Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/103

 F.PIMKXIDKS OF KRETK 87 ical subjects being ascribed to him ; according tc some accounts, they even worshipped him as a god. Both Plato and Cicero con- sidered Epimenides in the same light in which he was regarded by his contemporaries, as a prophet divinely inspired, and foretell- ing the future under fits of temporary ecstasy : but according to Aristotle, Epimenides himself professed to have received from the gods no higher gift than that of divining the unknown phe- nomena of the past. 1 The religious mission of Epimenides to Athens, and its eil'u-a- cious as well as healing influence on the public mind, deserve notice as characteristics of the age in which they occurred. 2 If we transport ourselves two centuries forward, to the Peloponne- pian war, when rational influences and positive habits of thought had acquired a durable hold upon the superior minds, nnd when practical discussions on political and judicial matters we-;v iumiliar to every Athenian citizen, no such uncontrollable religious misery could well have subdued the entire public ; and if it had, no living man could have drawn to himself such universal venera- tion as to be capable of effecting a cure. Plato, 3 admitting the real healing influence of rites and ceremonies, fully believed in Epimenides as an inspired prophet during the past ; but towards those who preferred claims to supernatural power in his own day, he was not so easy of faith. He, as well as Euripides and Theophrastus, treated with ibdiffereitoe, and even with contempt, the orpheotelestaj of the later times, who advertised themselves as possessing the same patent knowledge of ceremonial rites, and the same means of guiding the will of the gods, as Epimeni- des had wielded before them. These orpheotelestai unquestion- alily numbered a considerable tribe of believers, and speculated with great effect, as well as with profit to themselves, upon the 1 Plato, Legg. i. p. G42; Cicero, De Divinat. i. 18 ; Aristot. Ehct. i;i. 17. Plato places Epimenides ten years before the Persian invasion of Greece, rhereas his real date is near upon 600 u. c.; a remarkable example of carelessness as to chronology. s Respecting the characteristics of this ajre, s~ .he second chapter of the tren:ise of Heinrich. above alluded to. Kreta und Griechenlaud in Hinsicht aaf Wunderglauben. 3 Plato, Kratylus, p. 405 ; Phasdr. p. 244.