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 400 HISTORY OF GREECE. tive belief, thoroughly conformable to the genius of Homer and Hesiod, Herodotus comments as follows : " The Thessalian state- ment is reasonable. For whoever thinks that Poseidon shakes the earth, and that the rifts of an earthquake are the work of that god, will, on seeing the defile in question, say that Poseidon has caused it. For the rift of the mountains is, as appeared to me (when I saw it), the work of an earthquake." Herodotus admits the reference to Poseidon, when pointed out to him, but it stands only in the background : what is present to his mind is the phenomenon of the earthquake, not as a special act, but as part of a system of habitual operations. 1 memo chcz Ics hommes les moins avances dans la culture intcllectuclle, 1'idec de grandcs inondations, d'anciennes communications entre des bassins limitrophes. Des opinions, que Ton pourroit appeler systematiques, se trou- venf dans les forets de 1'Ore'noque comme dans les fles de la Mer du Snd Dans 1'une et dans 1'autre de ces contrees, elles ont pris la forme des tracli tions." (A. von Humboldt, Asie Centrale, vol. ii. p. 147.) Compare a similar remark in the same work and volume, p. 286-294. 1 Herodot. vii. 129. (Poseidon was worshipped as Uerpaio^ in Thessaly, in commemoration of this geological interference : Schol. Pindar. Pyth. iv. 245.) Td <5e irahaibv /leyerat, owe iovrof KU TOV avhuvof itai dieicpoov TOVTOV, T0t)f TTOTUfiovf TOVTOV f f>fov~af iroieiv Tt/v Qeaaahiqv naaav TrcAayoj. Ai>-rot fj,ev vvv Qsaaa^oi "keyovai Hoaeideuva Troif/ffai TOV aiiAdiva, 6V ov pset 6 Hijveibf, OIKOTO, heyovTef. "Ocrrtf yap vo/j,iei HoaeitiEuva TTJV yf/v asifiv, teal TU. SuareiJTa {nrb asia/iov TOV -&eov TOVTOV epya elvai, nal u,v IKEIVO I6uv 0an? rioaeideuva -rroi^ffat. 'Eor^ yap aeicrftov epyov, (jf ipol tyaiveTO elvai, rj tiiaaTOffie TUV ovpeuv. In another case (viii. 129), Herodotus believes that Poseidon produced a preternaturally high tide, in order to punish the Per- sians, who had insulted his temple near Potidaea : here was a special motive for the god to exert his power. This remark of Herodotus illustrates the hostile ridicule cast by Aristo- phanes (in the Nubes) upon Socrates, on the score of alleged impiety, be- cause he belonged to a school of philosophers (though in point of fact he discountenanced that line of study) who introduced physical laws and forces in place of the personal agency of the gods. The old man Strepsiades in quires from Socrates, WJio rains ? Who thunders ? To which SocratCs re plies, " Not Zeus, but the Nephelffi. i. e. the clouds : you never saw rain vr ith- out clouds." Strepsiades then proceeds to inquire " But who is it that compels the clouds to move onward ? is it not Zeus ?" Socrates " Not at all; it is aethereal rotation." Strepsiades " Rotation 1 ? that had escaped me : Zeus then no longer exists, and Rotation reigns in his place." STEEPS. 'O 6' uvayna^uv sort Tif avTiif (Ne^eAaf), ou% o Zetfc, ware bat;