XLIX] .Studies in primitive Greek relig^ion. 73 



cian Diouysos-cult and that it was enlirely foreigii to earlier 

 ;iges and especiall}'' to Homer *). The very etymology of tbe word 

 ^tarT<c(undoubtedly derived from i^iaivof.ia() which. occurs also in 

 Homer ''^) indicates that since earliest times the diviner was a man 

 who in a state of temporary madness or ecstasy revealed fu- 

 ture events. The belief in inspiration or „ekstasis", although 

 particularlj^ developed in the enthusiastic cult of the Thracian 

 Dionysos, in fact cannot have been whoUy unknown to the 

 primitive Greeks as it is almost universall}'' met with among 

 the lower races of mankind at large. 



The presence of the Divine in man does not always reveal 

 itself in supernatural power but perhaps more often in super- 

 natural knowledge. The art of förete] ling future events which 

 is ascribed to certain persons, when in an ecstatic state of 

 miud, is due to a temporary incarnation by a deity, to the snp- 

 posed fact that a divine impersonal spirit has taken possession 

 of such persons and speaks through them, this possession manitest- 

 ing itself in convulsive shiverings of the whole bod}', in wild gest- 

 ures and excited looks, in broken words and ejaculations^). Plu- 

 tarch gives us as it were a scientific explanation of the mantic 

 power. which is supposed to be inherent in a „phantastic" state 

 of mind as in intoxication through wine and in madness. The 

 spirit of divination, he says, is in the highest degree divine 

 and sacred, whether it be received through the air or through 

 the water of the spring. Mingled with the bod}- it gets amal- 

 gamated with the soul in an extraordinary way, making man 

 phantastic, and revealing to him the future, just as wine by 

 which man is intoxicated reveals many hidden and forgotteu 

 thoughts*). Plato likewise discusses the prophetic madness which 



1) Kohde, Psyclie, II, p. 20. Sirailarly Stengel, op. dt. p. 63. 



-) So, for instance, 11. I, 62, 106. XIII, 663. Oä. XVII, 384. 



3) Cf. Frazer, The Golden Bough, I, pp. 130, 131. Tylor, Primitive 

 Cultiire. II, pp. 113, 114. 



*) Plut. De def. orac. c. 40, p. 432 : tö öe aavTLXÖv (levua v.ai jivevpia 

 ^eiöraTÖv éoTi xat öaidnarov, av rt y.aff tavro öi åégo; civ re ued-' vygov 

 våf.iaTOi åraq:é()i]raL. xarafiiyvviievoi yuQ eis to adifia xgäaiv éunoiel rali 

 ipvxals åi]d^i] ytai åronov . . . &E(jfiÖTi]Ti yå{» xai öiaxvaa nÖQOvi riva? avoi- 

 ysLV (favraaTLHoas tov [xéXXovTog elxöi éanv, ég olvoi åva&vpLia&els trsQa 

 3to).}.ä mvi^piara xal Xöyovi ånoxtifitvovg xal ?MV&åvovTai ånoy.aXvjiTei. Cf. 

 Plut. Amatör, c. 16. 



