Chapter XII (2)

This custom of burning with the deceased the garments most esteemed in life is mentioned by Lucian as one of the weaknesses that “mortal flesh is heir to[181].” With a great soldier, such as Eetion or Elpenor, the armor was also burned[182]. If the deceased were a distinguished general, like Patroclus or Achilles, all present marched thrice around the blazing body[183].

As long as the pile continued to throw out fitful gleams and to consume the corpse, even if it lasted all night, the friends of the deceased never ceased pouring out libations[184] and calling upon his _manes_[185]. Just before the flames had entirely vanished, wine was poured on to extinguish the pyre, and whatever bones were left unconsumed were collected with the rest of the ashes into a vessel and buried. In the burials both of Patroclus and of Hector, this vessel is made of pure gold and the remains of the Greek are covered with a double layer of fat, while soft purple robes perform the same office for the Trojan[186].

There has been some little doubt expressed as to whether the body was entombed at the place where it was burned. In Terence’s Andria, where the Greek burial is depicted, both ceremonies are conducted in one spot[187]. On the other hand, in the Electra of Sophocles, Orestes, to deceive his perfidious mother, has an urn brought to her that is said to contain his ashes after he had been incinerated in Phocis[188]. Again, as a matter of history, we know that after Philopoemen had been cremated, his remains were carried back to the city in a triumphal procession[189]. So, on the whole, it is quite likely that the Roman poet mixed the habits of the Romans with the customs of the Greeks. Perhaps he was inaccurately informed on the subject. The entombment probably took place in quite a different section from that in which the body was burned.

VIII.

THE COFFINS.

Numerous excavations and the close scrutiny which modern scholars have given to Grecian graves have made it possible to state with considerable accuracy the materials employed for coffins, and the various styles of coffins, tombs and monuments used in ancient Hellas.

The earlier coffins were usually made of baked clay[190], but the authors inform us that, in the case of those Athenians who fell in battle, and whose bodies were not found, chests of cypress-wood were buried as cenotaphs[191]. Stone coffins, also, were probably used among the Greeks. There are preserved traces of a letter to Plato, from two of his friends, in which they speak of this burying stone, as found at Assos, in Lydia[192]. The elder Pliny mentions this stone of Assos, called the _sarcophagus_, or flesh-eating. He assigns, as the reason for its name, the fact that “within forty days, it is known certainly to consume the bodies which are placed in it, skin, flesh, bones, and all else save the teeth[193].”

The coffins of baked clay were rudely fashioned, as might be expected from such coarse material. One of the oldest kind of coffins was that in which Dionysus, according to the fable, laid away whatever was mortal of the beautiful Ariadne. That rude contrivance was composed of three flat plates of clay, forming a kind of triangular prism[194], so that this casket of the wine god’s wife must have been as picturesque and shapely as a piece of sewer-pipe. Sometimes, however, these pottery coffins were very highly decorated. They were painted in brilliant colors[195], with representations of lily-leaves and palms, the flowering acanthus and the lotus, and with wreaths and arabesques and intricate tracery.

At a later period, the sides of the triangle assumed a curved shape. A section of the coffin was a spherical triangle, and the coffin became more complicated and durable. Stackelberg gives a very careful description of the construction of this style, together with an illustration[196]. On the under layer of curved tiling, rest the bones of the deceased, at the sides are double layers of tiling, with one at the top. Two upright tiles close the ends. Another specimen of great interest is the coffin of a child, unearthed at Athens by Stackelberg, in the beginning of the present century. It has an elliptical form, and looks like a movable bath-tub. Many utensils were found in this coffin, packed away with the skeleton. They will be described hereafter[197].

IX.

THE TOMBS.

Of the tombs themselves, the recent excavations have also made us acquainted with the construction and the varieties. Cumanudis[198], a Greek archæologist, now living at Athens, enumerates eight distinct types of tombs. His classification is rather too minute in some respects. For all practical purposes, there were four kinds of tombs, differing from each other in general form. They were variously known as (a) the _stelae_ or shafts, (b) the _kiones_ or columns, (c) the _trapezae_ or square-cut tombs, and (d) the _naidia_ [heroia] or temple-like structures. There were also tombs which were merely heaps of earth. These mounds were not, however, unimportant; for it was possible to display there a lavish expenditure. The tomb of Alyattes, the father of Crœsus, according to Herodotus[199], was six stadia in circumference, that is, about two-thirds of a mile. It was made entirely of earth, except a base formed of great stones, and was declared by Herodotus to be a monument of art, second to none but those of the Egyptians and the Babylonians. This mass was raised by merchants, laborers and young women who obtained their money in a questionable manner. On many of the white lecyths, the mound can be seen to exceed the height of the persons depicted[200]. In a dialogue of Lucian[201], Hermes and Charon, from the top of Parnassus and Oeta, piled one on the other, contemplate the world and that which attracts their attention in the cemeteries of the large cities are the heaps of earth, the pillars and the funeral pyramids.

