42 Rafael Karsten. [N:o 1 



always with hesitation and dread that the Romans passed 

 from their own land to that of strangers which was supposed 

 to be haunted by unknown spirits, in sympathy with or under 

 the control of enemies ^). For the Glreeks, wheu occupying a 

 foreign land by conquest or colonisation, the first thing to 

 be done was to make a réfievog, to 'cut off" a portion of the 

 land to be the sacred abode of the invisible powers who 

 haanted the district and who perhaps had been disturbed 

 by the intraders. These temenoi were probably not arbitrarily 

 chosen. Sometimes they seem to have been consecrated to 

 the spirits of departed men, as, for instance, in the case of 

 the iemenos of Protesilaus at Elaious in Cherronesus 2), and 

 that of Proteus at Meraphis in Egypt which Herodotus found 

 „beaatiful and well fitted out" ^), or the holy preciuct of the 

 Erinyes at Colonoi the direful inhabitants of which the old 

 King Oidipous called on as witnesses when he pronounced bis 

 curse upon his son Polyneikes *). 



Otlier supernatural beings, however, were more often hon- 

 oured in this way at places which in some striking way difiPered 

 from the surrounding country. Such a place seems to have 

 been, for instance, the region around the town Buto in Egypt 

 near that mouth of the Nile which was called Sebennyticos, 

 where Herodotus found so many temples raised by Glreek 

 colonists and saw so many wonderful things ^). What asto- 

 nished him most after the temple of Leto was the stränge 

 swimming island Ximmis which contained a temenos of ApoWo 

 and seems to have been an important centre of religions wor- 

 ship ^). — From Homer we know that Athene had a sacred 

 precinct on the top of the holy mount Ida, „abounding in 

 springs" '). We can also understand why the river Spercheios 



^) Granger, Worshij) of the Bomans, p. 161. 



2) Herod. IX, 116. 



=>) Ibid. II, 112. 



*) Soph. Old. Gol. 1391: xaAw öå xåcfbe öaiaovai (the daemoaä of 

 this places). Cf. ibid. 864. Cf. also Paus. VI. 6, 8, 



«) Herod. II, 155-6. 



") Herod. II, 156. 



') Hom. 11. VIII, 48: ''löijv ixavev noXvMldaxa tvd^a öe ol réaevos 

 ^wfiös re di;7^£ti. Cf ibid. II, 696. Od. VIII, 363. 



