X LIX] Studies in primitive Greek religion. 83 



prayers and ofiferings, tries to release the patient from the po- 

 wer of the obsessing or possessing demon. We have reason to 

 assume that similar practices were quite common among the 

 Greeks even in classical times. The very verb qaQf.idaaeiv, „to 

 cure", seems originally to have had the general meaning „to use an 

 artful means" and especially „to use a charm", „to bewitch" and 

 likewise the (fdgfiaxog did not originallj'^ mean a natural medi- 

 cine but a magical charm or spell. Moreover, words such as 

 laroQOfAdvTig, åyvgrrjc, xad^dQTTjc, give us to iinderstand that all 

 sorts of sorcerers and „medicine-men" who practiced their art 

 of healing, or contrariwise of causing, different ills by magical 

 means (iJiayYav€vf.iaTa, S7io)åac, xaradéaEig, and so forth) may 

 have played rather an important part in ancient Greek society. 

 This assumptioD is confirmed by various statements in clas- 

 sical writers, Thus Pindar tells us about ills that were cured 

 by „soft enchantments or spells, by mild potions, or by (fdg- 

 f^iaxa that were applied to the suffering limbs" ^). According 

 to Plutarch the Spartan king Cleomenes, when overtaken by a 

 lengthy disease, had recourse to xai)^dq%at and fxdvTeii;'^). Plato, 

 in his Charmides, informs us how headache could be cured. 

 „There was a kind of leaf", he says, „which required to be 

 accompanied by a charm; and if a person would repeat the 

 charm at the same time he used this (fdQf.iaxov he would be 

 made whole; but without the charm the leaf would be of no 

 use" 3). Similarly in the State Socrates speaks about certain 

 superstitious persons who try to cure their ailments, contrac- 

 ted through a profiigate life, by drugs and cantery, by spells 

 and amulets, thereby still more increasing and complicating 

 them *). 



The primitive theory of diseases being caused by spiritual 

 possession aifords an interesting example of uncivilised man's 



') Pind. Pyth. III, 51 . . . tovs uev uaXaxals é^aotöais åfKfånav, rov; 

 de Jifjooavta nivovTas, i) yvioig neQånrcov nåvrodev (påQpLaKa. 



-) Pliit. ApojMk. Lacon. p. 223 E. 



') Plato, CJmrnid. p. 155 E. 



*) Plato, Rep. IV, 426 B. — Cf. also Rep. II, 364. Legg. X, p. 909, 

 XI, p. 933. 



