Caves were the site of some of the most celebrated Grecian oracles. The tripod of the Delphian pythoness stood over a subterranean hollow, from which the divine inspiration was supposed to ascend; and pilgrims from all parts of Hellas resorted to a cave in the neighbourhood of Lebadeia, a city of Bœotia, and named after Trophonios, a mythical personage who was supposed to have lived there for many years, and was subsequently deified as an oracular god. Those who repaired to this cave for information were required, after passing some preparatory days in a chapel dedicated to Fortune and to the ‘good genius,’ to anoint themselves with oil, to bathe in a certain river, and to drink of the water of two neighbouring springs called Lêthê and Mnêmosynê, the first of which made them forgetful of the past, while the second fixed in their memory all they heard and saw in the cavern. They were then clothed in a linen robe, took a honeyed cake in their hands, and, after praying before an ancient statue of Trophonios, descended into the subterranean chamber by a narrow passage. Here it was that the future was unfolded to them, either by visions or extraordinary sounds. The return from the cave was by the same passage, but the persons consulting were obliged to walk backwards. They generally came out astonished, melancholy, and dejected. The priests on their return placed them on an elevated seat, called the seat of Mnêmosynê or remembrance, and the broken sentences they uttered in their confused state of mind were considered as the answer of the oracle. They were then conducted to the chapel of the ‘good genius,’ where by degrees they recovered their usual composure and cheerfulness. There can be no doubt that the priests introduced themselves into the cave by secret passages, and worked upon the excited imagination of their dupes by terrible sounds and apparitions. During the palmy days of the oracle, the neighbourhood of the Cave of Trophonios was decorated with temples and statues; at present its very site is uncertain. Like ancient paganism, Christianity not seldom celebrates her rites in caves hallowed by the memory of saints and anchorites. A stately church rises over the Grotto of the Nativity, at Bethlehem, and a magnificent pile has been constructed at Jerusalem over the rock-tomb in which our Saviour was buried. The grotto on Mount Carmel, to which the prophet Elijah retreated from the world, is now dedicated to divine worship, in the convent which bears his name; and the cave in which John the Evangelist is said to have written the Apocalypse during his exile in the island of Patmos has also been converted into a chapel.