Ariolists
Ancient diviners, whose special occupation was called ariolatio, because they divined by means of the altars. They consulted demons on their altars, says Dangis; they observed whether the altar trembled or performed any marvel, and predicted what the Devil inspired them with. According to François de la Tour Blanche, these people ought to have been put to death as idolators. He based his opinion on Deuteronomy, chap. xviii., and on Revelation, chap. xxi., where it is said that idolators and liars shall be cast into the lake of fire and sulphur, which will be their second death. Deuteronomy orders only the first. Aristœus: A charlatan who lived in the time of Cresus. He said that his soul would leave his body whenever he wished, and then return to it. Some maintain that it escaped in the sight of his wife and children in the figure of a stag. Wierius said that it took the shape of a crow. However that may be, Herodotus relates in his fourth book that Aristaus entering one day into a fuller's shop, fell dead therein, that the fuller ran to break the news to his parents, who came to bury him. But no corpse was to be found. The whole town was astonished, when some men returning from a voyage assured them that they had met Aristæus on the way to Crotona. It appeared that he was a species of vampire. Herodotus adds that he reappeared at the end of seven years, composed a poem and died anew. Leloyer, who regarded Aristœus as a sorcerer or ecstatic, quoted a certain Apollonius, who said that at the same hour as the vampire disappeared for the second time, he was transported to Sicily, where he became a schoolmaster. He is again heard of three hundred and forty years afterwards in the town of Metapontus, where he caused to be raised certain monuments which were to be seen in the time of Herodotus. So many wonderful happenings inspired the Sicilians with awe, and they raised a temple to him and worshipped him as a demi-god.