Note 22 — Chapter I · OLYMPIAN AND CHTHONIC RITUAL.

English has no convenient equivalent for ἀποτροπή, which may mean either turning ourselves away from the thing or turning the thing away from us. Aversion, which for lack of a better word I have been obliged to adopt, has too much personal and no ritual connotation. Exorcism is nearer, but too limited and explicit. Dr Oldenberg in apparent unconsciousness of θεραπεία and ἀποτροπή uses in conjunction the two words Cultus and Abwehr. To his book, Die Religion des Veda, though he hardly touches on Greek matters, I owe much.