30 Rafael Karsten. [N:o 1 



river-god Scamandros. In human shape Scamandros rises from 

 his waves to reproach the böld hero wlio not only chokes the 

 river-god's stream with dead bnt also dåres to address him 

 with insulting words'). Even the primitive rites retain their 

 place in the worship given tho these deities. Scamandros has 

 its own priests ^) and is worshipped by the Tröjans with 

 sacrifices of bulls and horses which are driven alive into its 

 eddies^). Of Spercheios we are informed that old Peleus, the 

 father of Achilles, had vowed to shear the hair of his son in 

 honour of the river if he would return safe from Troy, and, 

 moreover, to make a sacrifice of fifty sheep into its source 

 as a thank-offering *). Acheloos, the greatest river in Greece, 

 which flowed rapidly down from mount Lacmon, was both 

 in older and låter times worshipped throughont the whole 

 country and appealed to when oaths were taken ^). 



When Od3\sseus makes his way up one of the rivers of 

 Phaeacia, he first prays the river to have pity on him, the 

 result being that the river at once checks his stream, smooths 

 his billows, and makes an easy passage for the wearied hero 

 to a soft couch on the shore ^). The same hero, after long 

 battling with misfortune having at last reached his native island, 

 and making his way över it, first venerates the river nymphs 

 of the district promising them offe rings ''). 



One of the benevolent pieces of advice Hesiod gives his 

 hearers in his Worls and Days is never to cross a stream 

 before washing one's hands and praying, looking earnestl}' at 

 the stream. He seems to have considered some apology ne- 

 cessary for taking such a liberty with a deity and for soiling 



1) Horn. Il XXI, 1. 



2) Ibid. V, 77. 



«) Ibid. XXI, 130 sqq. Cf. Eustath. ad Horn. II. XXI, 131. 



*) Horn. II. XXIII, 141 sqq. Cf. Eustath. ad Horn. II. XXIII, 148. 



«) Horn. 11. XXI, 194. Plato, Phaedr. 230, 263. Paus. I, 34, 3. Cf 

 Roscher, Lexikon, s. v. Acheloos. — Even the river Alpheios was by the Ho- 

 meric Greeks honoured with bull-sacrifices. Cf. Hom. II. XI, 728: ravgov 

 d' 'AXcpeim, ravgov öl IIoaeibå(ovL. 



«) Hom. Od. V, 445 sqq. 



-•) Ibid. XIII, 356 sqq. 