The _stelae_ proper were slabs of stone, standing upright in the ground. They were often made of marble[202]. The shape was frequently that of a little chapel, and they were usually of one piece, the upper part being designated the _epithema_[203]. This epithema was sometimes rounded like a coping tile, and sometimes fashioned like a gable. The latter form of the triangular arch was suggestive of a religious purpose and the attributing of divine honors to the dead, for this pediment belonged to the house of a deity. It was usually adorned with acanthus leaves, worked into arabesques, closely resembling those on the coffins[204]. The stele of a warrior, found in the Attic deme of Icaria during the excavations by the American School in February, 1888, has been an object of considerable interest to archæologists[205]. The slab of stone had been broken into three parts, but when compared with the well-known stele of Aristion, (found in 1838) the Icarian relief was found to correspond very closely with the older monument. The Icarian stele, when complete, must have been about eight feet high, and about a foot and a half wide at the base, tapering slightly as it rose. The figure is of a warrior in armor, holding an upright spear. There is unmistakable evidence that the details of the relief had been painted. The Lyseas stele (found in 1839) had a uniform surface, on which had been painted Lyseas, draped in a long himation, and engaged in pouring out a libation.

The _stelae_ and the tombs were frequently adorned with reliefs in which the details were probably finished by painting. The chapel-like form was convenient for the artist in carving the relief, since this afforded a retreating background, and gave the figures the appearance of being within the chapel or temple.

A favorite subject was an idealistic representation of the dying scene[206]. The occupation of the deceased is also indicated, and a mounted horseman is cut in relief on the tomb of a knight who fell at Leuctra[207]; on the tomb of an athlete is seen his figure, with his strigil and dog[208]; one who had taken prizes for declamation, music, ball-throwing and ring-tossing is represented with a scroll, a lyre, the ball and the ring[209]. Many similar carvings and paintings have been recently discovered. Pausanias refers to this custom of decorating the tombs, and mentions the picture at Sicyon, on the monument of Xenodice, who died in child-birth, as particularly worthy of examination[210].

Many tomb-stones were evidently intended for general application, since the inscription sometimes fails to correspond in every respect with the relief, but other scenes were wrought out for the particular occasions on which they were erected. To this latter class must have belonged the monument at Athens[211], where the figures are of heroic size, representing a youth in the full vigor of early manhood, accompanied by an old man, leaning on a cane. In the hand of the young man is a stout club, an attendant is sleeping at his feet, while his dog is watchfully alert. There is no inscription to inform us who is commemorated by this monument, nor what artist has left this wonderful evidence of his genius and skill, but the subject is treated with marvellous vigor and grace.

The siren was a familiar figure on the tombstone either singly or in couples, signifying that, by their song, the dead were constantly lamented and the living consoled. A small tombstone in the Berlin Museum contains a lady engaged in her toilet with the assistance of an attendant maid and, above them, two sirens are engaged in playing, the one on the lyre and the other on the flute.

Very frequently the scene represented typifies the separation of the deceased from the relatives who stand sorrowfully about. To the Greek, there was a solemn dignity in death and that sentiment finds expression in these reliefs by the representation of the deceased as seated and rather larger than the other persons of the group. The nearest relative bids farewell to the seated figure by clasping hands. In the particulars that have been mentioned, the scene, in every instance, is nearly the same but, in other details great variety is introduced. Now, it is a husband who holds the hand of his departing wife while her sister stands by her side and the long sleeved servant is behind the chair resting her hand upon the back of it, as if ready to render instant service. Again a mother is going away from her little daughter and, at the moment of departure, has placed her arm tenderly about the child and bends sadly over her. The servant stands as usual behind the deceased. In another scene, the infant in the arms of one of the group would suggest that distressing incident in family history, the death of the young mother in, or near child-birth. In this group too, there remains the hand and long sleeve of the servant. In all these pictures, if it is a lady who is commemorated, she is represented as holding her veil in a peculiarly graceful manner, which occurs so frequently as to suggest a symbol of departure.

Some of the monuments present scenes of every day domestic life or of a lady engaged about her toilet. In a relief, found at Athens, some kind of a repast or feast is shown. A bearded man reclines upon a couch and holds a plate or saucer in his hand, his wife is seated at his feet and a naked cup-bearer is near at hand. A friend stands at the head of the couch and the dog lies under it.

The lecyth was not an uncommon form of the funeral monument. The sculptor, in that case, made the vase of colossal size and decorated it with scenes of curious interest. On one of them Hermes Psychopompe is leading away a beautiful figure to the land of shades. The form of some of the monuments and the inscriptions on them indicate that they had a double purpose to serve and that, in addition to being memorials of the dead, they were votive offerings to the departed, who had become objects of worship.

In this connection, it may be instructive to refer to the vigorous contest which has been waged between different archaeologists over the interpretation of the representations of feasts on the sepulchral monuments, reliefs and pictures. The most probable explanation seems to be that the central figures are not deities[212] but the deceased receiving that nourishment which he required, as well after death as while living, that the patera or the wine cup is extended to receive the libation or the food, that the horse and dog were the images of those faithful domestic animals whose usefulness would be as great in the Elysian fields as during life. The pomegranate in the hand of the feaster confirms the opinion that he is a deceased mortal, that fruit being appropriate to the dead after the analogy of Persephone who was subtly induced by the god of the lower world to taste the pomegranate and thereafter could never return entirely to the upper light. The presence of the serpent is more difficult to explain, although the incident of the large snake that twined about the body of Cleomenes in Egypt and drove away the birds of prey may assist in clearing up the mystery. Plutarch says that some of the Alexandrians being terrified at the sight of the serpent clinging to the body of Cleomenes, it was pointed out that as bulls develop bees after death, and horses produce wasps, so the human body, as it decayed, turned into snakes. The wife of the deceased is seated because the reclining posture at the table was peculiar to the men and was never assumed by a modest woman.

