The _megara_ themselves are of some importance; the name still survives in the modern Greek form Megara. _Megara_ appear to have been natural clefts or chasms helped out later by art. As such they were at first the natural places for rites intended to compel the earth; later they became definite sanctuaries of earth divinities. In America, according to Mr Lang’s account, Gypsies, Pawnees, and Shawnees bury the sacrifices they make to the Earth Goddess in the earth, in natural crevices or artificial crypts. In the sanctuary of Demeter, at Cnidos, Sir Charles Newton[314] found a crypt which had originally been circular and later had been compressed by earthquake. Among the contents were bones of pigs and other animals, and the marble pigs which now stand near the Demeter of Cnidos in the British Museum. It is of importance to note that Porphyry[315], in his _Cave of the Nymphs_, says, that for the Olympian gods are set up temples and images and altars (βωμούς), for the chthonic gods and heroes hearths (ἐσχάραι), for those below the earth (ὑποχθονίοις) there are trenches and _megara_. Philostratos[316], in his Life of Apollonius, says, ‘The chthonic gods welcome trenches and ceremonies done in the hollow earth.’ Eustathius[317] says that _megara_ are ‘underground dwellings of the two goddesses,’ i.e. Demeter and Persephone, and he adds that ‘Aelian says the word is μάγαρον not μέγαρον and that it is the place in which the mystical sacred objects are placed.’ Unless this suggestion is adopted the etymology of the word remains obscure[318]. The word itself, meaning at first a cave-dwelling, lived on in the _megaron_ of kings’ palaces and the temples of Olympian gods, and the shift of meaning marks the transition from under to upper-world rites. [Illustration: FIG. 11.] Art has left us no certain representation of the Thesmophoria; but in the charming little vase-painting from a lekythos in the National Museum at Athens[319], a woman is represented sacrificing a pig. He is obviously held over a trench and the three planted torches indicate an underworld service. In her left hand the woman holds a basket, no doubt containing _sacra_. There seems a reminiscence of the rites of the Thesmophoria, though we cannot say that they are actually represented. * * * * *