Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.5.7 · 1.5.7
The seers blame the gods below
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Οἱ δὲ ἐλθόντες ἔθυόν τε ἱερεῖα καὶ ποικίλα ἐπέσπενδον καὶ ἐπέλεγον φωνὰς βαρβαρικάς, ἐξιλάσκεσθαί τινας λέγοντες δαίμονας, καὶ προσεποιοῦντο ὡς εἴη τὸ δεινὸν ἐκ τῶν ὑποχθονίων θεῶν.
The seers and priests came and sacrificed victims, poured libations of every kind, and uttered foreign words, saying that they were appeasing certain spirits; and they made out that the trouble came from the gods below the earth.
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The setting
Book 1, chapter 5. The seers and priests go to work for Anthia.
A note on this passage
προσεποιοῦντο, "they made out," is a word for claiming or pretending, and it shows the narrator's doubt. Plato describes the same trade: begging priests and seers go to the doors of the rich, claim a power from the gods worked by sacrifices and incantations, and offer "releases and purifications" (λύσεις τε καὶ καθαρμοί) for wrongdoing (Republic 364b–e). λύσις, "release," is what Anthia's parents hoped the seers would find (1.5.6), and ἐπιλέγω, "to say over," is the verb for pronouncing a spell.
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