The second species of tomb, the _Kion_ or column was very shapely, having a double base and an Ionic fluting at the top. In the representations on some of the lecyths, are the figures of the friends of the deceased who have come to the _Kion_ to offer services in various ways. The objects that are seen in their hands are varied, being mostly offerings for the dead, although some are articles necessary for the performance of the funeral rites, while others are articles of the toilet.

The third division of the tombs is the so-called _trapezae_. It was a tomb of this species that was used to mark the resting-place of the orator Isocrates and his immediate[213] relatives. It was probably this style of tomb that Cicero called the _mensa_, the expense of which Demetrius Phalereus limited[214].

The _heroum_ or fourth division of the tombs, possessed many of the features of the Greek temple, with which every student of art or literature is familiar. The imposing façade was always present, even when other parts were wanting, in consequence of the situation’s forbidding elaborate development of the rest of the exterior. The structure which the moderns have united in designating as a “chapel” bears the closest resemblance to the _heroum_. Indeed, the _heroum_ differed from many small temples only in that its opening faced toward the west, while the entrance to the temple looked in the opposite direction[215].

There is a marked difference in this latter respect, between the Egyptian and the Grecian Tombs. In the great necropolis of the ancient Egyptians at Memphis and Thebes, the door, the external inscriptions and the entablatures of the tombs, almost without exception look toward the east; while, at Abydos the tombs often face the south; but, in neither place do they open to the west[216]. So general is this disposition of the opening that Champollion and other writers on the subject have made the fact the basis of an elaborate “assimilation” between the life of man and the career of the sun, declaring that the dead yearns toward the rays that shall illumine his night and draw him from his long sleep[217]. Accordingly he is placed so that he shall catch the first beams of the morning, or at noon behold the full vigor of the god of day.

The _heroa_ must have been very numerous in Greece. That fact is indicated by a chapter from the history of the Peloponnesian war[218]. From the earliest times, the Athenians had been accustomed to live in the country and, before the time of Theseus, Attica was occupied by independent towns, each of which had its own king. So that in the Peloponnesian war, when Archidamus, the Spartan king, approached Athens, about the year 430, B. C., Pericles advised the Athenians who lived outside the walls to bring their families and their effects into the city. They followed the advice of Pericles but the city was crowded and, since they were without shelter they were obliged, with very few exceptions, to take up their abode in the temples and the _heroa_.

The Greeks were very proud of these elaborate monuments, which were reminders to the world of the virtues of their ancestors and relations, and these sepulchres passed down from generation to generation as an inheritance which the heir expected to transmit when he had been received therein[219].

These _heroa_ as a rule, however, were erected in memory of some great man at that period when death had brought about an indefiniteness and haziness of view which exaggerated his achievements into heroic proportions. The Theseum was a notable instance of such a monument. Here, it was believed, were deposited the bones of Theseus after they had been brought back to Athens, and here was a general asylum for criminals[220] who fled from the penalty of their misdeeds. One of these tombs was erected over the remains of Lycus[221]; and a certain Germanicus, a _didaskalos_ or school master, apparently obtained so great a reputation that a _heroum_ was built in his honor[222].

A whole family was often buried in the same _heroum_. There is reported an instance of a man’s buying one of these temple-tombs for himself, his wife and child[223]; and, in the third century, a rich woman, probably of Thera, left by her will three thousand drachmas, almost six hundred dollars for the erection of a _heroum_ (which she terms a _museum_), in honor of herself, her husband and her two sons. She directed that sacrifices shall be offered to them as heroes for three days in each year[224]. In the early period, when Athens was under Cecrops, the burials were simple and inexpensive, but, shortly after Solon’s time, it became so common to spend vast sums on the tombs that a law was passed to check the outlay. Cicero says that the elaborateness of the grave was limited to what ten men could accomplish in three days[225]; but Plato, in prescribing the limit which should be observed, states, as has been before mentioned, that it should only be as high as five men could build in five days[226]. Plato would add the further restriction that no stone monument should be built larger than to receive four hexameters in praise of the deceased[226]. From many indications in literature, however, there is reason to believe that Plato’s suggestion was not adopted. Diogiton, who was doing his best to defraud his wards of their money by spending as little as possible for their needs, purchased a memorial for their father at twenty-four _minae_ (about five hundred dollars). This seems to have been considered a niggardly sum for the purpose[227]. On the other hand, the tomb which Phormio erected in honor of his wife cost him over two talents, which is over two thousand five hundred dollars[228]. In memory of Isocrates, there was erected a monument forty-five feet high, on which was a siren ten feet and a half in height, emblematic of his eloquence[229].

It was such expenditures as these that led Demetrius Phalereus, about the beginning of the fourth century before Christ, to make another attempt to check funeral extravagance. He tried to set a limit to the new tombs by forbidding any tomb but the _kion_ to be more than four and a half feet high and by putting a special officer in charge of the matter, but all his efforts proved vain[230].

The inscription that was carved on the tomb contained, as is still the custom, the name and a few notices about the life of the departed. In addition to those details, the Greeks, at a later period, sometimes set forth a curse on any one who should presume to desecrate the grave in any way. Although this peculiar protection of the last resting-place is not at present resorted to among us, yet it is but a few centuries since the custom was not uncommon in England. It will be instructive to compare one of the older imprecations of the Hellenes with the famous inscription on the tomb of Shakespeare, composed possibly by the bard himself. The Englishman wrote:

“Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbeare,
To digg the dust enclosed heare;
Bless be he yt spares these stones,
And curst be he yt moves my bones.”

