XLIX] Studies in primitive Greek religion. 5 



the idea of inanimate matter, savage man is in the same way 

 ready to vivify and deify even motionless objects of nature. 

 Hence the well-known worship of stones, rocks, caves, and 

 similar objeets which through some peculiarity in their form or 

 through remarkable incidents with which they are connected, 

 have revealed themselves as the abodes of supernatural beings. 



Moreover, beside these visible objects and phenomena, 

 mere incidents interferring more or less vitally in the welfare 

 and destiny of man, may have availed to produce in him ideas 

 of unseen spiritual powers. However little the savage is given 

 to speculations about the causes of the incidents of which he 

 is conscious, still there are some which through the influence 

 they exert upon him, require to be explained as to their 

 origin. Thus disease like death belong to those occurrences 

 about the true natare of which the lower races all över the 

 world have felt the practical need of forming a theory. Now 

 in most cases uncivilised man is, of course, not able to find out 

 the natural cause of bodily suffering. He, therefore, jumps 

 to the conclusion which for him lies nearest at hand. 

 A change like that which takes place when an internal 

 suffering causes a man to pine slowly away or when he 

 twists and writhes in convulsions, or when the soul itself de- 

 serts him, cannot have been brought about except by an in- 

 visible being which has entered the body or which in some other 

 mysterious way has caused the evil. And by a reasoning 

 similar to this every accident, every unexpected loss and disap- 

 pointment is by an undeveloped mind ascribed to an invisible 

 supernatural operation ^). 



Thus there is built up in primitive man a body of re- 

 ligions beliefs corresponding to his intellectual faculties and his 

 practical desire to make himself at home in the world where 

 he lives. 



Starting from the assumption, that the view here briefly 

 sketched has been common to all peoples at the lowest stages 

 of development, it may be of interest to see how far traces 

 of it are to be found among the ancient Greeks. If even in 



^j On the origin of the religious ideas, see niy Origin of Worship 

 ch. I. 



