96 Rafael Karsten. [N:o 1 



The primitive Greeks may incidentally have addressed the 

 rain-spirit for rain or the sun-spirit for warmth — or they 

 may more often have tried to appease the demon who was 

 manifested in the lightning or in the burning pestiferous 

 rays of the sun, but these heavenly powers certainlj'- did 

 not hold the central place in their religion. On the other 

 hand there can be no doubt that the deities principally wor- 

 shipped by them were those other supernatural beings by 

 whom they found themselves to be surrounded and which in- 

 fluenced their welfare, namely, such as haunted the dark im- 

 penetrable wood, dwelt in huge trees, some remarkable stones 

 and rocks or appeared in the shape of ferocious animals, cau- 

 sing them the greatest difiiculties in their attempts to clearthe 

 land and cultivate it; moreover such as inha"bited rapid rivers and 

 streams which the}' had sometimes to pass, and the restless sea 

 to whose goodwill they were obliged to trust, and lastl}' such 

 as dwelt in the under world including the spirits of the dead. 

 The old opmion that the deified heavenly bodies and pheno- 

 mena were the principal gods of the primitive Greeks is as 

 erroneous as the traditional idea that fear was a feeling en- 

 tirely unknown in their relation to their gods. Both views 

 are dne to the onesided mythological and lingvistical aspect, 

 from which the whole question has been treated, as well as 

 to ignorance of the principles of primitive worship. 



The preeminence of the heavenly deities in the ancient 

 Aryan pantheon has been maintaiced in consequence among 

 other reasons of statements by classical writers, above others 

 Herodotus and Caesar. The statement of Herodotus that the 

 Persians used to offer sacrifices to the whole circle of the 

 heavens, to the sun, the moon, the earth the fire, the water 

 and the winds ^), and still more Caesars statement relating 

 to the Teutons who according to him reckoned among their 

 gods those only whom they perceived and whose benefits they 

 openly enjoyed, Sun and Vulcan, and Moon, whereas the others 

 they knew not even by report 2), seem to indicate a religions 

 view which attributed the principal place to these deltes. 



1) Herod. I, 131. 



*) Caesar, De Bello Gallico, VI, 21. 