That is somewhat more concise, if not quite as pointed as some Greek inscriptions, one of which reads as follows:

“I summon to the guardianship of this tomb the lower gods, Pluto, Demeter, Persephone and all the others. If any one despoils it, opens it, or in any way disturbs it, by himself or an agent, may his journey on land be obstructed, on the sea, may he be tempest-tossed and thoroughly baffled and driven about in every way. May he suffer every ill, chills and fevers, remittent and intermittent, and the most repulsive skin diseases. Whatever is injurious and destructive in life may it fall on him that dares remove anything from this tomb[231].”

On the other hand, some of the Grecian tombs, like that of the English poet, contain also all manner of blessings and wishes for the absence of evil for him and his posterity who may guard the tomb and perform the sacrifices and other customary rites[232].

To make sure that no one disturbed the bones, directions were sometimes left in wills that the grave of the testator be watched by slaves[233].

These inscriptions, if they contained imprecations so elaborate as that presented above, must have been rather extended. In some states of Greece, the inscription was very short. The Sicyonians, on the columns which they raised to the dead, usually placed the name of the departed, without stating his ancestry, but exhorting the passer-by to wish well to his remains[234]. Lycurgus would not permit the Spartans to inscribe the name of the deceased on the tomb, unless he had fallen in battle; or if the deceased were a woman, unless she had died in some sacred office[235].

At Athens, there are found monuments inscribed to deceased children and it would seem that this honor was bestowed without reference to the age of the dead. A tomb has been discovered with an inscription to a child of seven that was lost on a mountain[236]. Two other epitaphs are dedicated to children who were but two years old ere “disease had stopped their life[237].”

If we still possessed the book of Diodorus, or according to some, Heliodorus, entitled “About Monuments,” it would undoubtedly prove a mine of information. Plutarch has referred to him, to determine the places of sepulture both of Themistocles[238] and Hyperides[239].

In the tomb, with the dead body, were placed various vessels and trinkets. In the coffin found at Same, were two small _lacrimatories_ of unbaked clay; a wine beaker; the _kylix_, a kind of libation vessel; the _prochoos_, a pitcher usually having two handles and used for holding pure wine or water; an alabaster box for jewels, called the _kylichne_; and a bacchic mirror cover[240]. The child’s coffin, previously mentioned[241], disclosed eleven different vessels and four clay images of _Gaea Olympia_ in a sitting posture. The vessels were three _lecyths_, two large _cotyli_, one small _cotylus_, used for catching the blood of the victim which was sacrificed, a lamp, a _diota_, and a sort of child’s plaything[242].

Besides these vessels, tombs have been found in which all sorts of jewelry figured as parts of the contents, such as golden finger rings set with garnets, gold ear-rings wrought in fantastic shapes, and cornelian ear-rings. Some of the tombs contain wreaths of laurel, oak, olive, or myrtle, sometimes interwoven with gold; while a brass buckle with an allegorical representation of Cupid in the palestra, a golden girdle, female statues, figures of Persephone and Hecate, a statue of a priestess of Dodona with a dove on her shoulder, and mirrors with brazen handles and backs have all been found[243].

This custom of interring valuables with the deceased was very old. When the so-called grave of Alcmene was opened by Agesilaus, there were discovered within, a small brazen armlet and two jars, containing earth which had become petrified. This grave must have been dug in very ancient times, for tablets of brass were found within written in unintelligible characters[244].

This practice of burying various articles with the dead must have continued during the best period of art in Greece. That fact is attested by the workmanship of the vases that have been exhumed. They are many of them of the finest quality and artistic excellence. The custom however, had died out before the Christian era, for the colonists whom Caesar had sent out to restore Corinth, in moving the ruins and digging open the sepulchres, came across works of pottery and brass, the workmanship of which was greatly admired and the vessels sold readily at fabulous prices as curiosities[245].

There seems to have been no one place at Athens selected for the situation of all the tombs except for those who died in poverty. Those Athenians who left no land or money behind them were entombed in a public cemetery. This place was situated just outside the city[246] on one of the roads to the Peiraeus[247]. The Itonic gate, through which the bodies of these paupers were carried, was, on this account, called the “gravegate[248].” The people of the richer classes, when they possessed a bit of land, often directed that they should be interred therein; so it happened that there was no large assemblage of graves at any one place. In one of Demosthenes’s orations, the stone-cutter comes to the house that he may complete the tomb in the neighboring field[249]. More frequently the graves were constructed by the side of some much traveled road where the passer-by might observe the monument. From an inscription on a child’s tomb, we learn that “her parents sorrowfully buried her at the junction of three roads[250].” The square cut tombs of Isocrates and his relations, which have been described, were situated near the Cynosarges, the great exercising ground[251], while Thucydides was buried in the family burying ground of Cimon[252], near the Melitic gate[253].

The place of interment, as one might suppose, belonged exclusively to the family, and strangers were forbidden burial there by some well accepted law of the Athenians[254]. This law, together with that making it a crime to destroy a tomb, is attributed by Cicero to Solon[255]. Accordingly, from the fact of a person being buried in the tomb of a certain family, the orators sometimes argued his relationship with that family, for the purpose of establishing the connection of some direct descendant. By that method, Demosthenes sought to prove the descent of Eubulides from Buselus[256], and, in the same manner, demonstrated to the court the citizenship of Euxitheus[254].

In the earliest times, the reason for selecting the former residence of the deceased as a place of burial was that the departed might be near his family[257]. Later, however, in many of the states, there were enactments passed which prohibited interments within the city limits. At Delos, after 425 B. C., the Athenians cleared the whole island of those already interred there, and commanded that, thereafter, all corpses should be carried to the adjoining small island of Rhene[257]. Among the Sicyonians, there was an ancient law against burials within the city walls, and it had been so religiously observed that even when the great Aratus died, the people hesitated about entombing him in the city until re-assured by a special dispensation from the Delphic oracle[258]. The Athenians were so particular about preserving the very letter of a similar law that even the cenotaphs of those who had been slain in battle were erected in a beautiful suburb of the city[259] on the way which led to the Academy[260].

The motive of these states in requiring burial outside the walls, was without doubt, to avoid the ceremonial contamination supposed to arise from the proximity of corpses.

Possibly, as was the case in ancient Rome, the effect on the sanitary condition of the city made it desirable to remove the burying ground[261]. The very existence of such laws indicates that the citizens must, at some time, have experienced the ill effects of burials within the city.

There were states, however, which, for various reasons, preferred that the interments should be within the walls. That was the case at Sparta, where we should naturally expect to find laws directly the contrary. Lycurgus even permitted the Spartans to raise tombs near the temples. This he did that he might insure the graves against the violence of the enemy[262], and that, at the same time, he might accustom the youths to the sight from infancy, so that they might have no horror of death[263]. Again, the Tarentines, in compliance with an oracle, buried all their dead within the walls in a part of the city toward the east[264]. The Megareans also had within their city, the sepulchres of those who had fallen in the war against the Medes, and likewise a heroic monument called the Aesymnium. The origin of this custom was as follows: Aesymnus, having been sent to Delphi to ask the oracle what the Megareans should do to be happy, returned with the response that this might be if a number of them were “congregated together.” This they interpreted to mean the burial of their dead in one place, and accordingly, they instituted a new cemetery in the city[265].

X.

THE FUNERAL FEAST.

During the days of preparation for burial and that on which the departed was entombed, his relatives either overcome by sorrow or bound down by the usages of the time, had been fasting. This abstinence had the usual effect, and, by the time the remains of the dear one had been laid under ground, his immediate family were almost ready to faint with hunger. That they might no longer thus afflict themselves and that their friends might offer them suitable comfort, the Greeks instituted the _perideipnon_, or funeral feast[266]. At this feast, the dead man was considered the host and it was regarded as his expression of thanks to his comrades for their courtesy in burying him[267]. Since it was the duty of the nearest surviving relative to provide for all the customary obsequies[268], properly this entertainment was provided at his house[269]. When the question of a funeral feast in honor of Patroclus was considered, Achilles, being his nearest friend then present, prepares for it in his own tent. The _perideipnon_ for all those who had lost their lives in behalf of Greece at the disastrous battle of Chaeronea was held at the house of the orator Demosthenes. That was for the reason, as he himself states, that although each was nearer to his own kin than the orator, yet no other man was so near to them collectively[270].

The perideipnon was the beginning of a series of feasts or ministrations having for their object the nourishment of the dead in their new state of existence[271]. It was a belief common to some other earlier nations as well as the Greeks that those who had experienced the change of death were still in need of food and drink and it was conceived to be the duty of the living to satisfy the desire for sustenance of that nature. The ancient Hindus believed that, at the feasts, the _manes_ of their ancestors seated themselves at the table near the living and enjoyed the viands set before them. The Greeks seem to have entertained the same belief and to have followed the same custom. Those rites long outlasted the beliefs which gave rise to the observances. The provision of material food for the dead was not only regarded as a duty but was viewed as a means of propitiating their good will.

If the funeral repasts were not continued at frequent intervals, it was believed that the spirits became malevolent and came out from the tombs, that the wandering shades could be heard in the silent night, reproaching the survivors with impious negligence and that they sought to punish their recreant relatives with sickness and unfruitfulness of the soil, until the neglected office was resumed.

It was the habit of the Greeks at these festivals, to recount whatever virtues the deceased may have possessed, but, quite contrary to the modern notion of the obituary and the epitaph, no exaggeration or embellishment was allowed, for it was reckoned impious to lie on such occasions[272]. It was from this usage of presenting the best view of the dead, that there arose the sarcasm applied to bad characters, “you would not be praised even at your funeral entertainment[273].” At this supper, whatever fragments might chance to fall from the table were always consecrated to the _manes_ of the departed[274]. Pythagoras, having in mind, perhaps, the belief that all which fell to the floor belonged to the dead, strictly forbade his disciples to pick up the particles they may have dropped in any of their feastings[275].

XI.

SACRIFICES AT THE GRAVE.

The last step, or rather steps, in the obsequies, were the succession of sacrifices which were performed in honor of the deceased at his grave. No one but a relative was allowed to offer these sacrifices since a person visiting a strange tomb was suspected of a design to steal the bones for superstitious purposes[276]. This oblation to the dead was discriminated among the Hellenes from the ordinary sacrifices to the gods by a word peculiarly appropriated. The word which indicated this species of offering was _enagisma_ and the idea implied in it may best be rendered into English by the word “purification[277].” The _enagisma_ seems to have been divided, according to its character, into two kinds of sacrifice; namely, the _choe_, or “libation,” and the _haimacouria_ or “blood-propitiation.” The _choe_ or milder form, consisted merely of a libation of water, milk or wine, together with an offering of olives, honey and wreaths of flowers, “the offspring of all-producing earth[277].” At the _haimacouria_, on the other hand, before the wine was poured, it was the custom to slay a black ram[278] or a black bull[279]. This blood sacrifice, however, was probably used only when they were sacrificing in honor of a number of men. For instance, the warriors who were slain in Boeotia, while defending Greece from Mardonius, had that ceremony, on the anniversary day of each year, performed at their graves by the archon and the inhabitants of Plataea[279]. By the law of Solon, heifers, as victims, were proscribed in these solemnities[280].

The offerings, however, were gradually made more and more expensive until, on some occasions, a regular feast was laid out and consumed by fire. In a Greek dialogue that has come down to us, the old ferryman, Charon, who had come to the upper world to view the customs of men, expresses his surprise at these sepulchral propitiations. “Why then,” says he, “do they crown these stones and perfume them with unguents? Why do they heap up funeral pyres before the graves and burn these expensive feasts and pour wine and a mixture of honey and water into this trench[281]?”

The sacrifices at the sepulchre took place on stated days. At the first of these ceremonies, called the _trita_, from the fact of its falling on the third day[282] after the interment, a lunch was brought out for the corpse[283]. Following that tertial offering, came another, the _ennata_, on the ninth day. This ninth day sacrifice, since Aeschines speaks of it as if it were the only one to be considered[284], and since Isaeus mentions the great expense connected with it[285], was very probably of more importance than the others. It is uncertain of what it consisted, since it is not specified in any of the Grecian authorities; but, if any reliance can be placed on the description of a Roman author, it was a regular banquet prepared for the deceased[286]. The _ennata_ among the Athenians, inasmuch as we find no mention of anything farther in our ancient writers, probably concluded the customary ceremonies. The Argives, varied these rites by omitting the _trita_ and _ennata_, and substituted a sacrifice on the first and on the thirtieth day. It was their custom upon losing one of their kindred or friends to sacrifice immediately to Apollo and thirty days after to Hermes[287]. The Spartans, on the other hand, always moderate in all their passions, limited their sacrifices to one on the twelfth day to Ceres, after which they ceased to mourn outwardly[288]. But, with the Athenians, the completion of the obsequies by no means ended all the customary observances of a mourner. The thirtieth day, however, seems to have been the limit set at Athens for the public manifestation[289]. Any semblance of happiness on the part of the mourner before that time was strongly disapproved. Aeschines makes a serious accusation against Demosthenes when he denounces him for having offered sacrifices of thanksgiving for the death of Philip when his daughter had been dead only seven days[290]. Euphiletus, an every-day citizen of Athens, has his suspicions of his wife’s infidelity intensified and corroborated, because one day, before her brother had been dead thirty days, he discovered her with her cheeks painted[291].

Of the objects that were employed in the sacrifices and services at the tomb, the basket that serves to carry the offerings to the column is always in the hands of a woman. It is always the same in appearance, long, without a cover and shallow. This basket is often mentioned in the descriptions of religious ceremonies[292], where it is called _kanoun_, _kanes_ and _kaniskion_. It appears on the bas-reliefs as well as on the vases. The young girls who carry the offerings at the Panathenaia are called _canephorae_[293] from the name of this basket.

The casket, which the women hold in the paintings, is usually a quadrangular box with a flat cover, and sometimes has little projecting feet to support it. This casket sometimes contains a precious offering, such as a golden statuette or a lyre of ivory[294].

The vases, of all the accessories of the funeral, are the most varied in form and usefulness. The _hydria_ was used to mix the liquids for funeral libation, the _oenochoe_ and the _prochoos_ contained the pure wine or water, the _phiale_ was a kind of shallow plate employed for making the libation, the _phlemochoe_ was a vase having the form of a top (a rim placed inside this vase retained the solid part of the contents and permitted only the purest part of the liquid to be poured out), the _alabastron_ and the _aryballa_ held the oil which was poured on the stone column for anointing it and perfuming it, as if it were the dead person himself[295].

The repast prepared for the dead was presented in two forms: (a) fruits or cakes placed in a basket, (b) a libation poured out on the steps of the pillar. It is difficult to determine the nature of these fruits or this food. Our only knowledge is obtained, for the most part, from the paintings on the vases and the resemblance of an egg to a pomegranate is so close that the object in the picture may be mistaken for either. The delineation of the cake is not altogether clear, although without doubt the honey-cake, the _melittouta_, is intended. This cake is mentioned by Aristophanes[296], and was composed of meal and honey. For the libation, they used water or pure wine or milk, and sometimes a liquid made from honey[297]. The pictures that have been mentioned have no representation of the libations of blood nor holocausts of victims that occur in the authors.

With rare exceptions, the basket containing the offering is borne by women, and it is women who bind the bands around the pillar and place the crowns on the base. Their gestures are, in general, calmer and more measured in the ceremonies at the grave than in the _prothesis_. Some of them, however, are yet seen carrying their hands to their heads, as if to tear out their hair, but their usual attitude is tranquil. There is less of the expression of grief than of religious respect and melancholy resignation. Yet one of the gestures appears to signify something more than vague regret and reverence. In a certain number of the paintings, the characters depicted extending their hands toward the tomb, or raising them to their faces bring together the thumb and forefinger, in a manner specially noticeable. In the museum of Dresden, there is an ancient monument representing the seizure of the tripod of Delphi by Hercules; a priestess is attaching some bandalettes to it; she raises her right hand, pressing together the thumb and forefinger. The vases, also, offer other examples of this gesture, which is plainly ritualistic.

