is matrem, nifi mentis inops, in funere nati Flere vetat ? Ovid, de Remed. Amor. Efpecially when, as cuftom was, they placed the child, after it was hed and anointed, on the knees of the forrownother, who, taking it into her lap, and cheng the cold limbs in her trembling bofom, hed it at length in its funeral attire; as we 1 from Lucian, de luctu, and from Herodotus 5. The Romans called the mother of a child," funera mater," and that too very erly, fince the whole funeral, the lofs and the were chiefly hers: this is attefted by Pliny, cap. 45. and by Servius in Eclog. 6.; cond likewife by the mother of Euryalus, who, irg. Æn. 9. hearing of the death of her fon, out in the bitterness of anguish: -Nec te tua funera mater by the laws of the twelve tables, it was formong the Romans, to take into their laps, jody of any who were killed with lightning; allow to fuch the accustomed rites of funeral: afe, according to the doctrine of the Greeks, were efteemed holy, and worthy of divine ar; of which we have spoken above, p. 629. etiam Artemid. lib. ii. cap. 8. e funeral vestment, or shroud, was made of white linen, and they called it amún sóan aving one of thefe, the chafte Penelope emd many years, to get rid of her importunate ts, to whom the pretended fhe was making winding-heet for her husband Ulyffes Homer, Odyff. B. Nor in the camp of the is did any take offence at Hippodamia and edea, the last of whom Patroclus, when alive, even to madness; and who, both of them, ed his funeral with the richeft of vestments, ays Cretenfis has it in lib. 4. Nor can we t, but that, in procefs of time, when corrup. of manners had crept in among the Atheni even they too made ufe of coftly dreffes for dead. We read in Ælian. Var. Hift. cap. nd in Diogenes Laertius in vit. Socr. that lo torus offered Socrates, after this philofopher wallowed the poisonous draught, and was in it agony of life, a white veftment and robe : Plutarch, in vita Lyfandri, tells us, that Phi , the Prætor of Athens, after having washed ody, put on his richest robes, and, thus atunderwent with an undaunted mind the a to which his conqueror Lysander had med him. Certain it is that they adorned dead with crowns and garlands, made of the s of olive, and fometimes of parsley, as Suidas ts, that Dares delivered in his book de Ceribus; and Lucian de Lucu adds, that they in among the leaves the flowers that the afforded. This garland was put on by the eft relation: and Piutarch relates of Pericles, though he ftrove to retain his gravity, and ared not to difcover his inward anguish, yet he could not refrain from tears, when he crowned with this funeral garland the head of his dead fon Patolus. Lastly, they put into the mouth of the deceased two pieces of money of the value of one penny cach, to pay his paffage over the river Styx; thus the expofitor on the frogs of Ariftophanes, who fays befides, that the freight-money was in their mother-tongue called Aaván; but the Attics called it Kágradov, and the Latins Naulum. body, it then was, by the permiffion of a law of Thefe ceremonies being thus performed to the houfe: and this they called the collocation of the Solon's, placed any where within the doors of the thould be carried out to burial the next morning body; but the fame law commanded that it after the collocation, and that too before daylight. This law was expired, or at least was grown out of ufe, in the time of Demetrius Phalereus; and though it was then renewed, it hindered them not from keeping the body in the hoafe, as the Romans likewife did, for the space of feven entire days; during which time frank. incenfe, ftorax and other perfumes were continually burning on a little altar that was placed by the feet of the corpfe. And this cuftom of keeping the body thus long was obferved for this reafon, to wit, because the prefence of the deceased alleviated the forrow of the mourners, and accuftomed their mind by degrees to part for good and all with what they fo dearly loved. For this reafon the Greeks, when they were before Troy, buried not the body of Achilles, till after they had kept it feventeen whole days. Befides, those who performed the meanest offices to dead bodies, as the washing and rubbing them with oils and ointments, and whom the Greeks called Καλαγιῶται, and Νεκροθάπται, and the Latins, Pollinatores, were, as P. Vict. lib. 2. var. let cap. 7 and Lil us Gyraldus obferve, held in fuch abomination, that they were not permitted to have houfes within the walls of the city; and Seneca, lib. 6. de Benefic. fays, that Demades condemned at Athens a person who fold neceffaries for funerals; becaufe it was evident that he intended, and wished to gain by his bufinefs, which nevertheless he could not do without the death of many. There were several tokens, that gave notice of a house, in which there was a dead body: before the door they placed boughs of cyprefs, and a large gor-bellied earthen pot, filled with holy water, and which was commonly called 'Agdánov yása, but by Ariftophanes, gazov and that water was always brought from another houfe: the hair like wife of the deccafed was hung over the threshold of the door: and the reafon of all this was, that none might be polluted, by going int the houfe unawares. On thefe occations the Greek matrons laid afide their usual apparel, and mourned generally in black, though fometimes in white; neglecting to fet themfelves off with ornaments, and defpifing their accustomed trim: their mourning garment was, by the decree of Solon, called a They fat by the corpfe with dejected looks, and weep ing around the bier, on which fat the keeper of the corpfe," capularis cuftos," fome very old man or woman, that kept always next the deceased; the companions too of the deceased person flood around his body, overwhelmed with grief, together with weeping virgins, who often beat their breafts with their hands, and thofe of the weaker fex frequently tore off their hair for grief: for it was forbid to cut it quite off, except at the pile or tomb It was an ancient cultom too in mourning to take the hair off their eye-brows, and to do all things that might testify an irksomeness of life, and betray an anguish of mind. They fcarce eat at all; what nourishment they took, was of the coarfeft fare: nor is it improbable, that the cups they drank out of were black, as was the custom at Rome, where they were made of earth that came from Polentia. See Martial, lib. xiv. Epig, 157. and