· ἐνὶ κλισίη δεδαϊγμένος οξέι χαλκῷ Κᾶται ἀνὰ πρόθυρον τετραμμένος. Slain, at the entrance of the tent he lies, Where we are told by the scholiast, that by this ceremony they signified that they were never to return after their being carried out. Whilst the body lay in this place, it was customary to give it constant attendance, to defend it from any violence or affront that might be offered; whence Achilles adds in the fore-cited place: Μύρονται. ἀμφὶ δ ̓ ἑταῖροι Round the dead corpse his sad companions mourn. And a little before, we find him so passionately concerned lest flies and vermin should pollute the corpse, that he could not be drawn from it to the battle, till Thetis had promised to guard it'. When any person died in debt at Athens, there was something more to be feared; for the laws of that city gave leave to creditors to seize the dead body, and deprive it of burial till payment was made; whence the corpse of Miltiades, who deceased in prison, being like to want the honour of burial, his son Cimon had no other means to release it, but by taking upon himself his father's debt and fet ters. Some time before interment, a piece of money was put into the corpse's mouth, which was thought to be Charon's fare for wafting the departed soul over the infernal river. This was by some termed καρκήδοντα ", by others, δανάη ", δανάκη or δανάκης, from δάνος, a price; or because it was given rois davos, to dead men, so called from davà, or dry sticks. It was only a single oλòs; Aristophanes, indeed, introduces Hercules telling Bacchus he must pay two oboli P: Ἐν πλοιαρίῳ συννετων σ' ἀνὴρ γέρων Th' old ferryman of hell will waft you o'er But the comedian seems to speak this only by way of jeer to the judges in some of the Athenian courts, who were presented with two oboli at the end of their session; whence Bacchus presently subjoins: Meursius, therefore, interpreting this place of the common custom towards the dead, and adding out of the scholiast, that the price was afterwards raised to three oboli, seems not to have reached the author's meaning; for nothing can be more plain than that the scholiast is to be understood of the δικασικός μισθός, or reward allowed the judges, which was two oboli, and afterwards increased to three. The ceremony was not used in those places which they fancied situated in the vicinity of the infernal regions, and to lead thither by a ready and direct road 9. Strabo particularly mentions that the Hermionians pleaded exemption'. Besides this, the corpse's mouth was furnished with a certain cake, composed of flour, honey, &c. and therefore called μ leta. This was designed to appease the fury of Cerberus, the infernal door-keeper, and to procure of him a safe and quiet entrance. We have an allusion to this in the comedian : · σορὸν ὠνήσει, Μελιττᾶσαν ἐγὼ καὶ δὴ μάζω A coffin he shall buy, and I'll prepare A cake for Cerberus. Virgil has obliged us with a larger account of this custom, when he describes the Sibyl and Æneas's journey to the infernal shades" : Cerberus hæc ingens latratu regna trifauci Personat, adverso recumbans immanis in antro: The triple porter of the Stygian sound, DRYDEN. Before we conclude this chapter, it may be observed, that the whole ceremony of laying out, and clothing the dead, and some Etymologici Auctor. v. davánns. $ Suidas, &c. t Lysistrate. r Geogr. lib. viii. times the interment itself was called σvyxquid. In the same sense ancient writers use vynui, with its derivatives: thus Sophocles w: Οὗτός σε φωνῶ τόνδε τὸν νεκρὸν χεροῖν Μὴ συγκομίζειν, ἀλλ ̓ ἐᾶν ὅπως ἔχει. Do not presume th' accursed corpse t' inter, It may farther be observed, that, during this time, the hair of the deceased person was hung upon the door to signify the family was in mourning. And, till the house was delivered of the corpse, there stood before the door a vessel of water, called agdávio *, agdavía, yásga: and from the matter it was frequently made of, gazov, as in Aristophanes 2; Ύδατος τι καθάτε τἔτρακον πρὸ τῆς θύρας. An earthen vessel full of water place Before the door. Part of a chorus in Euripides, seeing neither of these signs, could scarce be induced to believe Aleestis dead a: Πυλῶν πάροιθεν δ ̓ ἐχ ̓ ὁρῶ Πηγαῖον, ὡς νομίζεται Γι, χέρνιβ' ἐπὶ φθιτῶν πύλαις• Χαῖτά τ' ἔτις ἐπὶ πρόθυρα τομαῖ ος, ἃ δὲ νεκύων πένθεσι πίτνα. Nor vase of fountain water do I see Before the door, as custom claims, to bathe The corse; and none hath on the portal placed POTTER. The design of this was, that such as had been concerned about the corpse might purify themselves by washing, which was called λotaι àñò vexgs. For not the Jews only, but the greatest part of λέεσθαι ἀπὸ νεκρό. the heathen world, thought themselves polluted by the contact of a dead body; death being contrary to nature, and therefore abhorred by every thing endued with life. Hence the celestial gods, those especially who were thought to give or preserve light or life, would not endure the sight of a corpse. Diana, in Euripides, professes it unlawful for her to see Hippolytus, her favourite, when dead; Καὶ χαῖρ ̓, ἐμοὶ γὰρ ἐ θέμις φθιτὲς ὁρᾶν, ▾ Eschyli Scholiastes. W Ajac. v. 1067. * Suidas, Pollux lib. viii. cap. 7. y Hesychius. 