Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/229

 CHAP. VIII. THE KITUALS AND THE ANNALS. 22S wished that they did not exist. He feared even his domestic and national gods, and was continually in fear of being betrayed by them. Hi.s great inquietude was lest he might incur tlieir displeasure. He was oc- cupied all his life in appeasing them. Paces deorunt qvcerere^ says the poet. But how satisfy them? Above all, how could one be sure that he had satisfied them, and that they were on his side ? Men believed that the employment of certain formulas answered this pur- pose. A certain prayer, composed of certain words, had been followed by the success that was asked for ; this was, without doubt, because it had been heard by the god, and had exercised an influence upon him ; that it had been potent, more potent than the god, since he had not been able to resist it. They therefore pre- served the mysterious and sacred words of this prayer. After the fathei-, the son repeated it. As soon as writ- ing Avas in use it was committed to writing. Every family, every religious family at least, had a book in which were written the prayers of which the ancestors had made use, and with which the gods had complied.' It was an arm which man employed against the incon- stancy of the gods. But not a word or syllable must be changed, and least of all the rhythm in which it had been chanted. For then the prayer would have lost its force, and the gods would have leraained free. But the formula was not enough ; there were exterior acts whose details were minute and unchangeable. The slightest gesture of the one who performed the sacri- fice, and the smallest parts of his costume, were gov- erned by strict rules. In addressing one god, it was ' Dionysius, I. 75. Varro, VI. 90. Cicero, Brutus, 16. Aulus Gellius, XIII. 10.