58 Rafael Karsten. [N:o 1 



things might be taken down under the grouud from the sight 

 of men. 



Whether tbis conception the of crossroads was itself due to 

 the fact, that such places appeared as centres or „ navels" and 

 hence by some association of ideas as ways down to the bowels of 

 the earth, or whether it was due to some other considerations, 

 we shall not consider here. But the view itself is of some 

 importance because it throws an interesting light upon a pe- 

 culiar and probably wery old Greek cult, the cult of Hecate. 

 There are some grounds for believing that the moon as a 

 heavenly body and „light-bringer" had attracted the attention 

 of the Indo-European peoples at a very early period and even 

 played a certain part in their religion. But of far greater 

 importance, at least in Greek religion, was that phase of moon- 

 worship which we learn to know in the worship of '^Exåtrj 

 évööia and igiodhrjg. That also at roads and crossroads the 

 moon was worshipped less as a (fvoacpÖQog or light-god who 

 guided the nocturnal wanderer than as a hypochtonic deity, 

 is a fact that has not been fully realised by students of her 

 cult 1). 



It is in itself a natural association of ideas that the moon, 

 which seems to shun the daylight and appears only in the 

 night, became connected with the darkness and hence regarded 

 as an underworld-deity. This idea probably occurred quite 

 early to the Greek mind. The doctrines of the earliest natural 

 philosophers whose astronomical views were, of course, closely 



V, 163: TöJv év ralg TQiööoti yta^aQuårmv in^hjTureQog ... el ök xa& 'Hgdx- 

 ketrov Xéyeiv, r&v ö^v&vfiiwv åziuÖTEQOs). Rohde is not able to explain sa- 

 tisfactorily tbe relation between tbe ,,expiatory" sacrifices witb which the 

 houses were purified and the u^v9v[iia, ita&åQuara, or ånoXvf^iara which were 

 thrown away on the crossroads. Even the etymology he gives of the word 

 u^v&vfiia is highly doubtful. According to him the principal part in the 

 word is i^vfiug, mind, the aim of these offerings being to appease the anger 

 {ö^vv d^vuöv) of the ghosts (Op. cit. I, p. 276, note). The main word is 

 probably &vu.os = „wild thynie", a plant from whose stalks and leaves the 

 fire was made with which the remains of the purificatory sacrifices were burnt. 

 ^) Thus Dr. Steudling seems to be of the opinion that Hecate is wor- 

 shipped at crossroads merely as a friendly heavenly deity, as a cpcoacpÖQOs who 

 lighls up the roads and shows the wanderer the way. Hecate as a chtonic 

 deity is to him a „jiingere Auffassung" and treated of in an other connection. 



