Note 666 — Chapter V · THE DEMONOLOGY OF GHOSTS AND SPRITES AND BOGEYS. (continued 2)

There is no evidence that can be relied on to show that before Aeschylus wrote his play the Semnae ever bore the title of Eumenides. Pausanias indeed (VII. 25. 1) quotes an oracle from Dodona ostensibly belonging to the mythical days of Apheidas, in which the title Eumenides is given to the goddesses of the Areopagos,

And this oracle, he says, the Greek called to mind when the Peloponnesians came against Athens in the time of Codrus. The passage stands alone, and oracle-mongering was rife at all times.