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A look at information concerning what happened to the souls of those who died too young, who died violently, or whose bodies were left unburied; how they might suffer in the afterlife and consequently avenge themselves against the living who were responsible for their plight. Also treated is information about how the living might protect themselves against these dangerous ghosts, especially when they were embarking on initiation into mystery cults, and the role of ritual experts in such protection. Included is discussion of the Derveni Papyrus, the mysterious demon named Empousa, further discussion of Hecate and a first discussion of the Erinyes. Maschalismos—dismemberment of a corpse in order to hamper its ghost—is also treated.

The first part of this chapter begins with a review of Hecate’s appearances in texts and archaeological finds, treating the goddess Enodia—who was often identified with Hecate—as well. It argues that from the start, these goddesses were both boundary protectors, worshipped at the door or gate in order to keep ills such as demons and sickness out of houses or cities, and goddesses expected to help during birth. Hecate and Enodia were also concerned with the transitions of girls into successful female adulthood. The second part of the chapter reviews a number of rituals and myths connected with female maturation, in which unsuccessful females die and become demonic entities who persecute other girls during their transition to adulthood. A myth about Iphigenia turning into Hecate after her early death is one articulation of this pattern, as are stories connected with Helen and some lesser-known heroines. The connection between Hecate and Artemis (who was also a goddess charged with protecting girls until maturity) is examined in this light as well.

The aetiological story of Ate, told by Agamemnon in Book 19 of the Iliad, establishes a connection between the crucial moment when the main conflict of the epic is resolved and an important moment of transition on Olympus. While tying the time of men and the time of gods together in a shared ‘ever since then’, the aetion also marks a growing divide between the two, providing a vivid stratigraphy of Iliadic time. In Hesiod’s Theogony, three aetia that explicitly invoke the poet’s present revolve around the central event of the work, the birth of Zeus: the origin of Hecate’s powers, Zeus’ marking the start of his reign by planting the stone that his father Cronus had swallowed instead of himself in the earth of Delphi, and Prometheus’ theft of fire. These aetia create a particularly meaningful present moment: one that testifies to the different types of divine time and its interaction with human time—including the complex model of time embodied by Hecate and the linearity of time introduced by Zeus—and implicates the audience in the stability of this new order of the world. Finally, in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the aetion of how the lyre becomes a token of Hermes’ and Apollo’s friendship imbues the present with a strong sense of the connection with the divine sphere, even while the lyre itself as the instrument accompanying the performance of the hymn vividly enacts its own continuity.

Chapter 7 considers the general associations of drakontes with the earth, the underworld and underworld powers, notably Hecate and the Erinyes. Of particular interest is the propensity of the returning heroic dead to turn into the drakontes that move from beneath the earth to the surface and make themselves anew. Attica, ever proud of the autochthonous origins of its population, boasted a suite of foundational and protective anguiform heroes in Cecrops, Ericthonius, Cychreus and, as we contend, the lawgiver Drakōn. The following pair of chapters turns to the group of kindly anguiform deities that seemingly rises to prominence, at any rate qua anguiforms, and seemingly as a phalanx, in the late fifth century BC.

The Getty hexameters from Selinus, which antedate 409 bc, are a copy of a semi-official paean addressed to Paean, Heracles, and Asclepius, which also incorporates the spell of the Idaean Dactyls (Ephesia grammata). The incantation asks these gods to protect the city from the witchcraft, poisoning, and disease associated with Hecate and the Hydra. It was probably composed in the last quarter of the fifth century by an itinerant religious expert like those whom Aristophanes mocks in the Birds. Close analysis of its metre and language, and of parallel texts from elsewhere, shows that the archetype was in the version of the Homeric dialect that was used in the fifth century bc, but under the influence of tragedy (Aeschylus’ Psychostasia, Sophocles’ Rhizotomoi, and Euripides’ Hecuba). The Dorisms are superficial. A reconstruction and translation of the archetype is included. The paradosis suggests both written and oral transmission.

The Greeks associated a number of their deities with Anatolia, and there are many general resemblances between the two pantheons, and some types of deity seem to be common to both – e.g. fate goddesses, goddesses of springs. However, there are very few Greek theonyms which have close Hittite parallels, and examination of the evidence leads to the conclusion that there was no significant Hittite influence on the Greek pantheon, which is surprising, given that there was contact between Hittites and Greeks. Perhaps any interaction there was with Anatolia was with the West, i.e. Arzawa and earlier Assuwa, about whose religious traditions we are less well informed.

Chapter 2 examines epiphany in the course of a siege and during the actual battle (historical and mythical, attested both in literature and in inscriptions). This chapter emphasizes the predominance of amorphous epiphanies in the siege context, and discusses the phenomenon of ‘divine bilingualism’. In the battle context, however, heroes and demigods seemed to have been more prone to anthropomorphic manifestations, while the presence of major divinities was inferred either by pars pro toto or by amorphous manifestations. Occasionally, and within a more ritualized context, the divine may be present on the battlefield in an effigies form. The last section of this chapter examines the narratives which account for ‘stratagematic epiphanies’, i.e. fabricated epiphanies that take place in the course of a battle or a siege. The discussion culminates with a fresh reading of the well-known Phye episode as modelled on an anodos festival in honour of Athena.