XLIX] Studies in primitive Greek relig-ion. 89 



finer sacrifices than any other Hellenic state, adoru their 

 temples with gifts as nobody else does, and sperid more mo- 

 ney in their service than the rest of the Hellenes put together. 

 The Lacedaemonians, on the other hand, pay so little respect 

 to the gods that they have a habit of sacrificing blemished 

 animals to them ^). The same desire to find out the cause of 

 divine displeasure according to Herodotus once drove the La- 

 cedaemonians to consult the Delphian oracle. Having been 

 repeatedly defeated by the Tegeétans during a war they sent 

 men to Delphi to ask the prophetess which god thej^ ought to 

 propitiate in order to get the better of their enemies 2), Plut- 

 arch mentions another instance which illustrates the same 

 view. A man called Andrageus having been treacherously 

 slain in Attica, a very fatal war was carried on against that 

 country by Minos, and „divine vengeance laid it waste" ; for 

 it was visited with famine and pestilence, and want of water 

 iucreased the misery. The remedy that Apollo proposed was 

 that they should appease Minos and be recouciled to him 

 whereupon the wrath of heaven would cease ^). 



It was, no doubt, ideas of the same kind which lead the 

 Greeks to distinguish a special kind of „unlucky" or „unaus- 

 picious" days, åno^qådeg ijiiitQai. Whereas, for instance, the 

 sacredness of the Hebrew sahhath seems to have been due to 

 some occult power which was supposed to be inherent in cer- 

 tain numbers, the nature of the Greek aTto^Qädrjg YiiitQat was 

 evidently somewhat dififerent. What gave rise to this belief was 

 probably nothing but the experiences of life which suggested to 

 the Greek mind that certain days were presided över by certain 

 malevolent supernataral powers. If on a day some defeat was suf- 

 fered or some other calamity occurred which became fatal to the 

 community, the conclusion was rashly drawn that on that parti- 

 cular day some evil deities were in action. Such hasty gene- 

 ralisations are very characteristic of a primitive mind. The 

 Greek who deemed a day, at which incidentally a misfortune 

 occurred, to be in its nature ,,unlucky', reasoned according to 



1) Plato, Alch. II, p. 148-9. 



^) Herod, I, 67, 



ä) Plut. TJies. c. 15. 



