Now, according to the data given above, the cyclical intercalation was introduced before the beginning of the 6th century, most probably in the 7th; at most, on the strength of Hesiod and of Homer (who in the Odyssey knows only the beginning of the development, viz. Apollo as the god of the new-moon festival), we may go back to the 8th. But it has already been pointed out that in Greece the preliminary conditions for the arising of even the empirical intercalation, and much more of the cyclical, are lacking. Whence then has the latter come? This is the real enigma in connexion with the problem of the origin of the Greek time-reckoning. In my opinion the question can only be answered in one way: it has come from without, from the east, and originally from Babylonia. Here we are met with the difficulty that an intercalary cycle was not introduced into Babylonia before the 6th century. But, as we have already remarked, the knowledge that in eight years the lunar months could be brought by the intercalation of three months to fit into the solar year must have been reached long before, through a regular administration of the intercalation, although in Babylonia, where the intercalation was managed by a central authority, there was no reason for erecting this knowledge into a rule. In Greece matters were quite different. The land was split up into a great number of little states in one of which it might often happen that there was no one who could properly manage an empirical intercalation. And even if there were, the empirical intercalation must soon have led to variations in all these different states, and hopeless confusion must have arisen. Since Delphi was not a central court which could look after the intercalation, there must be established, if order was to be created,--and the whole movement started with this idea--a cycle which should be binding in the future. It seems to me a well-authorised view that the god Apollo came to Greece from Asia, and even apart from this there is reason to suppose that in the religion of Apollo there is a Babylonian element, viz. the prevailing importance of the seventh day of the month in the cult of the god. A similar preference for the seventh day of the month is seen again in the _shabattu_. And in point of fact it is originally only the seventh day that is brought into prominence, the other _shabattu_ being a later development from this[1197]; most of the Apollo festivals were rites of expiation and purification, and the _shabattu_ also are distinguished as such. The calendar also shews a second trace of connexion with Asia Minor. Besides Apollo there is only one deity, Hecate, that is closely connected with the calendar and the superstition of the days of the month, and it has been proved that this goddess too originated in Asia Minor[1198].