54 Rafael Karsteu. [N:n 1 



évocftyatog, évvoatSac, eXeXtxd^cov, aetaiy^d^wv) ^) give us to under- 

 stand that this deity was created by Hellenic imagination 

 under the influence of the anxiety fel t during violent earth- 

 quakes. We come across the notion of Poseidon as an earth- 

 shaker especially in Homer. In the vivid description of a 

 cataclysm which we find, for instance, in the 20"^ song of the 

 Iliad we cannot fail to recognise a primitive mythology of 

 the same kind as is met with among other barbario peoples 

 who have had experience of similar natural phenomena. Whe- 

 reas from the upper air father Zeus sends his dreadful thun- 

 der and lightning, Poseidon below shakes the immense earth, 

 the foundations as well as the tops of the sacred mount Ida, 

 the Troyan town and the Achaian ships; and the king of the 

 nether regions, Aidoneus, stricken with terror rushes up from 

 his throne fearing lest the earth-shaker should break the ground, 

 and exposé his horrid dwellings to men 2). 



We find the same primitive view in poetical guise again 

 in Hesiod's description of the dreadful monster Typhon, whom 

 Zeus threw down from heaven into the depths of the volcanic 

 mount Aetna where he now lies blowing up enormous masses 

 of lava and smoke ^). 



Poseidon, as the author of earthquakes, was, of course, 

 first of all worshipped at places which were especially exposed 

 to visitations of this kind. Such a place seems to have been 

 for instance Sparta. Thus Xenophon relätes that during an 

 earthquake which took place in this town at the time of Age- 

 sipolis the whole people sang a paean to Poseidon åa(pdXcog^). 

 Similarly, on a certain occasion the Lacedaemonians having 

 treacherously expelled the Tan arian ser vants of Helot extrac- 

 tion, Poseidon in his anger brought about an earthquake at 

 Sparta, which left only five houses standing ^). The town had 



1) Cf. Hyin. Hom. XXII, 2 : yai)]; >etvi]TfjQa xal åxQvyéiOLO ^aXåaarjs- 

 Aristoph. Nub. 506: töv fieyaa&évi), tgMLV-qg rafiiav, ynjs re xal, åXfivgäi 

 &aXåoai]s äygiov [ioxXtvTi]v. Pind. 01. IV 19: mvi-ixi)q yås. Soph. Trach. 602. 

 TivåxxcoQ yaiag. — Cf. Preller-Robert. Griechische Mythologie, I, p. 584. 



*) Hom. 11. XX, 56 sqq. 



8) Hesiod. Theog. 857 sqq. 



*) Xenoph. Hell. IV, 7, 4. 



*) Aelian. Var. hist. VI, 7. 



