GROVES, SACRED. Groves associated with worship or religious rites. Such groves are found among many peoples. In the Authorized Version of the English Bible, the word 'grove' occurs fre quently as the translation of the Hebrew 'ashtl rah; this is generally admitted to be an error, and in the Revised Version the word is trans ferred without attempt at translation (see ASITERA). In two passages (Gen. xxi. 33; I. Sam. xxii. 6, margin) 'grove' represents the Hebrew 'eshel, tamarisk (cf. I. Sam. xxxi. 13). A shrine may have been connected with the tree mentioned in the last passage, and in the first it is stated that Abraham planted a tamarisk in Beer-Sheba "and called there on the name of Jehovah." There is mention of an oak by the sanctuary at Shechem (Joshua xxiv. 26) and at Bethel (Gen. xxxv. 8) ; certain other passages are by some interpreted as referring to trees (Authorized Version, `plain'; Judges iv. 11; ix. 6, 37). The tree occurs frequently on Assyrian sculptures.
Groves played an important part in connec tion with the religion of the ancient Greeks and Romans. To nature - worshipers, they seemed peculiarly .appropriate sites for temples
and oracles. The Greeks placed groves and forests under the protection of the god Pan, and tenanted them with nymphs called dryads or hamadryads. Some of the earliest Greek oracles were supposed to be given at Dodona through the rustling of oak-leaves. The famous Grove of Academe was a public garden outside of Athens, where Plato taught. Perhaps the most famous sacred grove of the ancient Hellenic world was Daphne, situated in the environs of Antioch on the Orontes, and consecrated by Seleu cus Nicator to the worship of Apollo. The Romans derived the foundation of their religion from Numa, as of their political life from Romu lus. Numa was believed to have received his religious instruction in a grove from a nymph Egeria. In this spot, thus consecrated by divine presence, lie erected, according to tradition, a temple to the Camentr. Seventeen miles south east of Rome was a place Nemi, where a famous temple was erected in a grove to Diana. See