes d'orendas, comme on voit, enMelanesia des luttes des manas," Hubert et Mauss, op. cit. p. 114.

2 " The Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict," Folklore^ xxi. p.147.

^ The rage for relics of famous persons in civilised communitiesshould assist in the understanding of the wide area of personalitywhich the savage accepts as a fact ; it is a manifestation of the samestate of mind. From this conception of personality as a completewhole composed of parts which have a. vital connection with theunity which they compose, and are all instinct with the life or essenceof the whole, two corollaries follow: (l) hurt done to any partaffects the whole ; (2) if one part can be preserved, the whole cannotbe annihilated. Obviously the distinction between the two principlesis not rigid, but roughly we may say that to the first belong themethods of ** sympathetic" magic, to the second the belief in theExternal Soul and Life Token. The divine king hedged aboutwith taboos is the External Soul of that complex unity, the societyover which he rules.


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i6 GREEK DIVINATIONuse of hair, faeces, images or name, the givingof presents, and even the payment of money.^In every case, even down to the use of imagesand the so-called sympathetic magic, the ulti-mate motive is to effect a contact between thepersonality of which the instrument is a partand your own stronger mana^ or a malevolentpower, or some evil quality. It is not reallya case of mistaking the categories of Similarityand Identity, or the putting in action of sup-posed " Laws of Contiguity." The psychologyof the business is much less rational and is,after all, a matter of everyday experience.Laodameia was not the first or the last tofind comfort in the image of an absent lovedone.^ ** The profane use of images for witch-craft," says Mr, Hartland, ** is exactly parallel

^ See also Preuss on "DieZauber der KorperofFnungen," Globus^ 86,pp. 321-327. For the payment of money as a mode of contact cf.the offerings at holy wells and trees, Hartland, Legend of Perseus,ii. cap. xi. In the Solomon Islands mere knowledge of a manasong is useless for practical purposes. You must pay your instructormoney and then ipso facto he will transmit the mana to you (Marett,Threshold of Religion^ p. 137). It is much the same with the Midepriests (Hoffman, op. cU. p. 221), and Cherokee shamans "claimthat pay is one of the agencies in the removal of disease," Mooney,op. cit. p. 337 foil. It figures in the relation of Devil and witch,Glanvil, Sadducismus Triumphatus, pp. 288, 2951 302, 307 ; Mac-kenzie in The Witches of Renfrewshire, p. 23 ; Dalyell, The DarkerSuperstitions of Scotland, p. 578.

2 To(>Tov 7) yvvi} AaoddfxeicL Kal fxerci, ddvarov ijpa, Kal iroLria-aaaetdiSKov npwreffiKdifi TrapairX-^aLov to^t(^ irpotrw^fXet, Apollodoros,EUtome, 3. 30.


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MAGIC 17to the sacred use of images of gods andsaints."^

The simplest form of magical contact isthat where the agent absorbs or acquires forhis own the power or qualities of some personor thing. Australian black fellows will kill aman and eat his kidney fat in order to have hisstrength in addition to their own.^ Borneanstake the head of an enemy *'in order to bringinto subjection the spirit of the dead man." ^The possession of tiger's whiskers gives tothe fortunate owner the mana of the dreadedcreature;^ Achilles acquires his strength andbravery from being fed on the flesh of wildbeasts.^

The most common class of magical practice,the malevolent attack on another party, doesnot differ in principle. In a great number ofcases the ill-wisher effects a contact with hisenemy's personality, and wreaks upon it the

^ Hartland, Legend of Perseus^ ii. p. 98. When the Greekboys scourged Pan's image (Theokritos vii. 106), or the ancientschained the statues of their deities (Pausanias iii. 5* 7> viii. 41. 6 ;Plutarch, Rotiian Questions^ Ixi. ), or a Greek peasant puts silverfoil on the eikon of the Panagia, they can hardly be said to be actingon a mistaken principle that like causes like.

^ Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia^ p. 373.^ Crooke, Natives of Northern India^ p. 41.* E.g. story of Haji Batu, Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 10." ApoUodoros iii. 13. 6. 3 6 5^ \a^(j}v a'urbv ^Tp


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i8 GREEK DIVINATION chap.mana of his hatred. He burns a piece of hisclothes, sticks nails into his footprint, or meltshis waxen image. He makes a secret butdirect attack upon his neighbour's personality.In Melanesia we are told that what is neededin witchcraft is '*the bringing together of theman who is to be injured and the spirit whois to injure him."^ Similarly the witch orwizard can unite his enemy with evil powers orqualities. He can effect a contact, for instance,between some one's personality and the blind-ness of a frog whose eyes he has previouslypierced. The principle presupposed by theaction is exactly the same as that which liesbehind union with a beneficent or healingpower. ** In the temple of Rameses II. atGurnah, Turn, Safekht and Thoth are depictedas inscribing that monarch's name on the sacredtree of Heliopolis, by which act he was endowedwith eternal life." ^ In 1895 people were knownto travel considerable distances to visit a littlegirl, living in the Alor Gajah district of Malacca,who was reported to be kramat (i.e. instinctwith ma7id), and to swallow a small quantity ofher saliva in a cup of water.^ Mr. Hartlandhas shown that behind the ritual of the sacred

^ Codrington, The Afelanesians, p. 203.^ Clodd, Tom Tit Toi, p. 160 (quoting Wiedemann).

^ Blagden in Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 673.


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II MAGIC 19localities lies the idea of the union of the sickparty with the potency of the water or tree.^And here it will be seen that we are on theborder-line between magic and religion. Dr.Farnell has drawn attention to the fact that inlater Greek philosophy and amongst the EarlyChristian Fathers the true intention of prayeris ** not mere petition for some special blessing,but rather communion with God, to whom it isthe spiritual approach," and compares it withthe savage's communion, in which " the agentendeavours to charge himself with a potencydrawn from a quasi-divine source."^ In magicunion or contact with power in religion com-munion with the divinity is the fundamentalidea ; sacrifice has ultimately as its raisond'etre the bringing into contact of worshipperand God.^

Magic and religion are, therefore, seen tohave their origin in the same conception ofunion with a mystical power. It is not so muchtheir methods as their aims which differentiatethem : magic, as MM. Hubert et Mauss andMr. Marett claim, is anti-social; its power

* See Hartland, Legend ofPerseus ^ \\. passim.2 Farnell, Evolution of Religion^ p. 174. The idea finds frequent

expression in Herbert, Vaughan, and the religious poets.* Hubert et Mauss, " Essai sur la nature et la fonction du sacrifice,"

MHanges d*Histoire des Religions^ pp. I -130.


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20 GREEK DIVINATION chap.is arunquiltha. But the methods and rites ofmagic and religion are often identical in char-acter, and the religion of one age becomes themagic of the next. In their earliest stages thatpower with which they are concerned is non-moral and powerful alike for good or evil. It isonly gradually that mana becomes qualitativelydifferentiated, and the danger of union with thegreatest powers becomes a moral test.^

In the superstitions of the higher culturethere is room for a white magic ; but thatis only because the practices of white magicare survivals from earlier creeds, and as suchthey are usually banned by the church andregarded with suspicion by good ordinary folk.^In the Lower Culture the only line whichdivides magic from religion is that of the dis-tinction between rites with a social or anti-social intent ; in the higher culture orthodoxymarks the boundary. The methods of magicand religion have a common source in the ideasof union, sacrament, and the use of spiritualpowers.

