14 Rafael Karsten. [N:o 1 



at Delphi into which the prophesying priestess descended and 

 where she was filled with the di vine spirit. In the enclosure of the 

 sanctuary of the Olympian Zeas at Athens Pausanias found a cleft 

 in the ground which for similar reasoas formed a part in the populär 

 religion. Every year the iuhabitants used to throwmeal kneaded 

 with honey into it evidently in order to appease tlie spirits which 

 were supposed to haunt this mysterious place ^). Among other 

 localities of this kind may be mentioned the cave of Zeus in 

 Crete „in the depth of the sacred soil of niount Aigaion" 

 which, besides, had at its entrance the marvellous willow of 

 Hera ^). The cave oa the Acropolis at Athens which was 

 consecrated to ApoUo and to Pan, like most sacred places of 

 that kind had a murmuring spring inside it ^). At Samicum in 

 Elis Pausanias found a cavern of great repute consecrated to 

 the Anigran nymphs. It used to be visited especially by le- 

 pers who ätter entering it prayed to the nymphs promi:<ing 

 them sacrifices, and then by certain purificatory ceremonies 

 tried to get rid of their disease *). 



The Corycian cavern of mouat Parnassus of course partook 

 of the sacredness that environed the whole place. But the 

 religions reputation it enjoyed in Antiquity was, no doubt, also 

 due to the peculiar character of the cave itself which by its 

 many fountains and its humidity seemed particularly fit as 

 a dwelling-place of mountain and wood-land spirits. At 

 the time when Pausanias wrote it was by the inhabitants of 

 the surrounding couatry revered as the haunt the Corycian 

 nymphs and of Pan ^). Famous also was the cavern at Ithaca 

 which Homer describes in the thirteenth book of his Odyssey^). 

 Peculiarly formed by the hand of nature, dark and gloomy, 

 having „everflowing waters" and mysterious passages, „acces- 



') Paus. I, 18, 7. 



^) Hesiod. Theog. 483. Plin. Eist. nat. XVI, 46. This Zeus-cave has 

 in our da^^s been recovered. As to its natural aspect and the part it played 

 in the religion of the prehistoric Greeks in C-rete, see Karo, Altkretische 

 Kultstätten, in Arcliiv fiir Religionswissensschaft, Bd 7, 1904. Tsountas & 

 Manatt, The Mycetinenn Åge, p. 309. 



») Paus. I, 28, 4. Éurip. lon, 936. 



*) Paus. V, 5, 11. 



^) Ibid. X, 32, 7. Aesch. Eimen. 22. 



«) Hom. Od. XIII, 105 sqq. 



