thout, but this is less primitive. Sacrifice is a feast in which
the god's portion of the viands is first offered to him, and the
worshippers then eat and drink to their hearts' content. There is a
detailed description of the proceedings in _Iliad_ i. 456 _sqq._ Here
after the feast there is music; "All day long worshipped they the god
with music, singing the beautiful paean to the Fardarter (Apollo); and
his heart was glad to hear." "The gods appear manifest amongst us,"
we read in the seventh book of the _Odyssey_, "whensoever we offer
glorious hecatombs, and they feast by our side, sitting at the same
board." There is nothing of the nature of an expiation about such a
sacrifice; it is simply the renewal of the bond between the god and
those who look for his aid, when a new enterprise is about to be
undertaken or a solemn engagement is entered on. Prayers are very
simple. Thus prays the wounded Diomede to Athene (_Iliad_ v. 115):
"Hear me, daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus, unwearied maiden! If ever in
kindly mood thou stoodest by my father in the heat of battle, even so
be thou kind to me, Athene! Grant me to slay this man, and bring
within my spear-cast him that took advantage to shoot me, and
boasteth over me!"

As there are no bad gods, good and evil are considered to be sent by
the same beings. Thus there is a great deal of uncertainty in men's
relations to the gods. "All men need the gods," we read; the Homeric
hero regards the companionship of a god as proper and necessary for
his enterprises. But some trouble must be taken in order to secure
their favour. They must not be neglected; their signs must be
attended to; above all, a man must be reverent and must studiously
practise moderation in his conduct and in his ways of thinking; else
the gods may easily be offended or made jealous, and withdraw their
countenance. And if they are to a certain extent capricious, there is
another consideration which impairs confidence in them. They are not
all-powerful. There is a point beyond which they cannot give a man
any help. Each man has a fate or destiny, which the gods did not fix
and with which they cannot interfere. When his hour comes, they must
leave him to his doom; indeed they may even deceive him, and lead him
into folly so that his fate shall overtake him. The punishment of
crime, both in this world and afterwards, is committed to a special
set of beings, the Erinnyes. The gods who are most worshipped do not
exer