^ See below, p. loi.2 Witness, for example, Lilly's laboured apology for his foolish if

harmless astrological pretensions in the * * Introduction to the ImpartialReader '* prefixed to England's Propheticall Merline (cf. Philostr.K Apoll. V. 12), or Mackenzie's interesting discussion of the legal aspectof the distinction claimed between a white and black magic, Witches ofRenfrewshire^ p. 21.


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CHAPTER IIIRITUAL

Tout rite est une esp^ce de langage. Cest done qu'il traduitune idde.i

In all arts, no less than in magic, there is atendency, particularly strong where traditiondemands conformity to a specific form, for theart to assume a paramount importance, for theartificer to succeed the artist, for priest to oustprophet, for formalism to supersede mana. Itis this tendency which accounts for the factthat magic arts come into being, and magicalwords or actions tend to acquire a power perse independent of the personality which setsthem in motion. Rightly to understand .thisprocess it is necessary to remember the raisoncTitre of all ritual, which is, in the long run,nothing more nor less than the attainment of adistinctive mode of expression. For^the mode

^ Hubert et Mauss, VAnnie Sociologzque, vii. p. 58.22


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CHAP. Ill RITUAL 23of expression does matter infinitely to the forceof the meaning, and ritual has really a mana ofits own. Ordinary conversation teems withthe magic of methods of expression ; intonation,gesture^ tone of voice are all of the very highestimportance. The recitation of poetry maymake or mar the poem.^ In the expression ofour ordinary thoughts or emotions it is true thatthe modes of expression are in part unlearnedand instinctive, and do not come by prayer andfasting ; but in proportion as the occasion ismomentous or the emotion to be expressedimportant, the desire will arise to employ amode of expression as distinctive as theoccasion, and satisfactory alike to the demandsof the crisis and the feelings of the agent.

^ It is interesting to compare the remarks of Robert de Brunne, theannalist, on the loss in value of True Thomas's romance of Sir Tristremwhen its author was no longer alive to say it in the right way, with amodern poet's experience. De Brunne says

I see in song, in sedgeying tnleOf Ercildoune and of Kendale.Now thame says as they thamc wroght,And in thare saying it seems nocht.That thou may here in Sir TristremGuer gestes it has the steme,Guer all that is or was :If men it said as made Thomas.

(Ellis, Specimens of the Early English Poets^ i. p. 105.) In his in-troduction to the late Mr. Synge's play, The Well of the Saints,Mr. Yeats remarks, "Above all, he made word and phrase dance to avery strange rhythm which will always, till his plays have createdtheir own tradition, be difficult to actors who have not learned it fromhis lips."


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24 GREEK DIVINATION chap.In many cases this is not the result of

conscious thinking about the matter, but is theproduct of an inarticulate and subconsciousfeeling. And it is just this inarticulate andsubconscious recognition of the necessity offinding a distinctive mode of expressingemotions concerned with the most awful andimportant aspects of life, which leads to thedevelopment in early magico- religion of in-cantation, spell, and ritual. When the firstwizard chanted an incantation instead of sayingit, he did not invent the chant on rationalgrounds, or suppose that for such and suchreasons his new method would help the effective-ness of his action. His discovery can no morebe analysed in terms of logic than that of theinvention of articulate speech. The importanceand impressiveness of his object led himunconsciously to the adoption of an impressive,abnormal method of expressing himself. TheAustralian black fellow points with his spearin the direction of his foe, chanting over it** Strike, kill." The spear, the words, and thegesture of pointing, as Mr. Marett would say,*'help out the spell." As being a mode ofexpression they are logically distinguishablefrom that of which they are the mode ofexpression, i.e. the projection of the will, mana,


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Ill RITUAL 25or power. But it is very important to notethat neither in the mind of the worker of themagic nor in that of the victim of the spell isthis distinction realised. In practice the modeof expression, the act of expressing, and theemotion expressed form a complex and un-analysed whole.

It is, further, quite a natural and instinctiveimpulse which demands that the more difficultand impressive the magic, the more distinctiveand impressive must be the modes of expression.We are not surprised to learn from Spencerand Gillen that in dealing with illness **inserious cases the action is more dramatic andthe medicine-man needs a clear space in whichto perform."^ When Clerk Saunders' ghostdemands back its troth, Margaret does notverbally return it. Such an occasion needs abefitting procedure.

Then she has taen a crystal wand,And she has stroken her trot;h thereon :She has given it him out at the shot windowWi' many a sad sigh and heavy groan.

Any great occasion tends to gather ritual roundit. For example, touching for the kings evildemands no ritual to give it efficacy beyondthe contact of the sick man with the person in

^ Spencer and Gillen, op. cit, p. $31.


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26 GREEK DIVINATIONwhom the healing power resides.^ But whenthe sovereigns of England exercised the powerof the divine right of kings in the healing ofthe sick, they solemnised the occasion by theaddition of ritual which in Elizabeth's day wasquite an elaborate service.^

The object, then, of ritual is to enable theagent to express himself effectively, and allsolemn occasions will normally and naturallycreate or utilise forms of ritual. If this is true,it follows that we cannot with Dr. Frazer lookto the analysis of ritual acts to supply us withthe efficacy of the magic which they express.It becomes necessary, therefore, to considerhow the belief arises that a rite possesses apower /^r 5^, and why magical ritual should sooften have assumed that mimetic form which

^ See the account given by Greatraks of his power, Dalyell, op. cit.p. 66 ; the claims of a Mr. James Moore Hickson, Morning Leader^June 4, 1909; the case of Arise Evans, who rubbed his fungous noseon the royal hand to the surprise of its owner but to the satisfactionof himself, Aubrey, Miscellanies^ p. 133 ; cf. the examples, ib. p.129 foil.

^ " Nam reges Anglie etiam nunc tactu ac quibusdam hymnis nonsine ceremoniis prius recitatis strumosos sanunt," Polydore Virgil,Angliae ffistoria, lib. viii. p. 143 ; cf. Shakespeare, Macbeth, iv. 3.Elizabeth prepared herself for the occasion by religious exercises, andthe patients were introduced. Then the liturgy was read, prayers said,and a discourse delivered on the last chapter of Mark ; when reachingverse 14, relating to the incredulity of the disciples, she applied herbare hands to the part diseased. Further Scripture reading, signingthe croSs over the diseased part, and a gift of a gold coin as an amuletconcluded the proceedings, Dalyell, op, cit, p. 63 foil.


