the hair of Alcestis, whom the Fates had adjudged to die instead of her husband Admetus m : Η δ' εν γυνὴ κάτεισιν εἰς ᾅδε δόμες, Στείχω δ' ἐπ' αὐτὴν, ὡς κατάρξωμαι ξίφει. Be sure of that, to Pluto's dark domain. I go, and with this sword assert my claim; For sacred to th' infernal gods that head, Whose hair is hallow'd by this charmed blade. POTTER. Which passage is imitated by Virgil", where he tells us, that Dido, ridding herself out of the world before her time, had not her hair cut off by Proserpina, and therefore struggled some time, as unable to resign her life, till Iris was commissioned by Juno to do her that kind office ° : Tum Juno omnipotens, longum miserata dolorem, For since she died, not doom'd by Heaven's decree, The struggling soul was loos'd and life dissolv'd in air. DRYDEN. What was the ground of this opinion, cannot be certainly defined; but it seems not improbable that it proceeded from a ceremony at sacrifices, wherein they cut some of the hairs from the victim's forehead, and offered them to the gods as first fruits of • Eneid. iv. v. 693. m Alcestid. v. 74. Macrobius Saturnal. lib. v. cap. 19. the sacrifice; whence some imagine the same was thought to be done by death upon men sent as victims to the infernal gods. When they perceived the pangs of death coming upon them, they made supplications to Mercury, whose office it was to convey the ghosts to the regions below. An instance hereof we have in a Cean matron, who being about to rid herself of life by a draught of poison, first called upon Mercury to grant her a pleasant journey, and convey her to a commodious habitation in Pluto's dominions P. These prayers, whether offered to Mercury, or to any other god, were termed go suxai, which is a general name for all prayers before any man's departure, whether by death, or only to take a journey. Their friends and relations perceiving them at the point of resigning their lives, came close to the bed where they lay, to bid them farewell, and catch their dying words, which they never repeated without reverence. The want of opportunity to pay this compliment to Hector, furnishes Andromache with matter of lamentation, which she thus expresses: Οὐ γάρ μοι θνήσκων λεχέων ἐκ χεῖρας ὄρεξας, Which night and day I would with tears repeat. CONGREVE. They kissed and embraced the dying person, so taking their last farewell; which custom was very ancient, being derived from the eastern nations; for we find in the holy writings, that Joseph fell upon his father Jacob's neck, when he lay upon his death-bed, and kissed him's. They endeavoured likewise to receive in their mouth his last breath, as fancying his soul to expire with it, and enter into their bodies: and at the time of its departure it was customary to beat brazen kettles, which was thought an excellent method to drive away evil spirits and phantasms, whose airy forms were not able to endure so harsh a noise: thus they imagined the dead man's ghost secured from furies, and quietly conveyed to a peaceful habitation in the Elysian fields. For it was an old opi P Valerius Maximus, lib. ii. cap. 6. Iliad. . v. 745. Genes. cap. 50. t Theocriti Scholiastes. nion, that there being two mansions in the infernal regions, one on the right hand, pleasant and delightful, the other on the left, appointed for the souls of wicked wretches, the furies were always ready to hurry departed souls to the place of torment. Virgil has an allusion to this fancy": Hic locus est, partes ubi se via findit in ambas, The seat of night profound, and punish'd fiends. DRYDEN. Death, and all things concerning it, were ominous and ill-boding, and are therefore frequently expressed in softening terms: to die, is commonly termed axoyivota, to which the Latin denasci answers sometimes it is called xe, to depart; and the dead, oixóμsvo: so also Chio, in an epistle to Plato, saith, vegv ¿ñexivooμai, I will depart out of the world. In the same sense we find the Latin word abitio, which is a synonymous term for death; and abiit; as when Pliny writes, that Virginius Rufus plenus annis abiit, plenus honoribus", departed full of years and honours: thus also the Greeks use Bibians, i. e. he once lived; and the Romans, vixit and fuit; thus Virgil: Fuit Ilium, et ingens Gloria Teucrorum. Glory did once attend the Dardan state, Its spires then glitter'd, and its chiefs were great. Tibullus, with several others, hath used the same expression * : Sive erimus, seu nos fata fuisse velint. Sometimes they used κέκμηκε and καμόντες. Thus Homery: When once they're dead, and cover'd in their graves. βροτῶν εἴδωλα καμόντων, The ghosts o' th' dead. But the most frequent are names taken from sleep, to which death u Eneid, vi. v. 540. V Festus. w Lib. ii. epist. 