XLIX] Studies in primitive Grcek religion. 31 



his sweet water •). That these injunctions of Hesiod were ob- 

 served by the Greeks throughout the whole of Aatiquity may 

 be inferred from several instances of worship being given to 

 rivers and streams. Cleomenes during the Persian war not 

 only sacrificed to the sea but also found it necessary to pro- 

 pitiate with ofFerings the river Erasinos which he had occa- 

 sion to cross. Erasinos is a rapid river in Argolis, issuing 

 from the lake Stymphalis, the waters of which empty themselves 

 with great noise into a pitch-dark chasrn^). Iq Macedonia 

 there was a river Erigon, to which at the time when Hero- 

 dotas wrote the descendauts of the Argives used to offer sacri- 

 fices „as to a Saver". During the Persian war the ancestors 

 of these Argives had escaped their enemies because the river 

 became so swoilen immediately after they had crossed it that 

 their enemies tound it impossible to follow them^). In Asia 

 Minor the river Strymon was worshipped at least by the Per- 

 sian Magi, who used to sacrifice white horses to it in order 

 to make the stream propitious *) ; but there is reason to be- 

 lieve that the river was held sacred by the Grreeks as well ^). 

 Pausanias mentious some other rivers to which divine honours 

 were paid: the Nedas, for example, flowing down from the 

 Mount Cerausius in honour of which the Phigalian boys used 

 to shear their hair®); and the Pamisus in Messenia to which, 

 according to a custom introduced by Sybotas, the kiug had 

 to sacrifice every year ''). At the river Cephisus he found a 

 votive offering representing the son of Mnesimache shearing 

 his hair in honour of the river-god ^). Pausauias is, no doubt. 



•) Hesiod. Op. et Dies, 737 sqq.: 



Mtjöé ^oif åEvåwv JiorapLiiöv KaXktoQOOv vbcoQ 

 nöaai negäv xqXv yev^r/ löcbv és xa?M ^iexQU, 

 XeiQa? VLipåaevos noXvi^Qåxco vöari Xevy.cö. 

 "O? Ttoraiiöv öia^TJ, xaxönjTt dt X^^Q^S åviJtroi, 

 rep be &eot vefieacjai yal äXyta dwxav unioaw. 



-) Herod. VI, 76. 



») Ibid. VIII, 138. 



«) Ibid. VII, 113. 



') Aesch. Pers. 494: qéexqov åyvov Itqv^wvo;. Aesch. Snj)pl. 255. 



«) Paus. VIII, 41, 3. 



■) Ibid. IV, 3, 10. 



«) Ibid. I, 37, 3. 



