Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/85

 CHAP. VI THE RIGHT OF PROPEETT. 79 naturally. The family is attached to the altar, the altar is attached to the soil; an intimate relation, there- fore, is established between the soil and the family. There must be his permanent home, which he will not dream of quitting, unless an unforeseen necessity con- sti'ains him to it. Like the hearth, it will always occupy this spot. This spot belongs to it, is its prop" erty, the property not simply of a man, but of a family, whose different members must, one after another, be born and die here. Let us follow the idea of the ancients. Two sacred fires represent two distinct divinities, who are never united or confounded ; this is so true, that even inter- marriage between two families does not establish an alliance between their gods. The sacred fire must be isolated — that is to say, completely separated from all that is not of iiself ; the stranger must not approach it at the moment when the ceremonies of the Avorship are performed^ or even be in sight of it. It is for tliis reason that these gods are called the concealed gods, (iixioi^ or the interior gods, Penates. In order that this religious rule may be well observed, there must be an enclosure around this hearth at a certain distance. It did not matter whether this enclosure was a hedge, a wall of wood, or one of stone. Whatever it was, it marked the limit Avhich separated the domain of one sacred fire from that of another. This enclosure was deemed sacred.' It was an impious act to pass it. The god watched over it, and kept it under his care. They, therefore, applied to this god the epithet of iQxsTog.^ This enclosure, traced and protected by re- ' 'EQxoi itq'ov. Sophocles, Trachin., 006. " At an epoch when this ancient worship was almost effaced by the younger religion of Zeus, and when they associated him