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RITUAL 27rendered plausible the formulation of Dr.Frazer's theory.Now all ritual will tend to become more andmore elaborate. The little cell of St. Francisis enshrined in the gross building of Sta. Mariadegli Angeli. Even rituals consecrated byimmemorial tradition suffer similar accretion ofornate pomp. Both in magic and religion twoinfluences are at work which assist this elabora-tion. Firstly, as the area of experience andknowledge becomes enlarged, the wonderfulmust be sought further afield. In magic thisinfluence often tells most strongly; in caseswhere magic is banned by orthodoxy, it isdeprived of the solemn grandeur of the receivedreligious ceremonies, and has to fall back ontheir parody, on the relics of a remoter anti-quity, and a wild extravagance of strangeness.Secondly, even where priests and medicine-menare not conscious charlatans, or even so farlacking in sincerity as Mr. Sludge the medium,^there is always a tendency, where any kind ofsacerdotal body arises, to exalt the dignity ofthe caste by a certain amount of charlatanry ;

^ See Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 412:'

' Granting all that can be said as to the intentional fraud of themedicine-men, and admitting that many of them are cheats and frauds,there remain some who really have a beUef in their own powers aswell as in those of other men."


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28 GREEK DIVINATIONthe vulgar, they urge (where apology is offered),cannot scale the heights of reality where dwellthose of esoteric knowledge. The jugglingtricks learned by the Mid6 of the Objibwa arean example, but the phenomenon is familiar.Where charlatans gain credulity, the absurdlymiraculous is of course at a premium.

Of magic rites MM. Hubert et Maussremark, ** II est a noter que la plupart descirconstances k observer sont des circonstancesanormales. Si banal que soit le rite magiqueon veut le fait rare."^ Magic having theabnormal for its sphere of action, its rites startwith a bias in this direction^; the influenceswe have suggested explain the extravagantabnormality of its later developments.

The apotheosis of the rite and the tendency^ Hubert et Mauss, op. cit. p. 47 ; cf. ib. p. 55.^ Naturally the abnormal is magical. The abnormal attracts atten-

tion, and arouses awe and fear in the mind accustomed to routine.Hence the fear of strangers or white men [Papua Reports, 190S, p. 58 ;Codrington, op, cit. p. 192 ; Bogoras, American Anthropologist^ 2ndseries, iii. pp. 86, 97) ; the fear of or reverence for twins (Hartland,Legend of Perseus^ i. pp. 72 and 130 ; Crawley, Mystic Rose^ p. 416Miss Kingsley, West African Studies^^ p. 455; Frazer in Anthropo-logical Essays^ p. 161, and the numerous classical instances). TheWest Indian kidney-bean washed up in the Orkneys (Scott, Minstrelsy,ii. p. 260), the Coco de Mer of the Seychelles cast up in the IndianOcean (Skeat, op, cit, p. 6, note 3), are considered magical. Stones ofpeculiar shape or natural curiosities of any kind must have mana(Haddon, Magic and Fetishism^ p. "j"^. Tigers, elephants, etc., withone foot smaller than the other must be ghost-tigers or elephants (Skeat,op. cit. pp. 71, IS3, 163).


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Ill RITUAL 29of power to shift from the agent or from theintention of the action to the formal rite willnaturally assist this progress towards learnedabsurdity. And this apotheosis is not difficultto understand.

Heaven lies about us in our infancy.Shades of the prison-house begin to closeAbout the growing boy.

Here the case of the individual holds good forthat of the human race. As a wider field ofexperience opens out, heaven recedes fartherfrom earth ; culture and knowledge advance,wonders and miracles grow less numerous,Man looks back to the Age of Gold ; the dayswhen Enoch walked with God or deitieswandered up and down the earth sharing thehospitality of man, have receded into the past.The king-god becomes the priest ; the mana ofthe medicine-man, which moulded the futurefor his people, becomes the inspiration of theprophet or, in the last resort, the art of thediviner. The source of power shifts fromearth to heaven. What the priest does andwhat he says in his official capacity as amediator between heaven and earth willnaturally become more important than his ownpower as a man, now that his private capacityhas become differentiated from his office.


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30 GREEK DIVINATIONTradition further sets the seal of sanctity

on rites rehgious and magical, which haveremained constant, though mutilated by ignor-ance, through a succession of generations ofperformers. In the use of public ceremoniesespecially the meaning of the rite tends soon tobe forgotten. All public religious ceremoniestend to be unintelligently performed; the mean-ing of the rites is not examined, it is sufficientthat their performance is known to be a goodthing. *' It was the custom of the Alcheringa/'say the Australians of the sexual license atcertain corroborees ; ** it prevents anythinggoing wrong with the performance."^

This apotheosis of a rite by the force oftradition is the cause of two phenomena. Onthe one hand, it obtains for ritual a faith in itspower per se, in that the rite has no othersignificance for the worshipper than a beliefthat its performance is in a general way bene-ficial and productive of good. On the otherhand, it enables esotericism to provide forreligious advance within the old creed. Repul-sive features may be explained away ; Plutarchcan interpret the religion of Greece in terms ofphilosophy. In magic, too, apologists are able,when rites have become crystallised, to explain

^ Spencer and Gillen, op, cit, p. 97.


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Ill RITUAL 31their significance in new terms, and Aubrey andLilly back their credulity with interpretationsbased on considerable, if mistaken, learning.

In many cases the associations of a rite oustits purpose. Paternosters and Aves may berecognised as possessing power, because theyare part of traditional ritual which it is in someway good to perform. Their power is nextextended in application to all spiritual andmagical needs outside the ritual of which theyform a part. The recital of an Ave will keepoff ghosts ; the negro sings a hymn and duppiesflee. The case is really analogous to that of thewide area of personality in the Lower Culture.Anything associated with holiness or religionhas power therefrom. A throwing stick of Mr.Howitt's which had been used in initiationceremonies was thought peculiarly efficaciousfor magical purposes.^ Similarly a cock thathas been used in a charm is thought by theSinhalese to be particularly suited for cock-fighting,^ Being born on Christmas night gavea power to see spirits, or a peculiar mana indealing with ghostly powers.^ The psychologyof the business may be seen in the sentimentalism

' J.AJ. xvi. p. 28.2 HiIdburgh,y".W./. xxxviii. p. 163.* Sir W. Scott, Marmiouy iii. 22, with note. Gutch and Peacock,

County Folkloret v., Lincolnshire^ p. 48.


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32 GREEK DIVINATION chap.of Boswell at lona. ** While contemplating thevenerable ruins, I reflected with much satis-faction that the solemn scenes of piety neverlose their sanctity and influence, though thecares and follies of life may prevent us fromvisiting them or may even make us .fancy thattheir effects are only * as yesterday when it ispast/ and never again to be perceived. I hopedthat, ever after having been in this holy place,I should maintain an exemplary conduct." ^We have thus briefly indicated the kind ofinfluences which assist the transference of powerfrom the agent to the act and the formation ofthe rite of power, the belief in whose efficacyrests in the last resort on the force of traditionand on the associations of the rite ; thereremain to be investigated the causes whichhave made fnimesis so frequent a phenomenonin magical and religious ritual, or, in other words,the value of assertion as spell. For it makesno difference whether we are speaking of wordsor acting. The word of power and the rite ofpower are in pari materia ; a spoken statementand an acted statement are equally assertionsof fact or desire. Gesture, indeed, forms a largepart of the language of much of the LowerCulture, and we may remember the surprised

^ Boswell's Life ofJohnson (Croker), vol. iii. p. 32.


