Is it because Geneta is a spirit concerned with the generation and birth of beings that perish? Her name means some such thing as ‘flux and birth’ or ‘flowing birth.’ 2 Accordingly, just as the Greeks sacrifice a bitch to Hecatê,3 even so do the Romans offer the same sacrifice to Geneta on behalf of the members of their household. But Socrates4 says that the Argives sacrifice a bitch to Eilioneia by reason of the ease with which the bitch brings forth its young. But does the import of the prayer, that none of them shall become ‘good,’ refer not to the human members of a household, but to the dogs? For dogs should be savage and terrifying. [p. 87]
Or, because of the fact that the dead are gracefully called ‘the good,’ are they in veiled language asking in their prayer that none of their household may die? One should not be surprised at this ; Aristotle,5 in fact, says that there is written in the treaty of the Arcadians with the Spartans : ‘No one shall be made good6 for rendering aid to the Spartan party in Tegea’ ; that is, no one shall be put to death.