18 Rafael Karsten. [N:o 1 



or because it delivered oracles in different dialects and on the 

 language of anybody consulting it ^). The attribute noXvyXooci- 

 dog, however, may also refer to the innumerable leaves of the 

 tree, in the rustle of which the Greek believed to hear the 

 divine voice. The deity dwelt within the oak, ^^vaTev å^évl 

 Tcvd^fiévi ipriyov^'' ^), two sacred döves cooed in its leafage and 

 according to some writers even delivered the oracles ^), and 

 from its roots which were supposed to run down to Tartarns 

 a well-spring with „speaking water" gushed forth and kept 

 it in communication with the mysterious powers of the world 

 below *). If we add that the well-known fact that large trees- 

 easily get struck by lightning probably led to its being on 

 the other hand connected with the Olympian deities, we fiiid 

 it intelligible enough that a place where so many different 

 divine powers met was regarded as particnlarly sacred. 



It is true that although in historic times the sacred plants 

 and trees seem to have been numerous indeed, it does not, iu 

 most cases, clearly appear that they were actually looked upon 

 and worshipped as divine beings. They were, as most of the 

 trees just mentioned, consecrated to some of the greater gods 

 or goddesses or regarded as the medium of their action. But 

 the Greek plant-cult was certainly older than the Olympian 

 deities, and behind the religious veneration that the classical 

 Hellenes showed towards certain remarkable trees we can easi- 

 ly discover an earlier animistic belief in actual tree-gods. 

 There was, no doubt, a time when the Greeks addressed the 



1) Schol. So2)h. Irach. 1169: j/toi ^oXXä uavievoaévi];, xal öiä tovzo 

 TtoXXä (pS-eyyoiiévijs, rj tfjs öiacfÖQOLS öiaXéyitois ;f()j;a/icoöoi;(Tr;?, xal ffjv éxd- 

 arov räv ixavrevofiévojv yXwaoav. 



^) Hesiod. Fragm. 134, 8. Cf. Horn. Od. XIV, 327 = XIX, 296: ÖcpQa 

 &eolo £K ÖQvos -bilKXufioio Jiöi ^ovX-ffv énaxovari .... 



^) Soph. Trach. 171: ås rr/v siaXaiav (f.n^yöv avör/oat, store Jcoövjvi öia- 

 a&v éx neXeiåöcov tcpT}. Cf. Hom. Od. XIV, 327. Philostr. Imag. II, 33, \:'H 

 (ihv XQ^"V ^éXeta ér éi^tl Tf]s öqvös év Xoyiotg t) aoqji) xul xQV^Jfiolg, ovg éx 

 dibs åvatp&éyyeiai . . . 



*) Verg. Georg. II, 291. Serv. ad. Verg. Aen. IV, 446. Plin. Hist nat. 

 XVI, 55. Serv. ad Verg. ^67^.111,466: . . . ubi .Jovi et Veneri templiim a veteri- 

 bus fuerat consecratum. Circa hoc templura (iuercus inimanis fuisse dicitur^ 

 ex ciijns radicibus foas manabat, qiii suo niurmure instinetu deorum diversis 

 oracula reddebat." 



