DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0256
234
OF THE RELIGION Of1 GKEECE.
punish this crime, yet it was thought in a more peculiar manner to be the
care of Jupiter, surnamed 'Ofpcug. And Pausamas reports, that in the
Bsasutj}£io», or council-hall, at Olympia, there was a statue of Jupiter,
with a thunderbolt in each hand, and a plate of brass at his feet, on which
were engraven certain elfgiacal verses, composed on purpose to terrify
men from invoking that god to witness any untruth. Beside this, the
perjured persons were thought to be haunted and distracted by the
furies who every fifth day in the month, made a visitation, and walked
their rounds for that purpose, according to Hesiod :
Ev TTiuitTYj yip <$d.<rh Ep(vvi/«tc ttuqifoxfjetv
OpKov rivvvfjiiiixs, tcv fcpn r-att 7rniu"i7riopKon (1).
The fifths of every month your care require,
Days full of trouble and afflictions dire :
For then the Furies take their round, 'tis said,
And heap their vengeance on the perjur'd head. cooke.
Whence Agamemnon, swearing that he had never known Briseis, called
the furies to bear witness :
---E/>/vv!>«, fit i 8' VTTO ycLldLV
Av6/>»5r«c rhvuvra.1, 6 tic k' tTriopaav ofAtrrv..
And ye, fell Furies of the realms of night,
Who rule the dead, and horrid woes prepare
For perjur'd kings, and all who falsely swear. pope.
Though the punishment here meant by Homer seems to hare been in-
flicted after death, because he saith, u?ro y «7wv avSgaTrm, &c. or the men un-
der the earth ; and that this is the meaning of that place, doth appear from
another oath in Homer, where the infernal gods are invoked after this
manner :
ij of u7rmp6i Kc/./ulivrac
Av&pai'rxs rivvufti, o',t;c jc'*;r»£>f»i.oi' ofxia-a-yi,
~--Witness ye infernal powers,
Who souls below torment for breac h of oaths. e. d.
Yet some in that place read xafAoWs, and then the meaning of it will be*
that the souls of deceased persons are employed in torturing perjured vil-
lains.
In some places even insensible creatures were thought to take revenge
for this crime ; for it was generally believed in Arcadia, that no man
could forswear himself by the waters of Styx, without undergoing some
severe and remarkable punishment; and it is reported of the subterrane-
an cavern, sacred to Palaemon at Corinth, that no perjured person could
so much as enter into it without being made a memorable example of di-
vine justice. In Sicily, at the temple of the Palici, iu the city Palice,
there were certain crateres, fonts, or lakes, (for so sometimes they
were called,) named Delli, out of which there continually issued flames
and balls of fire, with boiling and stinking water ; and thither people
used to resort from all quarters, for the deciding of controversies. If
any one swore falsely near these fonts, he was presently struck either
blind, lame, or dead in the place ; or was swallowed up, and drowned in
the lakes. But of these mention has been made before (2).
(1) 'Huijau, lib. iii. ver. 40. supra laudatos, Diodorus Sieulus, lib. si. Ma-
<2) Conf. prater Aristotelem et Stephanum crobius Saturnal. lib. v. cap. 19.
OF THE RELIGION Of1 GKEECE.
punish this crime, yet it was thought in a more peculiar manner to be the
care of Jupiter, surnamed 'Ofpcug. And Pausamas reports, that in the
Bsasutj}£io», or council-hall, at Olympia, there was a statue of Jupiter,
with a thunderbolt in each hand, and a plate of brass at his feet, on which
were engraven certain elfgiacal verses, composed on purpose to terrify
men from invoking that god to witness any untruth. Beside this, the
perjured persons were thought to be haunted and distracted by the
furies who every fifth day in the month, made a visitation, and walked
their rounds for that purpose, according to Hesiod :
Ev TTiuitTYj yip <$d.<rh Ep(vvi/«tc ttuqifoxfjetv
OpKov rivvvfjiiiixs, tcv fcpn r-att 7rniu"i7riopKon (1).
The fifths of every month your care require,
Days full of trouble and afflictions dire :
For then the Furies take their round, 'tis said,
And heap their vengeance on the perjur'd head. cooke.
Whence Agamemnon, swearing that he had never known Briseis, called
the furies to bear witness :
---E/>/vv!>«, fit i 8' VTTO ycLldLV
Av6/>»5r«c rhvuvra.1, 6 tic k' tTriopaav ofAtrrv..
And ye, fell Furies of the realms of night,
Who rule the dead, and horrid woes prepare
For perjur'd kings, and all who falsely swear. pope.
Though the punishment here meant by Homer seems to hare been in-
flicted after death, because he saith, u?ro y «7wv avSgaTrm, &c. or the men un-
der the earth ; and that this is the meaning of that place, doth appear from
another oath in Homer, where the infernal gods are invoked after this
manner :
ij of u7rmp6i Kc/./ulivrac
Av&pai'rxs rivvufti, o',t;c jc'*;r»£>f»i.oi' ofxia-a-yi,
~--Witness ye infernal powers,
Who souls below torment for breac h of oaths. e. d.
Yet some in that place read xafAoWs, and then the meaning of it will be*
that the souls of deceased persons are employed in torturing perjured vil-
lains.
In some places even insensible creatures were thought to take revenge
for this crime ; for it was generally believed in Arcadia, that no man
could forswear himself by the waters of Styx, without undergoing some
severe and remarkable punishment; and it is reported of the subterrane-
an cavern, sacred to Palaemon at Corinth, that no perjured person could
so much as enter into it without being made a memorable example of di-
vine justice. In Sicily, at the temple of the Palici, iu the city Palice,
there were certain crateres, fonts, or lakes, (for so sometimes they
were called,) named Delli, out of which there continually issued flames
and balls of fire, with boiling and stinking water ; and thither people
used to resort from all quarters, for the deciding of controversies. If
any one swore falsely near these fonts, he was presently struck either
blind, lame, or dead in the place ; or was swallowed up, and drowned in
the lakes. But of these mention has been made before (2).
(1) 'Huijau, lib. iii. ver. 40. supra laudatos, Diodorus Sieulus, lib. si. Ma-
<2) Conf. prater Aristotelem et Stephanum crobius Saturnal. lib. v. cap. 19.