For there is nothing so terrible when the earth blocks the way, or when its shadow meets the moon in due cycle of revolutions; what is terrible is that a man should plunge[281] into the darkness of superstition, [Sidenote: B] and that its dark shadow should confound a man’s reason and make it blind in matters where reason is most needed. _Glaucus, see! the waves already from the depth of ocean stirred, And a cloud is piling upwards, right above the Gyrean point, Certain presage of foul weather._[282] When the helmsman sees this, he prays that he may escape out of the peril, and calls on the Gods that save; but, while he prays, his hand is on the tiller, and he lowers the yard-arm, _Furls his mainsail, and from billows black as Erebus he flees._[283] Hesiod[284] tells the farmer to pray to Zeus below the earth and holy Artemis before he ploughs or sows, but to hold on to [Sidenote: C] the plough-handle as he prays. Homer[285] tells us that Ajax, before meeting Hector in single combat, commanded the Greeks to pray for him to the Gods; then, while they were praying, he was arming. Agamemnon, when he had given orders to the fighters: _Let each his spear set, and prepare his shield_, then begs of Zeus: _Grant that this hand make Priam’s halls a heap._[286] For God is the hope of valour, not the subterfuge of cowardice. The Jews, on the other hand, because it was a sabbath, sat on in uncleansed clothes, while their enemies planted their ladders and took the walls, never rising to their feet, as though entangled in the one vast draw-net of their superstition.[287] IX. Such then is superstition in disagreeable matters and on [Sidenote: D] what we call critical occasions, but it has no advantage, even in what is more pleasant, over atheism. Nothing is more pleasant to men than feasts, temple banquets, initiations, orgies, prayers to the Gods, and solemn supplications. See the atheist there, laughing in a wild sardonic peal at the proceedings, probably with a quiet aside to his intimates, that those who think this all done for the Gods are crazed and possessed; but that is the worst that can be said of him. The superstitious man wants to be cheerful and enjoy himself, but he cannot. _Rife too the city is with heavy reek Of victims slain, and rife with divers cries, The wail for healing and the moan for death._[288] [Sidenote: E] So is the soul of the superstitious. With the crown on his head he grows pale; while he sacrifices he shudders; he prays with a quivering voice and offers incense with hands that shake; he shows all through that Pythagoras[289] talks nonsense when he says: ‘We reach our best when we draw near to the Gods.’ For it is then that the superstitious are at their miserable worst; the halls and temples of the Gods which they approach are for them dens of bears, lairs of serpents, caverns of monsters of the sea!