Chapter XLVIII: Appendix: VII

The _Hosts of Hekate_ cause fear and sickness at night: ~ei/t' e/nupnon pha/ntasma phobê=| chthoni/as th' _Heka/tês kô=mon_ ede/xô~, Trag. Incert. _fr._ 375 (Porson suggested Aesch.). They form the ~nukti/phantoi _pro/poloi_ Enodi/as~, Eur., _Hel._ 570. (These ~pro/poloi ta=s theou=~ are probably also referred to in the _defixio_ _CIG._ 5773; Wünsch, _Tab. Defix._, p. ixb.) They are nothing else than the restless souls of the dead wandering in the train of Hekate. Nocturnal terrors are produced by ~Heka/tês epibolai\ kai\ hêrô/ôn e/phodoi~, Hp., _Morb. Sacr._ (vi, 362 L.). Hence Orph., _H._ i, 1, calls Hekate ~psuchai=s neku/ôn me/ta bakcheu/ousan~. The souls which thus wander about with Hekate are {594} in part those of the _~a/ôroi~_, i.e. of those who have died before the completion of their "destined" period of life, ~pri\n moi=ran exê/kein bi/ou~, Soph., _Ant._ 896; cf. Phrynich. in _AB._ 24, 22, and ~pro/moiros harpagê/~, _Inscr. Cos_, 322. Thanatos has acted unjustly towards them ~en tachutê=ti bi/ou pau/ôn neoê/likas akma/s~, Orph., _H._ 87, 5-6. The period of conscious existence on earth which they had left incomplete they must now fulfil as disembodied "souls": aiunt immatura morte praeventas (animas) eo usque vagari istic, donec reliquatio compleatur aetatum quas tum pervixissent si non intempestive obiissent, Tert., _An._ 56. (They haunt the place of their burial: ~hê/rôes atuchei=s, hoi\ en tô=| dei=ni to/pô| sune/chesthe~, _P. Mag. Par._ 1408; cf. _CIG._ 5858b.) For this reason it is often mentioned on gravestones (and elsewhere: Eur., _Alc._ 168 f.) as something specially to be lamented that the person there buried had died ~a/ôros~--see _Epigr. Gr._ 12; 16; 193; 220, 1; 221, 2; 313, 2-3: ~a/teknos a/ôros~, **236, 2; and cf. 372, 32; 184, 3; _CIG._ 5574 (see also App. iii and chap. xiv, pt. ii, n. 155, ~a/gamoi~). Gello who herself ~parthe/nos aô/rôs eteleu/têse~ then becomes a ~pha/ntasma~, slays children and causes ~tou\s tô=n aô/rôn thana/tous~, Zenob. iii, 3; Hsch. ~Gellô/~. The souls of the ~a/ôroi~ cannot rest but must continually wander: see Plaut., _Most._ 499. They (~ane/môn ei/dôlon e/chontes~, _H. Hec._, l. 15: Orph., p. 290 Ab.) are the creatures which accompany Hekate in her nocturnal wanderings. The _Hymn._ to Hekate, p. 289 Ab. (cf. _P. Mag. Par._ 2727 ff.) addresses Hek. thus (10 ff.): ~deu=r' Heka/tê triodi=ti, puri/pnoe, pha/smat' e/chousa (a/gousa~ Mein.)~, hê/ t' e/laches deina\s me\n hodou\s (deina/s t' epho/dous~?) ~chalepa/s t' epipompa/s, tê\n Heka/tên se kalô= su\n apophthime/noisin aô/rois kei/ tines hêrô/ôn tha/non agnai=oi/ te (kai\~ Mein., but this position of ~te/~ is a regular Hellenistic usage; occurs frequently in _Orac. Sibyll._) ~a/paides ktl.~ Thus the ~a/ôroi~ became the typical haunting spirits ~kat' exochê/n~. Just as in this _Hymn._ they are summoned (with Hek.) for unholy purposes of magic, so an ~a/ôros~ is sometimes expressly invoked in the _defixiones_ which were placed in graves (esp. in those of ~a/ôroi~: see the instructions given in _P. Mag. Par._ 332 ff., 2215, 2220 f.; _P. Anastasy_, l. 336 ff.; 353): ~le/gô tô=| aô/rô| tô=| k[ata\ tou=ton to\n to/pon~, etc.]: Roman _defixio_, _I. Sic. et It._ 1047; ~exorki/zô se, neku/daimon a/ôre~, leaden tablet from Carth., _BCH._ 1888, p. 299 (_Tab. Defix._, p. xvi); cf. also _P. Mag. Par._ 342 f.; 1390 ff.; ~para/dote~ (the victim) ~aô/rois~, leaden tablet from Alexandria, _Rh. Mus._ 9, 37, l. 22; a lead tablet from Phrygia (_BCH._ 1893, p. 251) has: ~gra/phô pa/ntas tou\s emoi\ anti/a poiou=ntas meta\ tô=n aô/rôn; Epa/gathon Sabi=nan~, etc. In the curses of _Epigr. Gr._, p. 149, the ~Heka/tês melai/nês dai/mones~ alternate with ~a/ôroi sumphorai/~; see also Sterrett, _Amer. Sch. Athens_, ii, 168.--Everything that has been said of the ~a/ôroi~ applies also to the _~biaiotha/natoi~_ (or ~bi/aioi~, a term found in the magical papyri; cf. also ~biotha/naton pneu=ma~, _P. Mag. Par._ 1950); they are a special kind of ~a/ôroi~: they find no rest, see above, chap. v, n. 147; Tert., _An._ 56-7; Serv., _A._ iv, 386, quoting the _physici_; cf. also Heliod., 2, 5, p. 42, 20 ff. Bk. A ~biaiotha/natos~, who has thus been deprived of his life, has to make special supplication for admission {595} into Hades: _Epigr. Gr._ 625; cf. Verg., _A._ iv, 696 ff. Such souls become ~_ala/stores_~, wandering spirits: see above, Append. vi, p. 592; wandering of a ~biaiotha/natos~, Plu., _Cim._ 1.--Finally the souls of unburied persons who have no share in the cult of the souls or home in the grave are also condemned to wander (cf. Eur., _Hec._ 31-50): see above, chap. v, p. 163. The ~a/taphos~ is detained ~entha/de~: Soph., _Ant._ 1070, and wanders about the earth: ~alai/nei~, Eur., _Tro._ 1083; cf. Tert., _An._ 56. Hence the souls of these ~a/taphoi~ could be forced to appear and answer the sorcerer: Heliod., p. 177, 15 ff. Bk.; _rite conditis Manibus_ the wanderings of the soul cease: Plin., _Ep._ 7, 27, 11; Luc., _Philops._ 31 fin.--The art of the ~ma/ntis~ and of the ~kathartê/s~ (and of the ~apoma/ktria grau=s~, Plu., _Superst._ 3, p. 166 A) is supposed to keep off such nocturnal terrors; it is "purification" precisely because it drives away such unholy beings. It is also a kind of ~katha/rsion~ that is employed when ~apomagdali/ai~ (instead of to the dogs: Ath. 409 D) are thrown out ~en toi=s ampho/dois ginome/nois nukterinoi=s pho/bois~ (Harmodios of Leprea ap. Ath. 149 C), i.e. to Hekate and her rout which also appears as a pack of hounds.