84 Rafael Karsten. [N:o 1 



desire to find out the canse of certain phenomena which strike 

 Lis attention and threaten his existence. But disease, and its 

 consequence death, are not the only phenomena with regard 

 to "which such a theory of causation appears. The same prac- 

 tical desire prompts him to form himself an opinion as to the 

 causes of several other incidents, especially unexpected cata- 

 strophes, unforseen accidents and misfortunes, which excite 

 his instinct of self-preservation, and here we have in fact the 

 most important psychological root of his belief in supernatural 

 powers interferring in human affairs. — In this respect also 

 the religion of the ancient Greeks offers many interesting fea- 

 tures which we must not overlook in tryiug to get a complete 

 understanding of their earhest ideas concerning their gods. 

 What we call chance hardly at all existed to the Greek 

 mind; chance was supplanted by divine causation. In every 

 remarkable incident of life the Greek was ready to see su- 

 pernatural influence, The success or failure of any undertaking 

 appeared to him not as a natural result of his own skill or want 

 of skill, of his good or bad luck, but was simply as a mani- 

 festation of divine favour or displeasure. Hence the precau- 

 tions taken to propitiate these powers with prayers and offer- 

 ings before every enterprise. 



Even in the Homeric songs, notwithstanding the poetical 

 guise in which persons and events are here enwrapped, this 

 view clearly appears. Thus the vicissitudes of the great war 

 which is going on between the Achaians and the Tröjans are, 

 properly speaking, not depeudent upon the bravery of men 

 but upon the capricious intentions of the Olympian gods who 

 are divided into two camps, one of which takes the part of 

 the Tröjans one that of their enemies ^). Similarly, in an 

 invisible shape the gods interfere in the combats, fought 

 out between various heroes, and influence their issue ^). The 

 hero who in the battle goes to destruction is driven towards 

 his evil fäte by a supernatural power just as the deer is driven 



1) Cf., for instance, 11. VIII, 1—52. 



2) Cf. the fight between Paris and Menelaus in 11. III, and that bet- 

 ween Achilles and Hector in 11. XX. 