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RITUAL 33delight of Lukian*s Philistine friend who wasreluctantly taken to see a celebrated mime.ave/cpaye yap fcal fieyaXj} rrj tfycovrj av


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34 GREEK DIVINATIONkindly. You always say "Good People" forFairies, or *' the Guid Man " for the Devil, andhalf pretend to yourself **They are not asblack as they are painted and will I am surebe reasonable."^ In the case of the EnglishFairies I am even disposed to believe thatconsistent Euphemism helped to determinetheir character. The force of assertion on theindividual who makes it may be seen in thecurious regulation of the Mide wiwin. *' Whena Mid6 feels himself failing in duty or vacil-lating in faith, he must renew professions bygiving a feast and lecturing to his confreres, thusregaining his strength to resist evil-doing."^*'The wish is father to the thought," andmagic is essentially the emphatic statement ofa wish, behind which there is the power offulfilment. If we return to the distinctivemode of expression and suppose that you arepointing your wand at the enemy, there arethree modes of verbal expression which are ofalmost equal effectiveness. You can say** Strike, kill," *'You will strike or kill," or"May you strike and kill." Confident asser-tion and command are very near akin. Thelinguistic usage of *' will" and "shall" among

^ Cf. the influence of " the word-magic of penitence " in Babylonianreligion, Farnell, Greece and Babylon, p. 159.

2 Hoffman, op. cit. p. 176.


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Ill RITUAL 35English-speaking peoples shows in its variationthis close connection. ** It shall rain " and '* Itwill rain " are in the mouth of the rain-makeralmost identical.

Examples or illustrations could be multipliedalmost indefinitely ; a few only must sujffice ushere. When the Luisefio dance the song ofTemen Ganesh, the Song of Seasons, they say,"All these I have mentioned and Wanawut.I have mentioned all the names of the seasonsand stars and Wanawut. I am proud of mysongs. I have believed in my songs." ^

The Ponca Sun Dance contains a narrationof war tales with happy endings.^ Analogousare the game ceremonies of the Australians andAmericans, where emus, kangaroos, buffaloes,etc., are imitated in the dance, or fish repre-sented struggling in the net.^ Allied are allthe narrative spells which survive down tothose exorcisms of the Middle Ages or thecharms of Folklore, where, for example, head-

* Du Bois, University of California Publications : AviericanArcheology and Ethnologyy viii. No. 3, pp. 105-106.

2 Dorsey, Field Columbia Museum^ Publication No. 102, Anthropo-logical Series, vol. vii. No. 2, p. 76.

^ See examples in Preuss, Globus^ 86, p. 388 foil. " Der angegebeneZweck ist, dass die Nahrung reichlicher wird, als sie ist. Wir habenhier aber nicht an einen Zauber zur natUrlichen Vermehrung derKanguruhs zu denken, sondern der Nachdruck ist einfach auf dasVorhandsein der Beute gelegt, gleichgUltig wie das zustande kommt,oder besser noch auf das Antreffen derTiere."


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36 GREEK DIVINATION chap.ache may be cured by narrating how Jesus metHeadache one day, and asked him where hewas going, and forbade his purpose/

Similarly in spells or charms the verbal formis often that of a statement, past, present, orfuture. After the Terrapin broke his back hesung the medicine song, *' I have sewed myselftogether, I have sewed myself together," uponwhich the pieces came together though thescars remain visible.^

To cure cripples the Cherokee shaman says,**Yi!l, O Red Woman, you have caused it.You have put the intruder under him. Ha!now you have come from the Sun Land. Youhave brought the small red seats with yourfeet resting upon them. Ha! now they haveswiftly moved away from you. Relief isaccomplished ! " ^ The statement ** Relief is

^ Pradel, Griechische und sUditalieniscke Gebeie, Beschworungen undRezepte des Mittelalters^ p. 267. For "die Zauberwunsche in Gestalteiner blossen Erzahlung von Tatsachen" see Preuss, Globus^ 87, pp.396-397.

2 Mooney, " Myths of the Cherokee," Annual Report of theAmerican Bureau of Ethnology, xix. part i. p. 279,

^ Mooney, "Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee," ibid. vii. p. 349.So the lover says, "I am handsome, I am very handsome, I shallcertainly never become blue," ib. p. 376. In another charm theshaman sings, " Listen ! Ha ! I am a great ada wehi. I neverfail in anything. I surpass all othersI am a great ada wehi. Ha !It is a mere screech-owl that has frightened him. Ha ! now I haveput it away in the laurel thickets. There I compel it to remain,"lb. p. 353. Cf. the text of the formulas, ib. pp. 351, 355, 381.


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m RITUAL 37accomplished " is exactly on a par with thestatement ** It is thundering," made not inwords but in the action of the rattling ofSalmoneus cauldrons. The magic spells ofthe Egyptian Book of the Dead are cast in thisnarrative form. The deceased, for example,is addressed with the statement, **Thou hastcarried thy hands into the house of eternity,thou art made perfect in gold, thou dost shinebrightly in sun metal, and thy fingers shine inthe dwelling of Osiris, in the sanctuary ofHorus himself." The object of the statementis that these good things shall happen to thedead man.^ All the world over the burialservice has the efficacy of assertion, and amongthe Greeks and Romans those who were falselyreported dead had to undergo a ceremonialrebirth before they could mix in ordinary life.The statement that they were dead madethem dead,^ Again, in working magic or

^ Budge, Egyptian Magic^ p. i88. See Meyer, Geschichte desAUertuitis^ i. 2, p. 224. In Chaldean magic the conjurations "beginby enumerating the various kinds of demons whom they are to subdueby their power, and then describe the effects of the charm. Thedesire to see them repulsed or to be delivered from them follows, andthis is often expressed in the affirmative form," Lenormant, ChaldeanMagicy p. 15 ; cf. ib. p. 19.

^ Plutarch, Roman Questions^ 5. Malays recite the burial serviceover the image of an enemy, Skeat, Malay MagiCy p. 572. In Moroccothe scribes read the funeral service over seven little stones, a knife, or acoin, in the name of the intended victim, Westermarck in Anthropological


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38 GREEK DIVINATION chap.reciting mantras the agent will state that heis some great spiritual power. It is notmerely that you deceive the spirits into sub-mission ; by asserting or pretending that youare Solomon you identify yourself with himand wield his powers. That is why the nameof power plays so important a r61e in magic.

It is, then, to the feeling which lies behindEuphemism, that by saying that something isyou can persuade yourself that it really is, thatmust be traced the ultimate psychologicalmotive for the popularity of mimesis in ritual.The dramatic imitation of the effect desired isnothing more nor less than its assertion bygesture, and of verbal assertion in spell andcharm sufficient instances have been given tomake clear their nature and efficacy. I mayperhaps be allowed to conclude the chapterwith the quotation of the pathetic opening ofGrimm's story of Das Burle, To understandit aright gives one the mental attitude withwhich to appreciate the ultimate appeal ofmimetic ritual. *' Es war ein Dorf, darin sassenlauter reiche Bauern und nur ein armer, dennannten sie das Biirle. Er hatte nicht einmaleine Kuh und noch weniger Geld eine zuEssays^ p. 364. Canon law denounced those priests who shouldcelebrate masses for the dead in the name of the living, Gratian,Decretalia^ p. il, Causa^ xxvi., quoted Dalyell, op. cit. p. 175.


