XLIX] Studies in primitive Greek religion. 91 



or unfortunate events which happened on them. Thus the 

 Boiotians, having on the fifth of the month Hekatombaeon 

 gained two signal victories över their enemies both of which 

 restored liberty to Greece, began afterwards to look upon 

 that day as being a „lucky^' one. On the other hand Plutarch 

 quoting Livy, reminds us that the day on which the Romans 

 were slain by the Gauls at the river Allia, was ever since con- 

 sidered a dies religiosus '). It is true that Plutarch himself 

 is no reliable authority as an expounder of primitive religious 

 ideas. But the primitive tendency to ascribe remarkable inci- 

 dents to supernatural causes and to make generalisations like 

 the above mentioned seems in fact to have been too deeply 

 rooted in the Hellenic mind to leave much doubt as to the 

 origin of the view here dealt with. 



') Plut. CamVliis, c. 19. 



