Theophanies of the Ancients

...throwing himself therefore into the river Inachus, as the same Plutarch says in his work on Inachus from the beginning; the rest, lest I pile up examples, I shall pass over, as they say, with a dry foot. The Latin idiom "sicco pede" means to pass over something quickly or without getting bogged down in detail.

From this, then, it happened that men—lest an unexpected meeting with the Divine Spirits Latin: Numinum should perhaps prove fatal to them—would flee from the sight of appearing Gods when they noticed their arrival, turning their eyes away, and would be shaken with continuous dread at the signs foretelling a deity's approach. For it more often used to happen that the Gods would indicate their arrival beforehand. This is why, in Claudian’s Claudius Claudianus (c. 370–404 AD), a Latin poet associated with the court of the Emperor Honorius. On the Rape of Proserpina, Book I, lines 7 and following, it is said:

Now I see the shrines move on their trembling
foundations, and the rooftops scatter a bright light,
bearing witness to the arrival of the God.
original Latin: "Jam mihi cernuntur trepidis delubra moueri / Sedibus & clarum dispergere culmina lumen / Aduentum testata Dei."

Therefore, when those standing nearby observed this, they preferred to be absent rather than present. This is excellently illustrated by a passage from Apollonius Rhodius, A 3rd-century BC Greek epic poet. Argonautica Book IV, line 1315, where Jason The hero of the Golden Fleece. is mentioned as turning his eyes away from the Libyan Nymphs at their arrival—even though they had come at the right time to help him and his companion as they struggled in the quicksands The Syrtes, dangerous shoals off the coast of Libya., and were thus bringing salvation rather than being oppressive or fearsome:

But he turned his eyes elsewhere and backward,
out of reverence for the divine beings.
original Greek: "Αὐτὰρ ὅγ’ εἰς ἑτέρωσε παλιμπετὲς ὄμματ’ ἔνεικε, / Δαίμονας αἰδεσθείς."

He truly (Jason) turned his eyes elsewhere and backward, out of reverence for the Goddesses. To this also refer the passage of Euripides, One of the three great Greek tragedians. where Ion, having suddenly seen a heavenly splendor above the temple of Delphi—signifying the approaching Minerva The Roman name for the Greek goddess Athena; in Euripides' play Ion, Athena appears as a deus ex machina at the end.—immediately says to his mother: