Chapter III. 



The Supernatural in relation to man: possession, inspira- 

 tion ; daemons causing disease and misfortune. 



In dealing witli the hypochtonic deities we have found 

 that the primitive Greeks were readj^ to infer the existence of in- 

 visible divine beings also merely from their supposed actions, i. e. 

 from remarkable occarrences which they could not explain in 

 a natural way and, therefore, ascribed to some hidden super- 

 natural operation. This side of Greek religion we shall exa- 

 mine more closely in the present chapter and, moreover, we 

 shall study the invisible effects of the Supernatural not in 

 the phenomena of the external world but in man himself 

 What is stränge and mysterious strikes uncivilised man 

 wherever he meets it, and more especially perhaps when 

 he meets with it in himself or in one of his equals, and 

 the more the phenomenon in question seems to interfere with 

 his practical life, the more he finds it necessary to form a 

 theory about its true nature. AVe find plenty of applications of 

 this general rule among primitive Greeks. Ever}- abnormal 

 condition of body or mind, violent passions and emotions, 

 madness, the delirium and hallucinations of the sick and of 

 intoxicated persons, epileptic fits. indeed all kinds of disease, 

 all unexpected sufiPering, evils or misfortunes, were by them, 

 as by most uncivilised peoples, ascribed to supernatural in- 

 fluence, 



We do not know with certainty what was the earliest 

 word the Greeks used to signify the Supernatural or Divine. 

 But there is some gro and for believing that of the two words 

 for god we know, ^foc and dalbon' or åaiiiöriog the latter ex- 

 presses a more primitive idea, bemg, as we have seen used 

 to denote, not a personal god, but a divine being in general. 



