34 Eafael Karsten. [N:o 1 



found at Oropioi near the temple of Amphiaiaos. The people 

 did not sacrifice to it nor use its water for purification; bufc 

 custom prescribed that when a man had been healed in con- 

 sequence of an oracle vouchsafed to him, he had to dröp sil- 

 ver and gold coins into the spring, it being the place where 

 Amphiaraos rose as a god ^). If in most cases the wonderful 

 efiects ascribed to certain wells can be easily traced back to 

 their nat^^ral causes, this is more difficult with the Athama- 

 nian well in Epirus round which a sanctuary was built to the 

 nymphs. This spring had a miraculous water which, although 

 being quite cold, made everj^thing that was held över it warm ; 

 if any one held a twig or something of that nature över it 

 it took fire ^). 



Among most savage and barbaric peoples in modern and 

 ancient times the belief occurs that as with all natural pheno- 

 mena so also the winds, especially when they grow into 

 furious hurricanes and tempests, are caused by, or rather are 

 themselves, powerful demons ^). The ancients Greeks largely 

 shared this belief and, moroever, the winds were not, as at first 

 sight might be expected, considered as bright heaven- or air- 

 gods but — at least in many cases — as direful chtonic beings. 



That the winds „come from the earth" {aTiöyeta rcvev- 

 fiara, ånoyeiai avqai) *) was a view often expressed in the works 

 of philosophers and poets, being a survival of an earlier po- 

 pulär belief. It is a Greek as well as a Roman idea which 

 Virgil expresses in his description of the king of the winds^ 

 Aiolus, who keeps his refractory subjets shut up in dark subter- 

 ranean caves lest in their fury thej* should sweep away lands 

 and seas in their hurricane-flight ^). The same idea of the na- 



') Paus. I, 34, 4, 

 ') Antig. Hist. niirnb. c. 163. 



*) See Tylor, Primitive Culhire, II. p. 241—3, Frazer, The Golden 

 Bough, I, 119 sqq. 



*) Theophr. De ventis, c. 24. Strabo, I, 3, 8. 

 ») Verg. Aen. I, 52 : 



— — — „hic vasto rex Aeolus antro 



luctantis ventos tempestatesque senoras 



imperio preuiit ac vinclis et caroerc frenet. 



Illi iadignantes magno cum murmure raontis 



