The crises of illness and pain, the miracles of healing and birth, the mysteries of supernatural danger and death - these constitute for the Greeks the "Evil Hour". The "Evil Hour" is not the description of a moment, it is itself a demon, a goddess, a generator of pain. And it is with such powers and dominions, with their nature, their history, and their significance that this book deals.

The First Part of the work "Evil Hour" consists of the direct narratives of Greek shepherds and farmers recorded by the authors during an intensive study of three Greek villages.

The Second Part deals with a detailed analysis of the ethnographic material that reveals much about the way Greeks think, feel, and live in rural areas.

In the Third Part, a comparison is made between the themes of the narratives and those appearing in ancient Greek literature. Further comparative analysis shows that contemporary patterns of Greek folklore have much in common with beliefs and practices of rural culture in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Spain, southern Italy, and Morocco.

The approach of the authors offers both an artistic and a spiritual experience to the reader. It is an approach that follows the tradition of classical knowledge but is also strictly scientific when describing the role of storytelling in rural societies.