ABSTRACT
In the landscape of modern fiction, darkness, illuminated only by moonlight or flickering candles, recurs throughout horror and ghost stories. But not always: ghosts can appear in “fearless’” full daylight. Most ghosts in Greek and Roman stories are also nocturnal, but midday can be dreadful too. One important difference between ancient and modern data relates to the presence of religious and ritual frameworks in antiquity as contrasted with their almost total absence in the modern examples. However, there are also continuities of motifs as well as persisting, deep-seated psychological reactions.