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RITUAL 39kaufen : und er und seine Frau hatten so gerneine gehabt. Einmal sprach er zu ihr, * hor, ichhabe einen guten Gedanken, da ist unserGevatter Schreiner, der soil uns ein Kalb ausHolz machen und braun anstreichen, dass eswie ein anderes aussieht, mit der Zeit wird'swohl gross und gibt eine Kuh.' Der Fraugefiel das auch, und der Gevatter Schreinerzimmerte und hobelte das Kalb zurecht, striches an, wie sich*s gehorte, und machte es so,dass es den Kopf herabsenkte, als frasse es."


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CHAPTER IVDIVINATION AND MAGIC THE ACCEPTANCE

OF OMENSfidvTt /caKWV, ov TTOi TTore jxoi rh Kpi^yvov etVas*atci TOt TO. KOLK etTTt ^tAtt pe(rl fxavr{>0-6atio-OXhv 6' ouSe Tt 7ro> etTras eTros, otjS' ereA-ecrcras.^

The preceding chapter will have prepared usfor the close and intimate relation betweenDivination and Magic. The witch, for example,who remarked to her victim, '* I shall live tosee thee rot on the Earth before I die and thycows shall fall and die at my feet,"^ was not somuch predicting an event as casting a spell.In the Isle of Man fairies made "a mockchristening when any woman was near hertime, and according to what child male orfemale they brought, such should the woman

^ Iliad \. io6.^ Mary Smith, tried before Robert Hunt, March 8, 1664. Glanvil,

op. cit. p. 309.40


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IV DIVINATION AND MAGIC 43qua sublata qui locus est divinationi ?" ^ Thisillogicality is characteristic of divination tothe end. Lilly, for example, in his "Apologyto the Impartial and Understanding Reader,"defends his art on the ground of the benefitswhich a knowledge of the future confer. "Nowif I say, in such a year of his age, by reasonthat one of those 5 Hylegiacalls, which is thesignificator, comes to the D or c? or d of a male-fical promittor, and that this intimates a sicknesseproceeding from the depravation of this or thathumour, and name it especially that is vitiated,andj say in time consult with the phisition, andprevent the disease, and be sure to evacuatethat predominating humour principally, whathurt is in this manner of direction ; whereby{longe ante) he is delivered of the peccanthumour before it could radicate, and from apestilent fever or a long lasting quartan ague,so that when the significator and the promittormeete, the native is crazy two or three dayesand no more, scarce that, whereas otherwayeshis life might have been endangered, and he along time sick," ^

Divination, then, even after it has partedcompany with magic, has still the object of

^ Cicero, De div. ii. 7. 19.'^ Lilly, Englancfs Propheticall Merline,


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44 GREEK DIVINATION chap.enabling the client to modify in his interestthe course of events. To the end suspiciondetects in it the taint of magic, and the divineris suspected of controlling the future by hisact. We may recall the attitude of the RomanEmperors towards astrology. If the starsmerely reveal the future, what harm couldthe astrologer effect ? Yet to prophesy theEmperor s death was a capital offence. Hadrianis said to have blocked up the Kastalian spring,because he had learned his imperial destinyfrom its prophetic water, and feared thatothers might consult it for a similar purpose.^This fear that the act of prophecy may causeits fulfilment belongs to the psychology ofEuphemism, and is the heritage from thatbelief which we examined in the last chapter,that assertion may have the force of spell.

It remains to trace the influence of thisbelief on an important phenomenon of classicaldivination, viz. the acceptance of omens, andto note the magical properties of xPV


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46 GREEK DIVINATION chap.his slave for a year.^ Similar is the principleof those love-charms where to insert portionsof your personality into the loved one's foodgives the agent power over the eater.^ Justas European peasants drink the witch's bloodto destroy her witchcraft/ the Lushais eatthe witch's liver with the same result/ It isthe same principle that victory goes to theaggressor which prompts the superstition thatit is advisable to see wolves before they seeyou/ And it is just the same where speakingis the mode of contact. It is dangerous toreply to questions put to you by suspiciouspersons, and the best thing to do is often toanswer with another question, and so entrapthe foe into putting himself into your power/

In the same psychological category with^ Crooke, Natives of Northern Indiay p. 258.^ Fahz, De poetarum Romanorum doctrina magica^ p. 113.^ See Hartland, Legend 0/ Perseus^ ii. pp. 272-273: '*It united

her with her victim."^ For this information I am indebted to Mr. T. C. Hodson.^ Virgil, Eclogues, ix. 53 ; Plato, Republic, 336 D ; Theokritos xiv.

22 ; Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 22 (34) ; "Der Alten Weiber Philosophey,"ZeitschriftfUr deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde, iii. p. 312 ; cf. theghost dogs of the Malays, Skeat, op. cit. p. 183, note 2.

^ Baboons must not be answered when they address a Bushman onhis way to the hunting-ground, Lloyd, Bushmen Reports, p. 19 ; cf. theDevil's lure of the Masai, Hollis, The Masai, pp. 265-266. For thedanger of answering the Devil in the St, Andrew's Eve charm in theRhine province, Zeitschrift fUr deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde^iii. p. 60; cf. Grimm, Kinder- und Hausm'drchen, No. 123, and theexamples I have given, Folklore^ loc. cit. pp. 157-158.


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ACCEPTANCE OF OMENS 47those phenomena must be placed the classicalbelief in the force of the acceptance of omens.The Delphic god, for example, instructed theSpartans how to entrap the Persian king.They sent a herald to demand justice for themurder of Leonidas, and after hearing thecomplaint Xerxes turned to Mardonios, whowas standing by him, and uttered the words,TOLjdp a'i M.apSovio^ oSe hiKa^ Baxrei roiavra


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48 GREEK DIVINATIONhave fallen to the ground had not Perdikkasbeen of quicker intelligence than his brothers,6 fiev hi] TavdvT]^ re Kol o 'Ae/>o7ro9 ol TTpea/Byrepote


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IV ACCEPTANCE OF OMENS 49name Hegesistratos,^ and Alexander turns intoan omen the mild reproof of the Pythia forinsisting on a reply irrespective of the officialcalendar of days when the oracle might beconsulted.^

Conversely the technical word for theaversion of an omen, whatever may have beenthe actual procedure, implies refusal. ThusHipparchos in vain attempted to avert thedream which warned him of his coming death :eV rff Stf reXevra.^ The procedure is exactlyparallel to the aversion of a curse. In Morocco,for example, if a man says, "This is 'ar onyou," and you are not prepared to grant therequest, you reply, "May the 'ar recoil onyou.

