It was a very general opinion, in later days, that demons had power over the souls of the dead, until Christ descended into Hades and delivered them from the thrall of the "Prince of Darkness." The dead were sometimes raised by those who did not possess a familiar spirit. These consulters repaired to the grave at night, and there lying down, repeated certain words in a low, muttering tone, and the spirit thus summoned appeared. "And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust."[[37]]
Euripides also refers to necromancy.[[38]]
ADMETUS.
ὅρα γε μή τι φασμα νερτέρων τόδ ἦ?
HERCULES.
οὐ ψυχαγωγὸν τόνδ' ἐποιήσω ξένον.
Adm. See! is not this some spectre from the dead?
Her. No dead-invoker for thy guest hast thou.
Seneca describes the spirits of the dead as being evoked by the Psychagogus in a cave rendered gloomy and as dark as night by the cypress, laurel, and other like trees.[[39]] Claudian refers to the same superstition.[[40]] And Lucan,[[41]] where Erictho recalls a spirit to animate
the body it had left, by horrid ceremonies. So Tibullus:[[42]]—