The two forms in which the worship of the ancients chiefly consisted were prayer and sacrifice. Prayer, either to all the gods together or to some single one, consecrated the beginning and end of the day; combined with libations, it attended the beginning and end of the meals, and was, in fact, an essential part of every important action of daily life. These prayers were, of course, of a general character, but there were other occasions when special prayers were used, adapted to particular cases; thus it was a matter of course that in the assemblies of the people the blessing of the god should be invoked on the discussion. When they set out to war they called on the help of the god in the coming fight, and similarly private citizens asked for divine aid in their undertakings and help in difficulties, though some wiser men--and especially those who had had a philosophical training--could not disguise from themselves that it was a foolish hope to expect that their prayers should necessarily be heard, and they looked upon prayer rather as a religious consecration of human actions. Kneeling and folding the hands were unknown to the ancients. In praying they stood and stretched out their hands to the region which they supposed to be the dwelling of the godhead invoked; thus, they held them upward when praying to one of the Olympian deities, forward when praying to a sea god, and down to the ground if the prayer was addressed to one of the infernal deities, at the same time trying to attract his attention by stamping on the ground. The commonest position was towards the east; when they prayed in the temple they turned towards the altar and the statue of the god, and sometimes even embraced the altar. In fact, the worship of the temple statues led to a very sensual conception of prayer; they not only threw kisses to the god they were worshipping, but even touched or kissed his statue; while suppliants threw themselves on the ground before the temple image, or at any rate knelt down before it.
In order to ensure the efficacy of the prayer, those who offered it must be free from every bodily and moral taint and, therefore, if necessary, submit to purification. There were a number of occasions which rendered a man unclean and unfit for intercourse with the deity; such were birth and death, which required the purification of all those who had come in contact with the mother or the dead person, not only in order that they might appear untainted before the deity, but also to prevent their communicating their impurity to others, and to enable them once more to enter into intercourse with human beings. Even apart from these special occasions it was impossible to tell whether some accidental contact might have produced impurity, and on this account it was usual to precede the act of prayer by washing, or, at any rate, by a symbolical purification, such as sprinkling with holy water. For this purpose a vessel with holy water and a whisk for sprinkling were placed in the entrance of every temple for the use of those who entered the domain; similar arrangements were made in private houses, and preference was given to flowing water, especially sea-water, which was supposed to have special purifying power; for sprinkling they used a branch of some sacred tree, such as laurel. This purification was extended not only to the person of those who approached the divinity, but also to their garments and the utensils used for prayer and sacrifice, as well as the dwelling generally; consequently, purification by fire and smoke--especially by means of burnt sulphur--played an important part along with the washing. There were also certain plants to which a purifying power was ascribed; thus, it was customary to hang up a sea-leek over the house door.