In Roman belief the acceptance or refusalof omens played, if anything, a more importantpart.^ Hercules accepts the omen of Carmenta'sprophecy as to his coming apotheosis/ Scipio

^ rierodotos ix. 91.^ Plutarcii, Alexander 14 i) Bk ihairep i^Tirrqfiivi) t^s (rTrouS^s eiTrci',

*Ai/iK7}T0S el, Sj TToi. TOVTO dKOvaas 'AX^^avdpos ovk4ti ^


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50 GREEK DIVINATION chap.approaching Africa in a fog accepts the omenof a promontory's name.^ L. Paulus startingfor the Persian War turns his daughter's tearsat the death of her puppy named Persa intoan omen of victory.^ Aeneas refuses the omenof Acestes' arrow catching fire/ For thisprocedure the technical terms were improbareyexsecrari, refutare, or abominari omen. Andthe beUef that when an unlucky omen occursyou can turn it in bonam partem by promptrepartee* leads the writers on the military artto write chapters de dissolvendo ^netu^ quern,milites ex adversis conceperint?Now evidently if the act of asserting some-thing possesses the efficacy which we have

attributed to it, every word spoken is potentiallya word of power and is liable to produce aneffect. The emphasis in superstition, whichis always illogical and liable to inconsistency,

^ Livy xxix. 27. 12.'* Cicero, De div, i. 46. 103. For further examples of the acceptance

of omens cf. Plutarch, Parallela^ 306 b, c ; Livy ix. 14. 7-8, v. 55. i-2 ;Aeneid xii. 258, with Servius ; AeHus Spartianus, Diditis J'ulianus, 7)Scrip. Hist. Aug. (Teubner) i. p. 132.

3 Aeneid \. 530. "Non secundum augurum discipHnam dixit ad senon pertinere. Nam nostri arbitrii est visa omnia vel improbare velrecipere," Servius, ad loc,

* Bouchd Leclerq, op. cit. iv. p. 144, e.g. the story in Amm. Marc.xxi. 2. I. When Julianus' shield broke off leaving the handle onlyin his hand he shouts to his terrified soldiers, " Nemo " inquit " vereaturhabeo firmiter quod tenebam."

^ Frontinus, Strat. i. 12.


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IV ACCEPTANCE OF OMENS 51is laid now on the power implicit in the word,now on the act of uttering or accepting it. Itis not here the place to trace the developmentof the word of power, the potent name, andthe cabalistic spell, but it is of some importancefor our purpose to notice that there is a tendencyto think of oracular utterances as possessingthe potential efficacy of words or names ofpower. If the act of blessing, as in the caseof Balaam, is an act of magic rather than ofdivination, the prophecies of gods or seers tendto be regarded as talismans or spells. XpTja/Moihave the potential efficacy of charms ; if theenemy obtain knowledge of them, he is enabledto set them in action, and the prophecy will befulfilled. That is why, like all books containingmagical lore, 'xp'n


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52 GREEK DIVINATIONonly on capturing the Acropolis that theSpartans learned the contents of the oraclesthere jealously preserved from alien knowledge,oracles which were of evil import for Athens*future.^ At Sparta knowledge of the oracleswas confined to the Pythioi and the kings.^At Thebes 'x^prja-fioi were jealously guarded bythe royal house, if we can accept as evidencePausanias' version of the Oidipous story,^Xeyerat Se fcal to? voOr) Aatov Bvydrrjp eir], kol co?Tov '^prjo-fiov Tov K-dSfio) BoOevra ifc AeX^coi/ StSd^etevavTrjv Kara evvotav o Aato'i * eTricrTaadav Se ttXtjvroiff; /3aatXea


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IV ACCEPTANCE OF OMENS 53The Romans were unable to take Veii untilthey learned from a refugee the oracle whichforetold that the city would fall when the watersof the lake had been drained away.^

This attitude towards State oracles, whichpossess an efficacy conditional on the know-ledge and the actions of the interested party,and the analogous belief that omens must beformally accepted by the recipient if they areto produce the beneficent effect which hedesires, show clearly that the art of divina-tion cannot be limited to the mere statementof a fore-ordained fact. Prophecy or omensare potential forces ; it is as much the businessof the mantis to direct the future and to turnit to account, as to tell his client what is goingto happen.

ifrdXhy 6' o^Sc rt ttw ctrras ctto?, ovS' creXco-cras.

to the Heraklids by Krios, son of Theokles, a soothsayer, Paus. iii.13- 3-

^ Cicero, Dg div. i. 44. 100.


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CHAPTER VMANTEIS

Divination is in the lips of the King : his mouth shall nottransgress in judgment.^

Oeh? et Tis vTToXd/Sot yeviaSat upev^ av yivotro rj /xavrts'rrj yap aur'^s rots Oeot


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CHAP. V MANTEIS 55of the Life of Homer ^m^h^sxse the same dis-tinction.^ Bouch6 Leclerq has made it thebasis of his investigation of the character andposition of the mantis.

This distinction has, of course, a measure oftruth, but it has led to misunderstanding. Thecorollary that has been drawn from it that thetwo methods of divining were in origin distinct,and that the one was based on religion andinspiration, the other on a rationally inventedpseudo-science, is wholly untrue and belongsto the age which sought the origin of Greekinstitutions in the invention of an ideal Hellene,who was the slave of reason alone. The dis-tinction rather, as it is drawn by Plato, belongsto a specific stage of development. The art ofdivination emerges much in the same way asthe art of magic ; in each case the ivy kills thetree. Even in the case of omens we haveseen that the duty of the seer is more thanmere observation and scientific deduction. Hisis not simply a craft which any one can learn, ora formal science of a quasi-mathematical kind.Of the mantis is demanded not only knowledgeab dextra canere iussisset. Observata sunt haec tempore inmenso et(in significatione) eventis animadversa et notata,"

^ Pausanias i. 34. 4; Plato, Pkaidros, 244; [Plutarch], I'if. Horn.212.


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56 GREEK DIVINATION chap.but a wise and understanding heart, or at leastsomething of the genius of successful oppor-tunism. t7rp iyo) fidvri


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MANTEIS 57growing complexity of civilisation there takesplace a specialisation of function and a differ-entiation of species. The primitive shamanunites in himself the germs of faculties whichare later developed by a continuous evolution.Poet, prophet, doctor, diviner, wizard, are allspecific developments which gradually separatefarther and farther from each other and developalong their own lines, each in turn exhibitingmore and more specific developments withinitself. The mantis is the direct descendant ofthe medicine-man, shorn by the emergence ofthese other sciences, arts, and religious beliefsof much of his pristine splendour. In thecourse of this evolution all those influences,which tend in the case of formal magic to aidthe growth of formalism and the transferenceof power from the practitioner to his art, willbe at work. Already the development of divina-tory processes from the sub-rite^ predisposesthem to the associations of ritual and the en-croachments of formalism. Thus the maker ofthe future passes into the prophet, the e/i^i/ro?fiavTiKT} of an earlier age becomes the inspira-tion of a god or the knowledge of an art, and inthe long run the ** curious art" wins the day.The antithesis between inductive and intuitive

* See below, chap. ix.


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58 GREEK DIVINATION chap.methods of divination must not be pressed toohard : it must be viewed historically. BouchdLeclerq noticed the fact that the age of theintuitive seers seemed to precede that of theinductive, but he did not draw the moral.