2 Εκκλησιαζέσαις. b Numer. cap. xix. 11. Eccles. cap. Nor was the house where the corpse lay free from pollution, as appears from the words of Helena in Euripides c : Καθαρὰ γὰρ ἡμῖν δώματ', ἐ γὰρ ἐνθάδε Ψυχὴν ἀφῆκε Μενέλεως For sacred are our houses, not defil'd The air proceeding from the dead body was thought to pollute all things into which it entered; whence all uncovered vessels which stood in the same room with the corpse, were accounted unclean by the Jews. Hence it was customary to have the whole house purified as soon as the funeral solemnities were over; of which ceremony I shall have occasion to discourse in one of the follow ing chapters. THE CHAP. IV. Of their Funeral Processions. HE next thing to be observed is their carrying the corpse forth, which is in Greek termed ixxquid, and expoga, in Latin elatio, or exportatio; whence the Latin efferre, exportare, and the Greek ix Pigur, and ixxouitur, are words appropriated to funerals. Kirchman would have zaganoμíču to be used in the same sense; but the place he produces out of Eunapius d to that purpose, seems rather to denote the prætervection of the body by some place, than its elation from the house wherein it was prepared for burial; for παρακομίζειν is usually spoken with respect to a place in the middle way of any motion; sicquí? belongs to the end, or place where the motion ceases; but ixxouie, or ixpigav, are only proper when we speak of the place whence the motion begins, being the same with a pigur, carrying forth; which words are taken by Theocritus in the sense I am speaking of: Αῶθεν δ' ἄμμες νιν ἅμα δρόσῳ ἀθρόαι ἔξω When morn with pearly dew has overspread The bending grass, we will bring forth our dead Plautus likewise for efferre, hath foras ferre: Quæ cras veniat perendie foras feratur soror. Helena, v. 1446 d Iamblicho. e Idyll. xv. 132. f Aulularia. The time of burial seems not to have been limited. The author of the Genialis Dies & tells us, that bodies were usually kept seventeen days and seventeen nights before they were interred; which he seems to have out of Homer, who reports, that Achilles's body, after seventeen days and as many nights of mourning, was committed to the flamesh: Επτακαίδεκα μέν σε ὁμῶς νύκτας τε κ ἦμαρ Seventeen long days were in sad mourning spent As many nights did gods and men lament, On the eighteenth we laid you on the pile. Servius was of opinion, that the time of burning bodies was the eighth day after death, the time of burying the ninth but this must only be understood of the funerals of great persons, which could not be duly solemnized without extraordinary preparations; men of inferior rank were committed to the ground without so much noise and pomp. The ancient burials seem to have been upon the third or fourth day after death; thus the author of the Argonautics : At vero ornantes supremo funus honore, Tres totos condunt lugubri murmure soles, Magnifice tumulant quarto. With three days mourning they the fun'ral grac'd, (The last good office due to the deceas'd), But on the fourth they o'er his body rear'd A stately tomb. H. H. Nor was it unusual to perform the solemnities, especially of poor persons, upon the day after their death; which appears from an epigram of Callimachus: Δαίμονα τίς δ' εὖ οἶδε τὸν αὔριον; ἡνίκα καί σε, Χάρμι, τὸν ὀφθαλμοῖς χθιζὸν ἐν ἡμετέροις, Τῇ ἑτέρῃ κλαύσαντες ἐθάπτομεν Who knows what fortunes on to-morrow wait, Pherecydes alludes to this custom in his epistle to Thales, preserved by Laërtius *, telling him he expected every minute to breathe his last, and had invited his friends to his funeral the day following. The ceremony was performed in the day; for night was looked on as a very improper time; because then furies and evil spirits, which could not endure the light, ventured abroad. Hence Cassandra, in a quarrel with Talthybius, foretels, as one of the greatest g Lib. iii. cap. 7. h Odyss. . v. 63. i Æneid. v. j Lib. ii. k Vita Pherecydis sub fin. |