Note 333 — Chapter II · THE SURVIVAL OF PAGAN DEITIES. (continued 2)

To this belief I attribute the origin of the phrase ὥρα τὸν ηὗρε, ‘an (evil) hour overtook him’ (Leo Allatius, op. cit. xix.), employed euphemistically in reference to ‘seizure’ by the Nereids, and of the kindred imprecation, κακὴ ὥρα νά σ’ εὕρῃ, ‘may an evil hour overtake you’ (Bern. Schmidt, op. cit. p. 97), which gains in force and elegance by its reversal of an ordinary phrase of leave-taking, ὥρα καλή.