76 Rafael Karsten. [N:o 1 



detail and distinguishes two maiu kinds: one produced by 

 human iniirmity; the other, called .,divine madness", is 

 due to „divine transformation of the usual conditions" ^). Di- 

 vine madness, again, is divided into four kinds: prophetic, 

 initiatory, poetic, and erotic ^). That according to the ori- 

 ginal Grreek idea the divine nature of madness consisted 

 in the very fact of the insane person being „possessed" by 

 a supernatural being {evS^eog, xareyö}ievo';)^) "who caused 

 him to go out of his miud is a matter beyond doubt. In 

 historic times, after the rise of polytheism, mental distur- 

 bances were, of course, especially attributed to some of the 

 known gods, as, for iustance, to Pan, and Hecate *), and above 

 all to Dionysos, who from being the god of wine and of its 

 narcotic spirit easily became the god of every mental excite- 

 ment. In Euripides' Bacchai especiall}^ we are taught that 

 „madness comes from Dionysos' ^). From the tragedians we 

 also gather that in many cases madness was caused by the 

 direful avenging demons the Erinyes ^), who probably were in 

 their nature nothing but personifications of curses, to which 

 according to primitive ideas a magical power is attached '^). 

 To Orestes, for example, these Erinyes appeared in their whole 

 terrible shape, afflicting him with the „disease of madness" 

 and agitating at once his body and mind. 



In the course of religions evolution the primitive 

 idea of a possessing deity naturally became modified and 



') Plato, Phaedr. p. 265: . . . vjtö Q^tias é^aXXayTii zow eiw&ÖTojv vo- 

 filucov yiyvo[iévi]v. 



^) Plato, loc. dt. 



*) Plato, Menon. p. 99: xareyöa^voi éx rov &eov. Xeuoph. Symp. I, 

 10: xaTexö/J-svog masteQ al ^åx/ai. Plato, lon p. 534: tvd^eog ts yiyverai xat 

 ixcpQcov xal 6 vovs ovx fVt tv avroi kredTtv. Soph. Ant. 963. Eurip. Hipp. 

 141. Schol. Eurip). Hipp. 144: tv&toi Xéyovrai ol vjiö (påafiarus Ttvoi åcpai- 

 Qfd^évres TÖv vovi\ xal vjt éxeivov rov i^eov rov (paauaroKoiov xaxexöutvoi 

 xai. rå öoxouvra éxeivm utotovvctq. 



*,, Cf. Eurip. Hipp. 141: av yaQ tv&eoi, co xovga, d r éx Ilavöi et^' 

 ' Exåras rj aeuvtöv EoQv^åvTcov, ?)' MaxQÖi ÖQeiag (pottas etc. 



^) Eurip. Bacch. 305 : fiavia öe xal tovt^ éari Jiovvoov nåQa etc. 



«) Aesch. Choeph. 283 sqq. Eurip. Orest. 43, 400, 791, 835. Iphig. 

 Tam: 281 sqq., 1456. 



■') Westermarck, Magic and Social Relations, in Sociologicol PaperSf 

 vol. II, p. 147. The Origin and Developnent of Morcd Ideas, 1, p. 60. 



