The Countryside

Lines of research in the study of Greek religion; importance of popular religion; agriculture and stockbreeding the foundations of Greek life in early times; Zeus, the weather god; weather magic; human sacrifices to Zeus Lykaios and to Zeus Laphystios; prayers for rain; stone heaps and their god, Hermes; stone heaps as tombs--Hermes Psychopompos; the herms; pastoral gods--Pan; the rivers and their gods--represented in the form of a bull or a horse; Poseidon, the god of water and earthquakes; centaurs; seilenoi and satyrs; nymphs; Artemis, the foremost of the nymphs; the Nereids in modern Greek belief; the sacral landscape; the heroes; sometimes the heroes appear as ghosts; cult of the heroes bound to their tombs and relics; transference of the relics; heroes helpful in everything, but especially in war; similarity of hero cult to the cult of the saints; the great gods less prominent in the rustic cults; the great gods disappeared, while rustic beliefs survived