Nor were the Greeks wholly devoid of belief in evil spirits, for the demon Alastor,[[1024]] which was a deification of the principle that incites to crime and afterwards brings vengeance, can in no way be regarded as good. Typhon, too, with the Giants and Titans, had at least a predominance of evil in their character, but these are treated of at length by the mythologists. Several superstitions, commonly supposed to be wholly Oriental, were current in Greece, such as that men had the power by using certain spells to quit their mortal forms and roam disembodied through the earth. By magic rings, too, and helmets they might be rendered invisible, and, thus protected, enter into the secret chambers of kings, pollute their wives, and rifle their treasures.[[1025]] Means, moreover, they had, confounded in those ages with supernatural power, of charming poisonous serpents, as to this day is done by the subjects of our Eastern empire, and the snake-catchers of Egypt; and though it be now known that opium constitutes no small portion of this charm, the people generally, both in the East and West, conceive other influences to be employed than those of legitimate art.
There was not in later times, perhaps, that boundless faith in spells and transformations still subsisting in the East. But in the earlier ages, and in the gloomy mountain recesses of Arcadia, events equally strange were supposed to have happened. Thus Lycaon having sacrificed an infant to Zeus Lycæos, and sprinkled the blood upon the altar, immediately became a wolf;[[1026]] and it was reported that any one who performed this dreadful sacrifice, and afterwards by accident tasted of the human entrails, when mingled with those of other victims, forthwith underwent the same transformation.[[1027]] Thus we find the gloomy legend of the Breton forests existing in the heart of the Peloponnesos, where there can, I fear, be little doubt, that human victims were habitually offered up. Another ancient superstition, which found its way into Italy, was, that a person first seen by a wolf lost his voice, whereas if the man obtained the prior glimpse of the animal no evil ensued.[[1028]]
The belief in ghosts, coeval no doubt with man, flourished especially among the Greeks. Hesiod entertained peculiar notions on this subject, which some suppose to have been borrowed from the East, that is, he believed that the good men of former times became, at their decease, guardian spirits, and were entrusted[[1029]] with the care of future races. Plato adopts these ghosts, and gives them admission into his Republic, where they perform an important part and receive peculiar honours.[[1030]] When they appeared, as sometimes they would, by day, their visages were pale and their forms unsubstantial like the creations of a dream.[[1031]] But, as among us, they chiefly affected the night for their gambols, and in Arcadia particularly, would appear to honest people returning home late in cross-roads, and such places whence they were not to be dislodged but by being pelted apparently by pellets made from bread crumb, on which men had wiped their fingers, carefully preserved for this purpose by the good folks about Phigaleia.[[1032]]
The most remarkable prank played by any ancient ghosts, however, with whose history I am acquainted, did not take place in Greece, but in the Campagna di Roma, where, after a bloody battle between the Romans and the Huns, in which all but the generals and their staff bit the dust, two spectral armies, the ghosts of the fallen warriors, appeared upon the field to enact the contest over again. During three whole days did these valiant souls of heroes, as the Homeric phrase is, carry on the struggle; and the historian who relates the fact, is careful to observe that they did not fall short of living soldiers, either in fire or courage. People saw them distinctly charge each other, and heard the clash of their arms. Similar exhibitions were to be seen in different parts of the ancient world. In the great plain of Sogda,[[1033]] for example, spectral armies of mighty courage but voiceless, were in the constant habit of engaging in mortal combat at the break of day. Caria likewise possessed a favourite haunt of these warlike phantoms. But here the apparition was only occasional, and all its evolutions were performed in the air, which was the case in England, as we have been assured by very old people, before the breaking-out of the American war. Another fray of ghosts took place every summer in Sicily on the plain of the Four Towers, but in this case the whole business was carried on at noon, to the no small annoyance of Pan who usually takes his siesta at that hour,—that is, if they were as noisy in their battles as the Campanian spectres.[[1034]]
