Note 5 — Chapter I · OLYMPIAN AND CHTHONIC RITUAL.

So far as it is possible to distinguish the two, τὸ εὐσεβές is religion from man’s side, his attitude towards the gods, τὸ ὅσιον religion from the gods’ side, the claim they make on man. τὸ ὅσιον is the field of what is made over, consecrated to the gods. The further connotations of the word as employed by Orphism will be discussed later. ‘Holiness’ is perhaps the nearest equivalent to τὸ ὅσιον in the Euthyphron.