In approaching a king a satrap or any other person of exalted position above the level of ordinary men, it was the custom to come with a present. Thucyd. ii. 97; Xenoph. Anab. vii. 3, 26; Xenoph. Hellen. iii. 1, 10-12.
The great person, to whom the presents were made, usually requited them magnificently.
General belief in Greece about the efficacy of prayer and sacrifice to appease the Gods.
Plato himself states this view explicitly in his Politikus.[387] Moreover, when a man desired information from the Gods on any contemplated project or on any grave matter of doubt, he sought it by means of sacrifice.[388] Such sacrifice was a debt to the God: and if it remained unpaid, his displeasure was incurred.[389] The motive for sacrificing to the Gods was thus, not simply to ensure the granting of prayers, but to pay a debt: and thus either to prevent or to appease the wrath of the Gods. The religious practice of Greece rested upon the received belief that the Gods were not merely pleased with presents, but exacted them as a mark of respect, and were angry if they were not offered: yet that being angry, their wrath might be appeased by acceptable presents and supplications.[390] To learn what proceedings of this kind were suitable, a man went to consult the oracle, the priests, or the Exêgêtæ: in cases wherein he believed that he had incurred the displeasure of the Gods by any wrong or omission.[391]
[387] Plato, Politikus, p. 290 D. καὶ μὴν καὶ τὸ τῶν ἱερέων αὖ γένος, ὡς τὸ νόμιμόν φησι, παρὰ μὲν ἡμῶν δωρεὰς θεοῖς διὰ θυσιῶν ἐπιστῆμόν ἐστι κατὰ νοῦν ἐκείνοις δωρεῖσθαι, παρὰ δὲ ἐκείνων ἡμῖν εὐχαῖς κτῆσιν ἀγαθῶν αἰτήσασθαι. Compare Euthyphron, p. 14.
[388] Xenophon, Anab. vii. 6, 44; Euripid. Ion. 234.
[389] Plato, Republic, i. p. 331 B. Compare also Phædon, p. 118, the last words spoken by Sokrates before his decease — ὀφείλομεν Ἀσκληπιῷ ἀλεκτρύονα· ἀλλ’ ἀπόδοτε καὶ μὴ ἀμελήσητε.
[390] See Nägelsbach, Nach-Homerische Theologie, pp. 211-213.
[391] See, as one example among a thousand, the proceeding of the Spartan government, Thucyd. i. 134; also ii. 48-54.