who have now themselves become spirits inhabiting the earth. (Note besides the entirely similar custom in ancient India, Oldenberg, _Rel. d. Veda_, 582.)] [121\5: Electra in A., _Ch._ 486 ff., makes a vow to the soul of her father: ~kagô\ _choa/s_ soi tê=s emê=s pagklêri/as oi/sô patrô/|ôn ek do/môn _gamêli/ous_; pa/ntôn de\ prô=ton to/nde presbeu/sô ta/phon~.--As chthonic powers the Erinyes also send blessings on agriculture and the bringing-up of children. _Rh. Mus._ 50, 21. Prayer was also made to ~Gê=~ by those who desired to have children.] [122\5: ~Phano/dêmo/s phêsin ho/ti mo/noi Athênai=oi thu/ousin kai\ eu/chontai autoi=s hupe\r gene/seôs pai/dôn, ho/tan gamei=n me/llôsin~, Phot. Suid. ~tritopa/tores~.] [123\5: The form of the word itself shows that the ~tritopa/tores~ are simply ~pro/pappoi~. ~tritopa/tôr~ is the earliest ancestor, ~ho pa/ppou ê\ tê/thês patê/r~ (Arist. ap. Poll. 3, 17). Just as ~mêtropa/tôr~ is ~ho mêtro\s patê/r~ and ~patropa/tôr ho patro\s patê/r~ (Poll. 3, 16), ~propatô/r~ the forefather, ~pseudopa/tôr = pseudê\s patê/r, epipa/tôr~ the stepfather (~mêtromê/têr = mêtro\s mê/têr~)--in the same way ~tritopa/tôr~ is the third forefather, the father of the ~patropa/tôr~, i.e. the ~pro/pappos~. The ~tritopa/tores~ have an alternative form ~tritopa/trei=s~, Philoch. ap. Suidas ~tritopa/tores~: _SIG._ 443; _Leg. Sacr._ i, p. 49, l. 32, 52: in Orphic _verse_ this form alone, and not ~tritopa/tores~, could be used: see Lobeck, _Agl._ 764. They were in fact the ~tri/toi pate/res~ (just as {204} the ~trite/ggonoi~ are the ~tri/toi e/ggonoi~, the ~e/ggonoi~ of the third generation). But the "third forefathers" are in fact the first ancestors (Lobeck, 763 f.), ~hoi propa/tores~ (Hesych.), ~hoi prô=toi _archêge/tai_~ (_AB._ 307, 16)--the ancestors of the individual first of all, his bodily ~gonei=s~ (the series of whom was not generally counted beyond the ~pro/pappos~--Is. 8, 32--i.e. the ~tritopa/tôr~), and then the "ancestors" of the human race in general (acc. to the explanation of Philoch. ap. Phot. Suid. ~tritop.~; cf. Welcker, _Götterl._ iii, 73).--We cannot do more than refer here to the completely analogous ideas of the ancient Indians about the "three-fathers": the father, grandfather, great-grandfather, as the Sapinda-fathers beyond whom the line of ancestry was not traced (Kaegi, _Neunzahl_, pp. 5, 6).]