XLIX] Studies in primitive Greek religion. 63 



as angry and revengeful beings doiug harm to people in many 

 ways ^). In other cases also these mysterious powers were 

 sometimes looked upon as the origin of disease, madness, and 

 other ills ^) and we are expressly told that as objects of 

 worship they were put on the same level with the gods proper ^). 

 With the tragedians the departed are often called gods 

 of the underworld, holy and blessed divine beings *) and 

 addressed as such. In the Persai of Aeschylus the dead 

 Dareius is invoked by the Persians as a being possessing higher 

 insight and power than mortals ^). lo the Choephoroi Elec- 

 tra addresses the spirit of her father as a divine being be- 

 seeching him to grant her prayers and receive her libations ®) ; 

 and låter on Orestes and Electra approach his tomb as snpp- 

 liants vowing him the customary sacrifices and invoking his 

 aid in their mission of vengeance '). Euripides puts into the 

 mouth of the same avenger the following prayer: „Thou, too^ 

 my father, sent to the land of shades by wicked hands, up 



') nituoTQojtaioL and äoaioL, Aeseh. Choeph. 287. Plato, Legg. IX, 8, 

 p. 865. Antiphon, Ay, 10. Soph. Trach. 1201. Eurip. Iphig. Taur. 766. Med. 

 608. ^laiod^åvaroi and åwQoi, Kohde Psyche, II, 412. Cf. Roiide's chapter 

 on 'Eleinente des Seelenglaubens in Blutrache und Mordsiihne', I, p. 259 sqq. 



*) Diseases sometimes originate from the anger of ancient generations 

 staXatojv éy in]vindT(ov (Plato, Phaedr. p. 244). Cf. Lobeck, Aglaophanms, pp. 

 635 — 7. Madness is voaeTv b' åXaaTÖQcov (Soph. Trach. 1235), or a xåQaypa 

 Tagzägeiov (Eurip. Herc. Fur. 907). Cf. Aesch. Choeph. 283 . . . rö yuQ axo- 

 reivuv Tmv évsQTéQcov ^éXog éx ^noaiQonaicav év yévei TienTwxöxmv etc. Cf 

 Hesych. s. v. ycQELxTOVES. Philostr. De Tyan. Apoll. III, 38. Josephus, De 

 hello Jnd. VII, 6, 3. Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 1490. Athen. XI, 461 C. 



*) Aristoph. Tngenist. fragm. 1, 12: xai d^vopitv aév yavTolot roZg éva- 



yiaaaai waneQ ^eoiat. Cf. August. De civit. Dei, VIII. 26: „in omnibus 



literis paganorum aut non inveniri aut vix inveniri deos qui non homines 

 fuerint, omnibus tamen honores studeant exhibere divinos, quasi nihil umquam 

 humani habuerint. Eece dixit mortuun coli pro deo in eo loco ubi habebat 

 sepulchrum". Cicero, De legihus II, 22 (on the Roman Di månes). See also 

 Rohde, Psyche, I, pp. 149, 150. 



*) Cf. Aesch. Choeph. 474: fiå-xaQsi ;f9'oi.'tot. Ibid. 125: rovs yfjs tvsQ&e 

 baipovas. Soph. Antig. 450: /) t^vvoLXOi xä>v xärco y^eöjv dixij, Aesch. Pers. 

 628 : j^ddriot öaiiiovsg åyvoC. Ibid. 622: vfQxtQOt &eoL Cf. Aristoteles ap. Plut. 

 Consol. ad Apoll. c. 27. 



») Aesch. Pers. 620. 



') Aesch. Choeph. 124 sqq 



') Ibid. 474 sqq. 



