The two friends have crossed the Ilissus and are stretched on a grassy slope in the shade of a lofty plane-tree, beneath which is a spring of cool water pleasant to their feet as is the light breeze to their faces in the heat of the summer noon. The spot must surely be a favourite haunt of the rural gods, and indeed the statues close at hand attest its dedication to Pan and to the Nymphs. In such a situation there would be, according to modern notions, three distinct grounds for apprehending a 'seizure.' The neighbourhood of water is throughout Greece dreaded as the most dangerous haunt of Nereids[1], so that few peasants will cross a stream or even a dry torrent-bed without making the sign of the cross. Hardly less risky is it to rest in the shade of any old or otherwise conspicuous tree. If in addition to this the time of day be noon, it is not merely venturesome to trespass on such spots, but inexcusably foolhardy; for the hour of midday slumber is fraught with as many terrors as the night[2]. Any or all of these popular beliefs may have been present to Plato's mind as he wrote this passage; for the ancients numbered among those Nymphs, by whom Socrates was likely to be 'seized,' both Naiads and Dryads, who might be expected to resent and to punish any intrusion upon their haunts in stream or tree; while, as regards the hour of noon, the fear felt in old time of arousing Pan[3] from his siesta may well have extended also to Nymphs, who on this spot beside the Ilissus, as commonly elsewhere, were named his comrades.
The same kind of 'seizure' was denoted formerly by the phrase [Greek: echei ap' exô][4], 'he has it (i.e. a stroke or seizure) from without,' and the modern compound [Greek: 'xôparmenos][5] bears obviously a kindred meaning. The exact significance of [Greek: exô] in this relation is difficult to determine. Either it is only another example of the usage already noted in discussing the term [Greek: exôtika] and implies the activity of one of those supernatural beings who exist side by side with the powers of Christianity and are by their very name, 'an (evil) hour overtook him' (Leo Allatius, op. cit. xix.), employed euphemistically in reference to 'seizure' by the Nereids, and of the kindred imprecation, [Greek: kakê hôra na s' heurê], 'may an evil hour overtake you' (Bern. Schmidt, op. cit. p. 97), which gains in force and elegance by its reversal of an ordinary phrase of leave-taking, [Greek: hôra kalê].]
- ↑ Cf. Leo Allatius, De quor. Graec. opin. cap. xx. 'potissimum si fluentis aquarum solum irrigetur.'
- ↑ To this belief I attribute the origin of the phrase [Greek: hôra ton hêure
- ↑ See above, p. 79.
- ↑ Leo Allatius, op. cit. xix.
- ↑ From Epirus, Bern. Schmidt, op. cit. p. 120. See above, p. 142, note 2.
