XLIXJ Studies in primitive Greek religion. 7 



the divine power (tö &8Tov) embraces the whöle of nature. ^) 

 Similarly Prodicus from Ceios is reported to have taught that 

 the ancients worshipped the sun, the moon, rivers, springs and 

 other similar objects because ot the becefits which they con- 

 ferred upon man ^). 



Men of classical time, of course, in speaking of the Hellenic 

 cults, give the principal importance to the heavenly bodies 

 and phenomena, out of which the Olympian deities had been 

 developed. That, however, the „chtonic" and „hypochtonic" 

 divinities received the largest share of the worship which the 

 early Greeks payed to the powers of nature, being perhaps 

 their most ancient gods, is a suggestion which is practically 

 confirmed by a closer study of their religion. 



In looking for the most primitive religious ideas among 

 the Greeks, we must first lay down the general proposition 

 that what to an uncultured mind seems supernatural or „di- 

 vine" need not always be something that is in the ordinary sense 

 of the word great and exalted. Any thing or occurrence which 

 for the moment excites wonder in uncultured man or causes him 

 surprise maj' incidentally appear to him a divine. Thus when the 

 Greeks called the human reason, human passions and emotions, 

 the fortune and misfortune, bravery and similar objects and ideas 

 åaif.i6viov or d^eiov^ xl 3), this may not have been, at least 

 originally, merely a figure of speech. Wine was sometimes cal- 

 led sacred, no doubt because af its wonderful eflPects and its 



') Arist. Metaph. XI, 8. 



*) Sext. Empir. Adv. phys. IX, 18: IlQÖöiytos bk u KsTos, yhov, (pi](fi, 

 xal oeXT]vi]v xal notay.ovs yial KQi]vas nal xa&åXov Jiåvxa ra écpekovvxa rov 

 ^Lov ))[iu)v OL nakatOL ^eovs évöutaav öiä tt)v ån avröv dxpéXeiav. Cf. Cicero, 

 De nnt. Deor. I, 42. 



') Sopli. Fragm. 836: /) (pQuviiats åyai^r) &tös fiéyag. Eurip. Frngm. 

 1018: ö vovs yä(j i)^wv ev éxdorco deög, i}&os åv&gcbjiov öaifiwv. Apul. De 

 deo Socr.c. 14: quodam significatu et animus humanus, etiam nunc in corpore 

 situs, öaifimv nuncupatur. Similarly, dira cupido, bona cupido, ibid. Pallas, 

 A. P X, 52: Ev ye kéycov xöv xaigöv t(pi]s d-eöv. Menand. p. 289: oix 

 'ia-ZL TÖXfiris éTtLcpaveoréQa &eög. — In a similar manner also a good dinner 

 and the belly could be called bai^oviov. Cf. Soph. Frngm. 548: i)Xd^Ev be 

 bals ^åketa, ngea^iori] ^eäiv. Plut. De def. orac. c. 46 : (pijot &veiv . . . rrj [le- 

 yiciTri yaoxQL baifidvwv. Compare Usener's „Åugenblicksgötter", Götterna- 

 men, p. 291. 



