XLIX] Studies in primitive Greek religion. 13 



awe that environed the whole of mount Parnassus which was 

 one of the most famous religions centres in Greece. The 

 whole aature of this mountain, which was by ancient writers 

 described as being covered with large forests, as forraing 

 numerous clefts aud abysses, and as having springs which 

 seemed to disappear into the nether world, ^) was peculiarly 

 suitable for making it in the imagination of the primitive be- 

 holder a place haunted by all sorts of daemons. Besides a 

 frequent mention is made by the poets of a mysterious iiame 

 that shone by night on the mount 2). The real nature of this 

 flame may now be difficult to determine; but among the 

 Greeks of classical tirae the tale was current that it proceeded 

 from the god Bacchos who with the torch in his hand danced 

 with his wonted company of attendants ^). 



The religions awe with which certain caves and dark clefts 

 were regarded by the Greeks may have been due to somewhat diffe- 

 rent considerations. That this cult held an important place in pri- 

 mitive Greek religion, is at least the opinion of Porphyry who says 

 that the ancients used to consecrate caves to theirgods even before 

 they had found out to build them temples *). In fact, the gloom 

 and m3''stery which is mostly attached to such subterranean places, 

 their musty air, the noxious gasses which sometimes exhaled from 

 their interiör, the rippling springs which seemed to keep them 

 m communication with the under world — these and similar 

 phenomena may at a very early period have suggested to the 

 iraaginative Greek mind that caves were the favourite haunt 

 of certain supernatural beings, or that in them a divine spirit 

 hovered about with which man might put himself in commun- 

 ication. Hence the religions importance of the chasm in the earth 



') Cf. Hom. Od. XIX 432. Eurip. Herc. Fur. 240, Plin. Hist nat. 

 XXI, 3, 26. Strabo, VIII, 2, 25 ; 3, 1 ; pp. 410, 417. 



^) Eurip. Phoen. 226: a» XåuTiovaa nirqa kvqös ÖLXÖovq^ov aéXag -bneQ 

 åxQcov Baxxticov diovvaov. Cf. Schol. Eurip. Phoen. 227. Eurip. lon 1125: 

 Eov&oi (xev cpx^T tv&a ttvq mbä &€ov Buy(X£iov. Aristoph. Ban. 1211. Schol. 

 Aesch. Eumen. 1128: avrdaarov jtvo éycetoe ävabiboxai. 



^) Eurip. Bncch. 306 : "Er avröv oxpei yiäTiL JeXq^iaw ntrgais m^bävra 

 avv nevxaat bixö()vq:ov TtXå-xa. Eurip. lon 714 sq. 



*) Porph. De antro nymph. 20: 1,m\Xaia toLvvv Kal åvzQa xév jiaXaio- 

 rdrcov jr^ir xal vaovg étrcLvofiaai &eoli åcpoaiovvrmv. 