M. Benndorf regards, also, as a ritualistic gesture, the open hand extended toward the pillar, with the palm turned downwards. He supports this opinion by a citation from Euripides[298], where the slave of Admetus extends his hand after that manner. Another verse[299] of the same poet, evidently alludes to this custom. All these attitudes appear on the paintings of the white lecyths, and confirm the opinion that they express religious homage rendered by the living to the dead, and were part of the funeral ceremony.

Another peculiar observance is seen where the mourners extend their hands toward the tomb, with a motion which seems to indicate that they talk to the dead. These are the pictures of familiar conversation, bearing the formula of adieu, _chaire_, or a little dialogue between the deceased and a passer-by.

There appears, also, to have been a custom of making music at the foot of the tomb, for the purpose of cheering the deceased in his solitude. The instrument used is the lyre. On one of the paintings, it is a young man, probably the deceased, sitting, who holds the lyre while the assistants appear to listen.

Such were the practices of the Greeks while the bereavement was recent, but it was always the duty of the survivors, as long as their lives might last, to tend their ancestors’ graves. Socrates, to rebuke his son, who has been angered with his mother, and to impress upon him how necessary it is properly to respect one’s parents in their lifetime, reminds him that it is the custom for the state, in its examination of candidates for the archonship, to inquire if they have kept in good condition the graves of their ancestors[300].

Leocrates, who, in violation of the law, had left Athens during the critical period following the battle of Chaeronea, is arraigned by Lycurgus for having abandoned his native land, having neglected the religion of his country, and having deserted the tombs of his forefathers[301]. To the Athenian mind, Isocrates made a most touching appeal, when he represented the Plataeans as being in such a decimated condition that not enough of them were left to tend the graves of those who had defended Greece against the Persians. After this master-stroke, nothing was left for the Athenians to do but to make war on the impious Thebans, who had so mercilessly reduced their allies[302]. Finally, listen to the exhortation which Aeschylus, in “The Persians,” attributes to the herald before the battle of Salamis:

“Advance! O, sons of Greece! preserve the freedom of your native land; keep from foeman’s grasp your children, your wives, the temples of your ancestral gods, and the sepulchres of your progenitors. Now the struggle is for all[303].”

XII.

FURTHER CEREMONIES.

In addition to the appointed sacrifices, there were apparently other celebrations held at stated times beside the tomb. These seasons Plato euphemistically called “days not to be mentioned,” and he did not, think it right at that time to hear sorrows of any kind[304]. These latter celebrations seem to have consisted for the most part of libations to the dead, and to have been celebrated by a cessation from the ordinary duties[305]. One of these mourning holidays was that called _genesia_[306]. From its apparent derivation, it may be assumed to have been the celebration of the birthday of the deceased. This conjecture is strengthened by the will of Epicurus, found in Diogenes Laertius[307], in which he directs his heirs to arrange offerings to the _manes_ of his father, mother, brothers and himself, and to celebrate his birthday each year on the tenth of the month _Gamelion_. Herodotus also mentions the fact that the Greeks, like the Issedones, had annual sacrifices for the dead. Whether he refers to the _genesia_ or to another yearly offering known as the _nekysia_ or to both is uncertain[308].

This _nekysia_ was a general holiday for all Athens and was dedicated to all the dead. It consisted of the same sort of sacrificing as that which took place on the anniversary of the birthday[309]. Besides these ceremonies, it was customary, in the very early times, to institute funeral games in honor of the deceased shortly after the burial. On the death of Azan, according to the myth, son of Arcas, the king from whom Arcadia received its name, these games were first established in Greece. In his case, probably, the only contest was horse-racing[310]. But in the Homeric times, although the chariot race was the most important, there were also a boxing match, wrestling, a foot race, an armed combat, competition in weight-casting, a trial at archery and a contest of javelin throwing[311]. There were suitable prizes in each event for every one of the contestants. If the games which the Greek chieftains arranged in memory of Achilles, when he died, were any more elaborate than these, as Agamemnon maintains they were, they must have occupied considerable time[312].

These celebrations occasionally occurred in the historic period. Plutarch tells us that, after Timoleon’s death, the people of Syracuse determined to honor him with funeral games forever, to be celebrated with performances in music, horse-racing and wrestling[313].

It was the duty of every good citizen to visit the graves of his dead not only on the days established for special services, but to come there much oftener since the Greeks believed that the deceased was always pleased by the presence of his friends of the former life. On the same principle the dead were supposed to be tormented by the visits of those formerly inimical. The claimant to the estate of Astyphilus is made by Isaeus to declare that it was generally accepted that the presence of his father would be pleasing to the deceased, and so the parent was carried out to the grave although in feeble health[314]. Further along in his speech the same man asserts that the father of Astyphilus had strictly forbidden the father of the defendant or any one connected with him to come near his tomb[315]. The same belief causes Teucer to restrain Odysseus from touching the grave of Ajax lest he offend the deceased hero[316].

It is proper now to consider the conduct and dress during the period of mourning. As with us, the predominant manifestation of sorrow was abstinence from every pleasure[317]. Admetus weepingly declares to his wife that, when she is gone, he will put an end to all the feasts and meetings in his house, at which they had been wont mutually to enjoy wine, garlands, and song[318].

