24 Rafael Karsten. [N:o 1 



upon him for this sin ^), The ellops, an extremely uncom- 

 mon iish, is said to have been venerated in some parts of 

 Greece ^) in others a sea-lish called anthias ^). In the foun- 

 tain of Arethuse in Syracuse the eels were held especially sa- 

 cred and inviolate *). At Troezen it was of old unlawful to 

 catch the sacred octopus, the nautilus and the sea-tortoise ^). 

 The lobster was generally esteemed sacred by the Greeks and 

 was not eaten by them. If the people of Seriphos caught a 

 lobster in their nets they put it back into the sea; if they 

 found a dead one, they buried it and raourned över it as över 

 one of themselves ^). 



As to other smaller animals, we may note the religions 

 veneration which was sometimes paid to mice. At certain 

 times these rodents seem to have been a real scourge to the 

 Greek country, increasing in enormous numbers and laying 

 waste the fields. Aristotle mentions with wonder how incre- 

 dibly often and abundantly the mice and especially the field- 

 mice, breed, owing to which fact they have sometimes wrought 

 dreadful damage '^). Ou the island Gyaros, one of the Cycla- 

 des, the mice are reported once to have expelled the people 

 and to have even gnawed iron ^). Probably as a protector 

 against such ravaging field-mice Apollo was called by the apel- 

 lation ^fitvS^evg, just as the a/uvd^eta was perhaps a feast cele- 

 brated in memory of these tormentors being destroyed ^). But 

 we find it intelligible enough that these animals themselves 

 were in some parts of Greece looked upon as endowed with 

 supernatural power and as possessing other wonderful facul- 

 ties. Mice were prophets who were able to foretell even the 

 future of whole states ^"). When a house was going to break 



') Aelian. De nat. anim. XV, 23. 

 *) Athen. VIII, 28. 

 ^) Athen. loc. dt. 



*) Diod. Sic. V, 3, 5. Plut. De soll. anim. c. 23. 

 ') Athen. VII, p. 317. 

 *) Aelian. De nat. anim. XIII, 26. 



') Arist. Hist. anim. VI, 37. See also Plin. Eist. nat. X, 65, 85. 

 «) Plin. op. cit. VIII, 82. 



^) Rosoher, Studien zur vergleichenden Mythologie der Griechen u. Rö- 

 mer, I, p. 53 sqq. 



»») Plin. op. cit. VIII, 56, 82. 



