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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

in the following pages the attempt has been made to give some account of the methods of divination employed by the ancient Greeks, together with an analysis of the underlying principles or presuppositions which, however unconsciously, moulded their forms and main­tained their vitality. The dangers and diffi­culties of such an undertaking are obvious. Such analysis must always be philosophical rather than historical in the sense of present­ing a series of facts in a strict sequence of chronology. The fossils with which the student of religion must work are stratified culturally not chronologically, and their co­ordination must always bear something of an arbitrary aspect.

Again, thfe last fifty years have revolutionised alike the study of " natural man " and that of