XLIXj Studies in primitive Greek religion. 65 



seem to have been credited with a considerable power of in- 

 flaencing mundan and human affairs. Thus both Herodotus ^) 

 and Thucydides 2) often mention the heroes in connection wiih 

 the gods as controllers of events. In låter times, of course, heroes, 

 like daemons, were degraded to an intermediate position be- 

 tween gods and men^); but as local patron deities they held 

 their place in the populär religion. Down to the age of Pau- 

 sanias almost every Greek town seems to have had its local 

 hero who still stood in close relationship with his people 

 iniluencing its welfare, and who was propitiated and wor- 

 shipped as a hypochtonic power with ancient rites *). 



In fine, there can be no doubt that the spirits of the dead 

 lormed an important class of the divine beings which were 

 the objects of Greek religions belief. Nor can it be doubted 

 that the worship of the dead goes back to very ancient times. 

 There is no reason to assume, that among the Greeks the 

 rude belief in fetishes formes an earlier stratum of thought 

 than the cnlt of ancestors ^). This at least cannot be de- 

 monstrated; the cult of the dead is met with even among 

 tribes stauding at the lowest stages of human civilisation. But 

 it is not necessary therefore to jump to the conclusion that 

 every divine cult has grown out of the worship of ancestors. 

 The theory that all gods were originally deified human souls 

 was set forth by Herbert Spencer with regard to religions 

 evolution among mankind at large and even in connection 

 with classical peoples the old doctrine of Euemeros has had 

 eloquent advocates. Years ago Fustel de Coalange in his ce- 

 lebrated work Cité antique undertook to show that among the 

 Greeks and the Romans religions sentiment originated in the 



') Herod. II, 45: Ilagä tiöv i^etor xai yta<)u twv i)Q(b(DV evuevsiif eu). 

 Ibid. VIII, 109 : Tade yå(j ovx /'laeis xarei/yaadueO^a, åkka d-eoi te xai yjQcoei. 



^) rhucyd. II, 74, 2 : O^toi oooi yfjv tt)i' nXarauöa txete xal i]QO}ei, 

 ^vviaxoQES tärt. Ibid. IV, 87, 2 : ud{nvQas Q^eovs xat rJQcoai éyxcoQiovg jtoh/- 

 aouat. Ibid. V, 30, 2. Cf. Eoscher"s Lexikon, pp. 244—8. 



^) Eustat. ad Horn. II. I, 4. Schol. Eurip. Ber. 164. 



*) Paus. II, 10, 1. II, 11, 7. III, 1, 8. III, 19, 3. IV, 32, 3. VII, 

 17, 8, VII, 19, 10, VII, 20, 9. VIII, 14, 9, VIII, 41, 1. IX, 5, 14, IX, 18 

 3, IX, 38, 5. X, 41, 10, X, 24, 6. 



°) Kem, An f ange der hellenischen Eeligion, p. 9. 



