Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/73

 place; invocations are addressed to him in virtue of a designated power or function.

Local titles are often derived merely from the town or district in which the church stands, as Our Lady of Tenos, or S. Gerasimos of Cephalonia. In other cases they have reference to the surroundings of the sanctuary. The chapel of the Virgin in the monastery of Megaspelaeon consists of a large cave at the foot of some towering cliffs, and the dedication is to our Lady of the Golden Cave ([Greek: Panagia chrysospêlaiôtissa]). In this case the word 'golden' is an imaginative addition, for the interior is peculiarly dark: but the dedication has been borrowed, owing to the repute of the original shrine, by churches which have not even a cave to show. In Amorgos S. George has the title of Balsamites, derived from the balsam which covers the hill-side on which stands his church. In Paros several curious dedications are mentioned by Bent, which he renders as Our Lady of the Lake, Our Lady of the Unwholesome Place, and S. George of the Gooseberry. In Athens there is a church of which the present dedication is said to be due to a fire which blackened the icon of the Virgin, who is known on this account as Our smoke-blackened Lady ([Greek: Panagia kapnikarea]), or, it may be, Our Lady of the smoky head, according as the second half of the compound is connected with the Turkish word for 'black' or the now obsolete Greek word [Greek: kara], 'head .'

Titles denoting functions are equally numerous and quaint. In Rhodes the Archangel Michael is invoked as [Greek: patêtêriôtês], patron of the wine-press. S. Nicolas, who has supplanted Poseidon, often assumes the simple title of 'sailor' ([Greek: nautês]). S. John the Hunter ([Greek: kynêgos]) owns a monastery on Mt Hymettus. In Cimolus there is a church of Our Guiding Lady ([Greek: Panagia hodêgêtria]). SS. Costas and Damien, the physicians, are known as the Moneyless ([Greek: anargyroi]), because their services are given gratis. S. George at Argostóli has been dubbed the Drunkard ([Greek: methystês]) —thus furnishing a notable parallel to the herois a mere corruption of an older title which had a quite different meaning; but I am concerned only with the existing title as popularly interpreted.]