38 Eafael Karsten. [N:o 1 



llissus and continued to propitiate this power ^). In honour 

 of the same wind-god they held a festival, called BoQeaai^iog 

 at whicb banquets were offered to him ^). In an Attic 

 sacrificial calender is was pre.scribed that a cake should be of- 

 fered to the winds in the mouth of Poseideon ^). That the Athe- 

 nians especially seem to have been zealous wind-worshippers 

 has its natural explanation in the fact that theirs was a ma- 

 ritime state and hence peculiarly dependent upon the good- 

 will of these powers. 



The violent and cold north wind was on the whole most 

 frequently worshipped by the Greeks. Thus we read that the 

 people of Thurioi in Sicily offered sacrifices to this wind, when 

 Dionysius of Syracnse approached their town at the head of 

 a great fleet, with the result that a north wind wrecked and 

 destroyed his ships. On account of this happy incident the 

 Thuriians established a regular cult of their supernatural ally, 

 voted him citizenship, assigned him a house and lands, and 

 offered sacrifices to bim every year *). Similarly, when the 

 Ten Thousand had waded through the Eaphrates' waistdeep 

 and were marching through the deep snow with a freezing 

 north wind blowing in their teeth, one of the diviners ad- 

 vised that a sacrifice should be offered to this wind. This 

 being done, its violence perceptibly abated ^). 



How powerful the wind-gods seemed to the G-reeks is 

 shown by the valuable sacrifices with which they were propi- 

 tiated. We not only hear of animal-sacrifices such as asses, 

 which the people of Tarentum kept and slew in honour 

 of the winds on certain occasions, ^) or horses, which the 



1) Herod. VII, 178, 189. Aelian. Var. hist XII, 61. Cf. Plato, Phaedr. 

 229. Paus. I, 19, 6. VIII, 27, 9. 

 ^) Hesych. s. v. Bogeaafiol. 

 '') CIG n. 523: 



HoaeLÖeiövos i]' iai}afiévov :TcoJtavov 



XOiVLKLoiov bcobeyi6v(faXov xa&i]U£fvov 



IIooEibijjvL ;faf<at^7/A(u vi)(påXiOv. &[l 



åvé[iOL5 Tiönavov xoi-VLXLalov oq&öv- 



(paXov öcoöexövcpaXov iniCfjåXiov. 

 ■*) Aelian. Var. hist. XII, 61. 

 *) Xen. Anab. IV, 5, 4. 

 *) Hesych. s. v. åvetiwTas. 



