XLIX] Studies in priiuitive Greek religiou. 57 



I think, due to the very fact that they were for one reason 

 or other looked upon as places which lead down to the un- 

 derworld and where, therefore, the invisible inhabitants of 

 that world were in. hiding. There is a passage in Plato's 

 Phaedo where this is exphcitly stated. „The way to the 



other Avorld", says Plato here, „is not a single and 



strait path; if that were so no guide would be needed, for no 

 oue coald miss it; but there are mauy partings of the road 

 and windings, as I infer from the rites and sacrifices which 

 are offered to the gods below at such places" ^). There is no 

 reason to assume that this was only an incidental view or 

 a view peculiar to Plato. The ceremonies which, for instance, 

 the ancient Indians 2) and Teutons^) used to perform at cross- 

 roads give us to understand that they were looked upon not 

 merely as haunted by spirits but also as places where on 

 could get rid of some unclean matter or evil things in ge- 

 neral. Thus among the Greeks they seem to have been used 

 as real gully-holes, as places where all sorts of wastes were 

 thrown awaj^ in order to be „swallowed up" bj^ earth *). When 

 the house had been purified the remains of the purificatory 

 sacrifices and the filth (ö'iv^vf.iia, xabaQi^iara, å7ioXvf.iaTa) ^) 

 were carried away to the crossroads, not as offerings to the 

 ghosts ^), but in order that these daugerous and abominable 



1) Plato, Phaedon. p. 108. 



'^) Oldenberg, Religion des Veda, pp. 268, n. 1; 497 etc. 



*) Wuttke, Deutsche Volksnberglnuhe, pp. 34:5, 461, etc. 



*) Cf. Aesch. Choeph. 97: . . . räö" éycxtaoa yå^orov yj'^i-i' cndyca, y.adåQnad' 

 é's TIS i^néfiipag nåXiv dmovaa revxoi åoxQÖcpoLOiv öfififiuotv; . . . 



•') Schol. Aesch Choeph. 93: atelym, 7ia&dQiia&' cos ris éxnéuxpas- rovro 

 Tinös TÖ jiao ' J&i]i'ai.OLg £&os, or i ica&aiQOvres oiitlav öoTQa-xlvcp &vniaari]QLCp 

 (ni}mi'Tts h' Talg TQLÖöoig tö ontQUiCov uutraoxQeKTel åveyjbQOvv. 



Photius, Lexicon, s. v. u^vdvuia- .... ö^v&vuia Tåxa&åQuaraXtyeaBaL 

 •Aal ånoXvuara. zavra yuQ å.nocpiQea&at sig råg TQLÖöovg, orav ti)v orAiav 

 ■Aa&aiQcoai. Cf. ibid. å^v&vuta. Eupolis, Dem. c. 87. 



*) Prof. Rohde c.onipletelj' misunderstands the custom when he declares 

 that these ya&dofiaTa were offered to spiritual powers as propitiatory sacrifices 

 and that they were identical with the offering-s to the ghosts of the dead 

 and with the „Hecate-meals" (Psyche, II, p. 79). It would really be a stränge 

 way of placating angry spirits to offer them mere filth and refuses, things 

 the worthlessness of which had almost become proverbial. (Cf. Pollux, Onomast. 