1. y Iliad, y'. bears a near resemblance; whence the poets feign them to be brothers, and noμl or d are commonly used for dying: thus Callimachusa : Τῆδι Σάων, ὁ Δίκωνος, Ακάνθιος, ἱερὸν ὕπνον Κοιμᾶται Saon th' Acanthian, Dicon's son, hard by, In another place: Η δ' ἀποβρίζει Ενθάδε τὸν πάσαις ὕπνον ὀφειλόμενον. The common debt of all mankind, she sleeps. Orpheus hath used the same metaphor in his Argonautics : Εὕδεις, Αγνιάδη, γλυκερῷ βεβολημένος ὕπνῳ. Agniades, thou art in soft repose Lock'd up. Many other like passages occur both in profane and inspired writers; and so common was this way of speaking with the primitive christians, that their burying-places were called xoiunτngsa, which is a term of the same sense with Lycophron's sashga ©: Σίθωνος εἰς θυγατρὸς εὐνατήριον. To th' sleeping place of Sithon's daughter. CHAP. III. Of the Ceremonies before the Funeral. As As soon as any person had expired, they closed his eyes; to do which, they termed καθαιρεῖν, συναρμόττειν, συγκλείειν τὲς ὀφθαλμές, or Tà Bripaga, &c.: which custom was so universally practised, that no person who has the least acquaintance with ancient writers can be ignorant of it. Hence xaтau came to be used for x867. The design of this custom seems to have been, not only to prevent that horror, which the eyes of dead men, when uncovered, are apt to strike into the living; but also for the satisfaction of dying persons, who are usually desirous to die in a decent posture. Thus Polyxena, in Euripides, is said to have ordered herself in such a manner, that nothing unfit to be seen should appear in her fall d: a Epigram. xv. b Epigram, xxii, e Cassandr. v. 583. Euripid. Hecuba, v. 56%, ἡ δὲ κ θνήσκεσ' ὅμως Πολλὴν πρόνοιαν εἶχεν ευσχήμως πεσεῖν Κρύπτειν θ', ἃ κρύπτειν ὄμματ' ἀρσένων χρεών. And Augustus Cæsar, upon the approach of his death, called for a looking-glass, and caused his hair to be combed, and his fallen cheeks decently composed. For the same reasons, the mouth of the dead person was closed. Hence the ghost of Agamemnon, in Homer, complains that his wife Clytemnestra had neglected to perform this ceremony f : -gdi μου ἔτλη ἰόντι περ εἰς Αΐδας Χερσὶ κατ' ὀφθαλμὸς ἐλέειν, σύντε τόμ' ἐρεῖσαι. POPE. This done, his face was covered; whence Hippolytus in Euripides, being at the point to expire, calls upon his father Theseus to do him that office : Κρύψου δί με πρόσωπον ὡς τάχος πέπλοις. Veil my face over quickly with a sheet. Indeed, almost all the offices about the dead were performed by their nearest relations; nor could a greater misfortune befal any person, than to want these last respects: Electra in Sophocles seems to prefer death itself before it. Infinite numbers of instances might be produced to the same purpose, were it not too commonly known to need any farther confirmation. All the charges expended on funerals, and the whole care and management of them, belonged also to relations, saving that persons of extraordinary worth were frequently honoured with public funerals, the expences whereof were defrayed out of the exchequer. Thus we find Democritus at Abdera, Zeno and Aristides at Athens, Epaminondas at Thebes, Gryllus, Xenophon's son, at Mantinea, with many others, to have had their funerals celebrated at the public expence. To return before the body was cold, they composed all the members, stretching them out to their due length; this they termed ixtavy, or ogtour: whence the maid in Euripides's Hippolytus, as soon as Phædra had expired her last, cries out to some of her own sex to perform the office : Ορθώσατ' ἐκτείνοντες ἄθλιον νέκυν, Πικρὸν τόδ' οἰκέρημα δεσπόταις ἐμοῖς. Tho' 'tis a service that will bitter prove, And grieve the souls of my most wretched masters, Yet lay the corpse of the dead lady out. Not long after, the chorus saith, Ηδη γὰρ ὡς νεκρόν νιν ἐκτείνεσι δή. As it is usual, they lay her out. e Suetonius in Augusto, xcix. f Odyss. a. v. 419. Euripid. Hippolyto. v. 1458. |