Orphic Masks and Burial Rituals: Unmasking King Philip II of Macedon
That is the gods’ work, spinning threads of death
through the lives of mortal men,
and all to make a song for those to come. Homer
The ancient Greek world was steeped in superstition and deisidaimonia, a ‘sanctimonious piety’. Not only did the gods above need pacifying, but also the daimons below. Thunder was Zeus’ anger, sea storms Poseidon’s wrath, and the dark mood of Demeter was responsible for crop failure and famine, if not a pestilence spread by Apollo.
