Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/502

 murderer who sought to turn his own pollution upon the victim might have been called [Greek: prostropaios].

Thus then the problem of the ancient nomenclature of revenants is solved, and the results are briefly these: all revenants were originally called [Greek: alastores], 'Wanderers'; but subsequently that name was restricted only to the vengeful class of revenants, to which the names [Greek: miastores] and [Greek: prostropaioi] had always belonged; and for the more harmless and purely pitiable revenants no name remained, but men said of such an one simply, 'He wanders.'