32 H nit on Webster 



At the other end of the scale, the classical peoples observed an 

 annual expulsion of ghosts accompanied by the imposition of 

 various taboos. The ancient Greeks, as we know on Plato's au- 

 thority, had their " days polluted and unfit for public business."*^ 



These were the d7ro0pa8£s jy/xepai, "certain days which brought 

 with them complete idleness and cessation of business, and which 

 were called unlucky (dTro^paSes) . At such times no one would 

 accost any one else, and friends would positively have no dealings 

 with each other and even sanctuaries were not used."*^ Three 

 such days occurred from the nth to the 13th of the month 

 Anthesterion, when the Athenians celebrated the festival of the 

 Anthesteria. Though in outward semblance only a brilliant cere- 

 mony in honor of the wine-god Dionysus, the Anthesteria had 

 also a sombre significance as the time when the shades of the 

 dead issued from the underworld and walked the streets.** 

 Ropes were fastened round the temples to keep out the wander- 

 ing ghosts, and the people smeared their houses with pitch to 

 catch any rash intruders into the dwellings of living men.'*^ Fot 

 the entertainment of the unseen guests during their short stay 

 pots of boiled food were everywhere placed in the streets ; but 

 at the end of the festival the souls were roughly bidden to depart. 

 Thus the Anthesteria, in substance, formed one of those numer- 

 ous ceremonies for the riddance of ghosts by means of feasting 

 and placation, which have so wide a diffusion in the lower cul- 

 ture. The attribution of the festival to Dionysus and all those 

 pleasanter associations with which the cheerful fancy of the 



■" Plato, Leges, vli. 800. 



^ Scholiast, on Lucian, Tiiiion, 43. 



** Cf. Hesychius, .y. v. fj.iapal n^ixipai : " the polluted days of the month 

 Anthesterion, on which days they think the souls of the departed are sent 

 up from the nether world." Photius, s. v., iJ-Lapa vfx^pa, says that on the 

 second day, the Choes, the people as prophylactics against ghosts and evil 

 influences used to chew buckthorn and anoint their doors with pitch. 



*^ See Frazer's note (op. cit., iii. 88 n.') for some related customs of 

 savages. 



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