The mantis, Homer tells us, is the workerfor the public weal ; he is everywhere a welcomeguest.

Tts yap Brj ^ctvov KaXci aW.o6ev a^ros kir^XOoivaXXov y\ el /xrj twv ot B-qfjuoGpyol eao-tv,fidvrtv rj iTjTrjpa KaKUiV rj TeKTOva SovpioVjrj KOi Oea-TTiv dotSov, 6 /ccv Tcpirrja-iv aetSwv;ovTOi ydp kXtjtol ye ^poToiv eir diretpova yatav.^

The passage is an interesting one. Besides thecarpenter who builds your houses and ships,who are the other STjfitoepyol associated with themantis ? They have close affinities with himand are in a sense complementary.

Let us take first the "god-inspired singer."** To Prophets," says a seventeenth-centuryauthority, '* there be several attributes given,some called prophetae, some vates, othersvidentes. Vates was a title promiscuously con-ferred on prophets and poets as belonging tothem both. ... Of the vatical or propheticalpoets amongst the Greeks were Orpheus, Linus,Homer, Hesiod, etc., and amongst the Latins

^ Homer, Odyssey xvii. 382.


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MANTEIS 59Publius Virgilius Maro, and others." ^ Andso we find that Hesiod claims the same poweras that of Kalchas

etpcvcrat rd t eovra, ra r icrcrofieva^ irpo t eovra.^The Muses have given him the wizard's magicwand.^

In all magic, music, song, and poetry play animportant part. Professor Jevons has illustratedin his interesting lecture on Graeco - 1 talianMagic the significance of eVwS?; and incantatiOyand the magicae cantamina Musae.^ Theoracles of Apollo were given in verse in theearliest times, however inferior the quality ofthe divine poetry. The god of Delphi, in fact,possesses all the attributes of the medicine-man, song, divination, healing, the unseen dartswhich strike down his opponents,^ and even thewand of laurel.^

^ Thomas Heywood, Life of Merlin^ pp. 1-2.2 Cf. Iliad \. 70, and Hesiod, Theog. 38.^ KoX fxoL (TKTJTrTpov ^Sov SdtpvTjs ipidtjKio^ 6^ov

ISpiypaaBai $7)7]T6Vf

Theog. 30 ; for the significance of the /id/35os see Jevons, Anthropologyand the Classics^ p. lOO.

^ Jevons, op. cit. p. 94 foil. Per me quod eritque fuitque

Estque patet ; per me concordant carmina nervis.Certa quidem nostra est ; nostra tamen una sagiltaCcrtior, in vacuo quae vulnera pectore fecit.Inventum medicina meum est, opiferque per orbemDicor et herbarum subiecta potentia nobis.

Ovid, Met, i. 517-522.** Cf. the vases of the cleansing of Orestes.


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MANTEIS 6iis again a development involving a specialisa-tion of function, and instead of the wizard whocures all ills, we have a doctor of the body anda doctor of the soul. Epimenides the Kretanis called in to purify Athens from her moralsickness, and in serious crises States turn forhelp to Apollo ; but normal difficulties aresettled by the politician or statesman. SoMelampus is doctor and wizard. He healsthe daughters of Proitos by a combinationof spiritual and material purgation.^ Thencome the Asklepiadai with their simples andcharms, and in the rpvtpaxra TroXi?, as Platocomplains, developed specialisation in the artof medicine.^

The three STjfiioepjoi of Homer, then, arefound to be complementary to one another.Let us notice another point. If we take thecase of the Irjrrjp KaKoov or that of the divinerwe see that the development of civilisation andthe consequent complexity result in a countlesshost of special functionaries, Melampus wasan IrjTTjp KUKwv in the full sense of the wordthe growth of the medical science marks a firstspecialisation. That science subdivided incourse of time into its various special depart-

^ Paus. V. 5. 8-10, on the smell of the river Anigros ; Pans. x. 36. 7,with Frazer's note.

2 Plato, Repttblic, 405 foil.


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MANTEIS 63tendency to specialisation is reported amongthe Cherokees,^ and among the MalaysPawang and Bomor are adopting each a specialprovince."

Let us return to the IrjTrjp KaKwv, Who areprimarily capable of cleansing from spiritualevil ? There is, of course, the mantis. AMelampodid cleansed Alkathoos of Megara ofthe murder of his son/ Apollo, according toone legend, was himself forced to go to theseers of Krete to be cleansed of blood-guilti-ness/ Secondly, there are kings, for exampleCroesus ; TrapeXBoov fie 0UT09 iÂ.hp7}(7Tos) e? raJ^poiaov ocKva Kara vofMOVf; roi/^ iiri'ôypLov^ KaOapaioviSeero Kvprjcrat, KyDoto-o? Si ficv e/caîype/ Thirdly,there is the god of Delphi himself, the Apollothat cleansed Orestes. Herakles, we are told,on being refused purification by King Neleusapplied successfully to Delphi ; on anotheroccasion tcaOaiperai fxev vtrb SeaTriov, Trapayevofievof;

^ Mooney, Annual Report of American Bureau of Ethnology, vii.309. Similar specialisation among Cherokee story-tellers, Mooney, ib,xix. pt. i. p. 232.

^ Skeat, op. cit. p. 56. Further examples among Ihe Pima shamans,Russell, Annual Report of American Bureau of Ethnology, xxvi. p.257. In British New Guinea, Seligmann, The Melaiusians of BritishNeio Guinea, p. 643 ; North Africa, Doutt^, Magie et religion dansrAfrufue du Nord, pp. 28, 30.

* Pausanias i. 43. 5. * Pausanias ii. 30. 3.* Herodotos i. 35. For further examples cf. ApoUod. ii. 30, 57, 72,

7O, 112; iii. 163, 164.


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64 GREEK DIVINATIONBe eh AeX^ou? TrvvOdverat rov Oeov irov /caroiKijaec.The Pythia, for the first time addressing him asHerakles, orders him to expiate his crime inservitude to Eurystheus.^

Again, therefore, we have three figuresconnected by an identity of function ; theirinter-relation is a matter of some importance.It is clear that the oracle performs on a largerscale many of the functions of a Salmoneus.The god and an organised priesthood havetaken over the superintendence of the welfareof the tribe and its individual members, exer-cised formerly by the medicine-man, who washimself the *' Cloud-compelling Zeus" and kingof his people. The position and functions of thePythia, or rather perhaps of those "Holy Ones"who were the real power behind the tripod,^were in many respects not unlike those ofSamuel, the last of the Jewish judges. Thepurely political exploitation of Delphi in theseventh and sixth centuries b.c. obscures theissue. Until the Peloponnesian War, whenAthens endeavoured to obtain a divine sanction

^ Apollodoros ii. y2. Note the encroachment of the god ; thecleansing by Thespios is not sufficiently efficacious. A similar tendencyfor the god to oust the medicine-man is to be seen in variants of thePolyidos story where Apollo takes the place of the Kouretes (Hygin.Fad. 136), or Asklepios that of Polyidos (Hygin. FoeL Asfi-. ii. 14).