Like the Roman Catholics, the Greeks had great faith in miraculous images, holy wells, &c. and their descendants still maintain the same creed. Near the Church of Haghia Parthenoë in Crete, is a most copious fountain deriving its name from the same holy and miracle-working virgins to whom the church is dedicated, and who also preside over the waters. “The worship of the headless body of Molos has also its parallel in modern times.”[[1035]] As the Cretan Christians for many years reverenced the head of Titus, though deprived of its body, so their heathen ancestors used annually to honour by a religious festival the body of Molos, the well-known father of Meriones, though deprived of its head. The legend, told to explain the ancient ceremony in which the headless statue of a man thus exhibited, was that “after Molos got possession of a nymph’s person without having first obtained her consent, his body was found, but his head had disappeared.”[[1036]] An image of the Virgin travelled by water from Constantinople to Greece, where it was shortly after seen standing up in the waves near Mount Athos. Similar legends obtained of old. Near Biennos in Crete,[[1037]] “has been dug up the bones and skulls of giants, many of whom were eight or ten times the size of common men.”[[1038]]
Of the various modes of penetrating into the future,[[1039]] prevalent among the people, I may mention some few. Prophetesses are frequently spoken of in Scripture, and in the Acts of the Apostles[[1040]] is given an account of a young female slave who brought her master large sums of money by this trade, which was that of a gipsy. Others there were who, like many among the Orientals, professed to understand the language of birds. A slave, said to possess this knowledge, is celebrated, by Porphyry, and was probably from the East.[[1041]] One sort of divination was practised by pouring drops of oil into a vessel and looking on it, when they pretended to behold a representation of what was to take place. This in Egypt is still practised, merely substituting ink for oil, and a great many travellers appear to believe in it. Soldiers going to war were especially liable to fall into this kind of foolery.[[1042]]
The use of holy water on entering temples is of great antiquity. This custom was called περίῤῥανσις, and the act was performed with the branch of the fortunate olive.[[1043]] There stood at the door of the temple a capacious lustral font, whose contents had been rendered holy by extinguishing[[1044]] therein a lighted brand from the altar; thence water was sprinkled on themselves, by worshipers or by the officiating priest. A similar apparatus stood at the entrance to the Agora, to purify the orators, &c. going to the public assembly. It was likewise placed at the door of private houses, wherein there was a corpse, that every one might purify himself on going out.[[1045]] Superstitious persons usually walked about with a laurel leaf in their mouth, or occasionally bearing a staff of laurel, there being a preserving power in that sacred shrub: hence arose the proverb δαφνίκην φορῶ βακτήριαν,—"I carry a laurel staff," when a man would say, I have no fear. Persons not thus protected it is to be presumed were terrified if a weasel or dog crossed their path; and the omen could only be averted by casting three stones at it, the number three being exceedingly agreeable to the gods. Certain fruits would not burst on the tree if three stones were cast into the same hole with the seed when the tree was planted. Two brothers walking on the way conceived it ominous of evil if they happened to be parted by a stone. On every trifling occasion altars and chapels were erected to the gods, particularly by women; no house or street was free from them. For example, if a snake crept into the house through the eaves, forthwith an altar was erected. At places where three roads met, stones were set up, to be worshiped by travellers, who anointed them with oil. If a mouse nibbled a hole in a corn-sack, they would fly to the portent interpreter, and inquire what they should do,—"Get it mended," was sometimes the honest reply. Horrid dreams[[1046]] might be expiated, and their evil effects be averted, by telling them to the rising sun. When the candles spit, it was a sign of rain.[[1047]] During thunder and lightning they made the noise called Poppysma,[[1048]] which it was hoped might avert the danger. On board ship sailors entertained the idea, that to carry a corpse would be the cause of shipwreck, as happened to the vessel which was bearing to Eubœa the bones of Pelops.[[1049]] The sailors of the Mediterranean, for this reason, will refuse to receive mummies on board.
[993]. Cf. Diog. Laert. Pr. iii. 4. Ἀρχαῖος μὲν οὖν τις λόγος καὶ πάτριος ἐστὶ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις, ὡς ἐκ θεοῦ τὰ πάντα, καὶ διὰ θεοῦ ἡμῖν συνέστηκεν.—Aristot. de Mund. c. 6. In c. 7. we have a curious list of the various epithets of Zeus, whose name the Pseudo-Aristotle conceives to signify the root of all existence: ὡς κᾄν εἰ λέγοιμεν, δἰ ὅν ζῶμεν. This thought St. Paul expresses by the well-known words—"in whom we live and move and have our being." The author of the Treatise De Mundo then quotes from the Orphic fragments a passage, the doctrine of which strongly resembles the Pantheism of Pope:
Ζεὺς πρῶτος γένετα, Ζεὺς ὕστατος ἀρχικέραυνος·