The other tokens of bereavement were the cutting of the hair and the wearing of black garments. These customs seem to have been practiced at a very early period and to have lasted well down through Grecian history. The tragic poets bear witness to their prevalence. Orestes shears his hair, and his sister is dressed in black[319]; Helen mourns her husband with both these signs of grief[320]; the chorus consider the advisibility of employing the badges of sorrow while Alcestis is still hovering between life and death[321]; and Iphigenia begs her mother not to mourn her by severing her locks and donning robes of sable hue[322]. Even for a long time after Grecian independence had been lost, the same customs existed. Plutarch praised his wife for not defiling herself or her maids nor putting on a black garment[323]. Artemidorus, in his work on the interpretation of dreams, says that a black dress is used for mourning[324]. Athenaeus is authority for the fact that in his time the mourner still polled his head[325]. Plutarch seems to differ about this clipping of the hair. He says: “In the case of mourning among the Greeks, the women have their hair cut close, but the men wear it long since it is customary for the men when not afflicted by grief to have it cut short and for the woman to let it grow long[326].” In another place he declares that you may take away a man’s signs of mourning _by cutting his hair_ and drying his tears, and still bring him no comfort[327]. Undoubtedly, in Plutarch’s time, the fashion had changed and the later Greeks were wont to let their hair grow long to indicate their sorrow.

The underlying thought in this matter of mourning was that one manifested his sympathy with the dead by making himself appear as hideous as possible[325]. In the early times, when the Greeks wore beards and long hair, the desired effect might be gained by polling but, when the Roman fashion of close-cutting had been adopted, it must have looked as odd to see the hair streaming down the neck of a bereaved man, as one of the enormous ruffs worn by Raleigh would appear in New York to-day. Whatever may have been the custom in the Romanized era of Plutarch, it is very certain that black robes and shorn hair betokened bereavement during the largest portion of the history of Greece.

It was, perhaps, in imitation of the Persians, that the Greeks, on the death of a general, clipped even the manes and tails of their horses. When, on the expedition of Mardonius, his trusted commander, Masistius, was slain, the Persians mutilated their horses after that fashion[328]. At the death of the gluttonous young Hephaestion, in consequence of disobedience to his physician’s orders, Alexander, thoroughly orientalized, ordered all the mules and horses to be clipped[329]. Not satisfied with this, he must needs tear down all the battlements of the neighboring cities, so that they, too, might have the appearance of being shorn[330]. Aelian, very suitably, terms this latter extravagance, “grieving according to the custom of the barbarians[331].”

The other distinguishing feature of the mourning, the adoption of black robes, although it usually indicates actual bereavement, was sometimes employed before the loss had really come, but when it was impending. Thus, when the sister-in-law of Lysias was summoned to the prison where her husband awaited death, she came clad, as was befitting, in a black garment[332]. It was this fashion at Athens, of wearing black to show the death of a relative that gave point to Pericles’s dying assertion: “None of my fellow citizens have, through me, been obliged to assume a sable garb[333].”

White was worn sometimes on the death of a great general or other high official. Timoleon was borne to the grave accompanied by a procession of Syracusans, crowned with garlands and clothed in white. Pure white[334] is also the color which Plato directs to be worn on the death of a priest[335].

It may not have been the rule in all the states of Greece, as it was at Athens, to make black the mourning color. Sparta, perhaps out of a feeling of antagonism to Athens, appears to have employed white mourning, referred to by Socrates as “robes rinsed in water[336].”

It was the custom among the Greeks, when a good character like Alcestis, had departed, to pray that the earth might rest lightly upon the mortal frame[337], but where a man had done nothing except evil, they wished that mother earth, like a huge night-mare, might pin him down[338]. The ancient Greeks have departed, and, except when the prying hand of the archaeologist has torn away their surroundings, they have lain undisturbed for many centuries in the bosom of the earth. Let it be _our_ wish that she still continue to rest lightly on good and bad alike.

NOTES

[1] Aelian, Var. Hist. V. 14.

[2] Eurip., Sup. 524.

[3] Isoc., Plat. 416.

[4] Isaeus, de Nicos. Her. 78.

[5] Isae., de Phil. Her. 143.

[6] Lysias, in Philon 883.

[7] Aeschines, in Tim. 40.

[8] Hdt., 7, 133, Plat., Gorg. 516 E, and Ar., Nub. 1450.

[9] Plut., Them. 22.

[10] Pausan., 4, 18, 4.

[11] Thucyd., 1, 134.

[12] Aeschin., in Ctes. § 245.

[13] Simcox, ibid.

[14] Plato, Legg. IX., 12.

[15] Eurip., Troad. 446.

[16] Becker, Char. p. 401.

[17] Philostrates, Heroics 7, 8, 10.

[18] Thuc., I., 138.

[19] Eurip., Suppl. 934-37.

[20] Plut., Symp. 4, 2 and 3.

[21] Artemidorus, Oneirocritica, II., 9.

[22] Artemid., ibid.

[23] Demos. in Euerg. p. 1160.

[24] Eurip., Troad. 1137.

[25] Chariton, de Chaerea et Callirrhoe, IV., 1, 12.

[26] Callimachus, Epic. 18, cf. Epig. 19.

[27] Eurip. Helen. 1241.

[28] Chariton, IV, 1.