2 The position of the Hosioi is well stated by Dr. Farnell, Culis^iv. pp. 193-195-


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MANTEIS 65to counterbalance the hostility of Delphi,Dodona seems to have played no part inpolitics. The problems which were referredto the god are personal and often trivial, ormatters affecting the spiritual welfare of thecommunity. Just as Saul applied to the manof God to know what had become of his father'sasses, "Agis asks of Zeus Naos and of Dioneabout his coverlets and pillows, whether he haslost them or whether some one has stolen them."Herakleides asks if he will have more childrenbesides his daughter Aigle. The Corcyreansinquire what sacrifices and vows to which godsand heroes will enable them to live together inharmony.^

And primarily the oracle at Delphi fulfilledthe same function, even after it took to politics.The cynic ascribed the decline of oracles to thewickedness of the questioners and the trivialquestions which they asked.^ In Plutarch'sday men inquired el vtK'qa-ovaiv, el fyafLrjo-ova-iv,el avfMepC TrXeiv, el yeaypyelv, el airohrf^elv.^ ButPlutarch is wrong in thinking that the god inthe good old days had no inquiries of a personalnature to answer. The childless man habituallyrepaired to Delphi. The god was asked the

* For these inscriptions see Bouch^ Leclerq, op, cit. ii. p. 319 foil.^ Plut. De defectu or(U. 413.

' Plut. De EI apud Delphos, 5. 386 c ; cf. De Pyth. orac. 26. 407 D.F


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66 GREEK DIVINATION chap.same kind of questions as that of the Corcyreansquestions relating to the common weal, raSe ^efyia-ra ttoXccov fiavrev^ara (j)opa^ Kapiroiv TripeKol j3oTO)v iTTiyovrj'; Kal acofidrcov vyLia


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68 GREEK DIVINATION chap.past were manteis, and they possessed the otherfunctions of that office no less than the powerof cleansing from the stain of bloodshed**Omnino apud veteres, qui rerum potiebantur,iidem auguria tenebant : ut enim sapere, sicdivinare regale ducebant. Testis est nostracivitas, in qua et reges augures et postea privatieodem sacerdotio praediti rem publicam re-ligionum auctoritate rexerunt."^ Strabo addshis testimony to the same effect : ravTa yap67r&)9 TTore oKijOeta^; h'^GC, irapa ye roi^ av6pcoiroi^iiremarevTO koX ivevo/jLicrro, kol Sea tovto fcal olfidvTiVTO ware kol ^aaiXelaf; a^tova-Bav, &sra irapa rtav 6ewv r//jiLV ifcpovTs TrapayyeX/MaraKal eiravopBwfiara koI fwz'Te? Kal airoOdvovTG'i?And making every allowance for the influenceof Euhemerism,^ the testimony of mythologypoints the same way. Rhamnes "rex idem, etregi Turno gratissimus augur/** like Picus/king and seer; Anios, the Melchisedek of Delos,father of Andros, seer, ruler, and eponym ofthe island^ ; Helenos, son of Priam and king

^ Cicero, De div. i. 40. ^ Strabo xvi. 2. 39, 762.^ E.g. the story which makes Proteus king in Thrace and afterwards

in Egypt. Philargyrius and Servius ad Vergil, Georgic iv. 3S7Euripides, Helena^ 5.

^ Aenetdix. 327. ^ Ovid, Met xiv. 320.^ " Hunc Anius, quo rege homines, antistite Phoebus

Rite colebatur, temploque domoque recepit,"Ovid, Met. xiii. 632, 647; Konon, JVarr. 41.


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V MANTEIS 69of Epiros^- Phineus, the old blind victim ofthe Harpies^; Mounichos, son of Dryas, kingof the Molossi, and his son Alkandros ^ : allthese are examples. Teneros, whose manteionstood by the Ismenos, was king of Thebes.^Merops, whose two sons were slain at Troydespite their father's warning/ and Ennomos,leader of the Mysians, were seers. WhenFaunus, son of Picus, practised his magic artsand mantic powers in Egypt, he went clad inroyal robes."^ Thamyris eVl roaovrov ^ice ki-BaptpSia's 0)9 Kal ^aciKea a>v, Kaiirep iTvqXvTr^vovra ^KvOa^ iroLrjaaaOai,^ Melampus made theprice of his healing the daughter of Proitos,marriage with a princess and a part of thekingdom of Argos.^ From Melampus weredescended Amphiaraos and Amphilochos.^**Polyidos' father has the significant name ofKoiranos. Cicero evidently thinks of Polyidos

* Ovid, Met, xiii. 720 ; Vergil, Aen. iii. 294."^ ApoUodoros i. 120. ^ Anton. Lib, xiv.* Schol, Lykophron 121 1. Iliad \\. 831, xi. 329.8 Jliadxi. 858.' This touch of right feeling in the myth of a Christian chronographer

is, I believe, a fair piece of evidence. Exc. Graec. Barb. Ckron. Min,(Frick.)p. 239.

^ Konon, Narr. vii.* Herodotos ix. 34 ; Servius, Eclogue vi, 45. Similarly Manto

becomes the wife of Rhakios or of a prince of Italy.^'* Pausanias vi. 17. 6 ; Cicero, Dediv. i. 40. 88; cf. the parentage of

seers discussed below. Alkandros, Galeotes, Theonoe, Medea, Ampyx,Mopsos, are of royal family.


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70 GREEK DIVINATION chap.himself as king in Korinth ; the scholiast onHomer says that he was king in Argos.^And like Salmoneus or Atreus, the manteisare connected with the weather or the sun.Thus before the birth of Branchos, his motherdreamed ** per fauces suas introisse solem, etexisse per ventrem."^ According to one storyit was in the temple of the sun, where Apollowas xpvo-p'oXoyo'i, that the snakes licked the earsof Kassandra and Helenos.^ The parentageof Medea and Circe shows the children of thesun as magicians and prophets. Prometheus,who stole the fire from heaven, taught men thearts of prophecy/ We are reminded of thosedim mythical figures, Telchines, Kouretes, andIdaean Dactyls, or the Hyperboreans, Tro-phonios, and Agamedes. These magicians of aremote prehistoric era, the discoverers of metal,the inventors of cults, had power to spoil theirneighbours' crops, or to summon rain and hail/

^ Cicero, De div. i. 40 foil. ; Schol. Horn. //. v. 48.2 Scrip. Rer. Myth. ed. Bode, 1834, p. 28, Mytkog. i. 81 ; Konon,

Narr. xxxiii.^ Tzetzes, Arg. ad Lykophron,^ Aischylos, Prometheus VinctuSy 484 seq.^ For confusion of Telchines, Kouretes, Idaean Dactyls, etc., with

each other see Strabo x. 7, 466, x. 19, 472 ; Paus. v, 7. 6. They weremetallurgists, Strabo x. 3, 473, xiv. 7, 653 ; Died, v, 55, xvii. 7 ; Schol.Ap. Rhod. i. 1 129 ; Steph. Byz. s.v. Md-q^o^ ; Marmor Parium, i. 22.The names Paionios, lasios, Akesidas are evidence of their power aslr}T7Jpes KaKu&g

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