Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/100

 84 HISTORY OF GREECE. cases of public calamity Avere liabla to be singled out as having by their sacrilege drawn down the judgment of the gods upon their countrymen. 1 Nor was the banishment of the guilty parties adequate in other respects to restore tranquillity. Not only did pestilential disor- ders prevail, but the religious susceptibilities and apprehensions of the Athenian community also remained deplorably excited : they were oppressed with sorroAV and despondency, sav phantoms and heard supernatural menaces, and felt the curse of the gods upon them without abatement. 2 In particular, it appears that the minds of the women whose religious impulses Avere recognized generally by the ancient legislators as requiring watchful control wero thus disturbed and frantic. The sacrifices offered at Athens did not succeed in dissipating the epidemic, nor could the proph- ets at horn*, though they recognized that special purifications were required, discover what were the new ceremonies capable of appeasing the divine wrath. The Delphian oracle directed them to invite a higher spiritual influence from abroad, and this produced the memorable visit of the Kretan prophet and sage Epimenides to Athens. The century between 620 and oOO n. c. appears to have been remarkable for the first diffusion and potent influence of distinct religious brotherhoods, mystic rites, and expiatory ceremonies, none of which, as I have remarked in a former chapter, find any recognition in the Homeric epic. To this age belong Thaletas. Aristeas, Abaris, Pythagoras, Onomakritus, and the earliest provable agency of the Orphic sect. 3 Of the class of men here noticed, Epimenides, a native of Phaestus or Knossus in Krete, 4 vas one of the most celebrated, and the old legendary connection betAveen Athens and Krete, Avhich shoAvs itself in tho tales of Theseus and Minos, is here again manifested in the re- course which the Athenians had to this island to supply their spiritual need. Epimenides seems to have been connected Avith 1 See Thucyd. v, 16, and his language respecting Plcistoanax of Sparta. 2 Plutarch, Solon, c. 12. Kal 6floi rtvef K 6LOL6aifj.oviaf ufj.a nal Qua/tara Katii^e Tijv TTO/UV, etc. 3 Lobeck, Aglaophamus, ii, p. 313 ; Hoe'ckh, Kreta, iii, 2, p. 252. 4 The statements respecting Epimenides are collected and discussed in the treatise of Heinrich, Epimenides aus Kreta. Leipsic, 1801