Euripides in Troad. When the feventh day approached, the body was, by the friends of the deceafed, laid on a high bier, and placed with the feet next the door; which laft custom the Scholiaft on the fixth Iliad obferves, was not without mystery: for, fays he, the dead were laid in that manner, to fignify, that they were never more to return to the house again. But Pliny, lib. vii. cap. 8. gives a better reafon, and fays, that as by the decrees of nature man comes into the world with his head foremost, fo he is carried to the grave with his feet in that manner. This ceremony was called gris, i. e. "collocatio," and was obferved for this reafon, that by thus expofing the body, it might be feen whether any violence had been offered to it: and though it was indulged by the Attic laws, that the body might be placed in any part of the house, yet this collocation, as they called it, was generally made in the "veftibulum," porch, or entry, and always with the feet towards the door; a custom frequent enough in our days. I may not omit their foolish cuftom of driving away the flies; and into which they were led, perhaps, by the example of the officious Thetis. See Hom. Iliad. 8. Socrates in Plato, in Minoe, takes notice of their obferving an ancient Attic law concerning the "inferia," or facrifices to the infernal gods; by which law it was enjoined, not to carry the body out of the house, till the victims were flain; no doubt for the expiation of the deceased. And fince we are speaking of laws, I will mention the ordinance of Hippias the tyrant, who commanded, fays Ariftotle in Econom. that for each dead perfon fhould be paid to the chief priests of the temple of Minerva, which was in the tower of Athens, two fextaries of barley, as many of wheat, and one penny in money. These things completed the domeftic mourning, and the firft part of the funeral; to which immediately fucceeded the second in the following manner: According to the laws of Solon, as Demofthenes affirms, but as Tully, of Demetrius Phalereus, in the hours of morning, that preceded daylight, efpecially if the perfon died an untimely or fuddon death, the body was carried out of the houfe: This they called igas åṣwayùv, “ diei raptum,” as if the deceased had not expired, but had ber fnatched or ravifhed away; or because the thought it not fit that the fun fhould behold t great a misfortune, and therefore they said, the they, “diem rapuisse," had ravished, had pro vented the day. The proceffion began by a leng row of torches, whofe fplendor difpelled the dark nefs of the night; and if the deceased had be killed, or had died a violent death, a fpear wu borne before the body; hoarfe-founding trumpes attended, especially at the funeral of a military man, or one who had deferved well on account of his fignal fervices to the republic; and at the obfequies of fuch, the people were fummoned a affift. Then came the TopBauhu, players on funeral pipes, which the Greeks by a word b rowed from the Phoenicians, called y which, after the Libyan mood, uttered a dokių found, that excited the hired women to bewal the dead. Thefe women the Greeks called 2 sai Den, the diffemblers, and the principal the mourning, though they shared not in grief. These the Latins called Præfica. Th chief of them was called 'Inλuisem, from vie of fong, which they termed 'Inλapos, or "läm the Latins, Leffus, Laufus and Mortualia, a ral dirge. With these mercenaries joined the gins and matrons, that were related to ceafed, with their hair dishevelled, and befried with duft and ashes, their face and bofom beating their breafts, tearing their face, and st of them howling rather than yelling and may But let us hear Bellonius, an eye and earn of the funeral ceremonies observed at this day Greece. The custom, fays he, of bewailing th which took its rife from the ancient howling at funerals, remains among the tians, even to this day. Now the Head old were wont to lament and mourn ther for many days; and Greece still retains this sig. which it derived from its ancestors. For places, by a certain promifcuous cuftom, any of the family dies, whether it be the b or any other relation, for whom, according the ufage of the country, they are obliged mourn, the women run up and down the f bareheaded, with their hair difhevelled, their b fom naked, and piercing the air with their in fhrieks and yells: tearing likewife the hair d their heads, rending their cheeks, and frik their bare breasts, fometimes with one b fometimes with the other: with their right they tear the left fide of their body, and wa their left the right; in the fame manner too the tear off their hair, from the left fide of the head with their right hand, from the right their left; and thus by turns, fometimes for ing their cheeks, fometimes beating their bre and fometimes tearing off their hair, they p form this ceremony of mourning; but this tom of bewailing the dead, is permitted only the women, of what rank foever they be; for men are not fuffered to bear a part in this fors 705 Inspiring secret pleasure through thy breast: mourning. I know all this to be true, not by hearsay, or the writings of others, but have often feen it practised of late in many places of Greece; the first time I was an eye-witnefs of it was in the month of March, 1547, and at Corcyra anciently, but now called Corfu. I had for many days torether, before it was light, heard a great noise, which at first I took to be the howling of dogs, hut up in their kennels: but at length I got out of my bed to discover the truth of it, and to my reat aftonishment, found it to be a company of creaming and howling women. Now, that they ay perform this yelling the better, they agree mong themselves on a time and place, when and there they may twice a-day mourn and wail the eath of the deccafed. Moreover, fhe among these vomen, who has the best voice, and fings the loudft, begins the dirge alone, and in a diffonant eice from the others, recounts to his relations and iends the praifes of the deceased and if none the female relations themselves be capable of erforming this office, they hire another woman do it. For in the towns of Greece there are any women, whofe fole livelihood it is to wail he dead: in which they are so artful, that they ceite even the unwilling to bear a part in their ies and yellings. And the of all the women, ho excels the reft in reciting the praifes of the ceafed, is hired the deareft. And the other men, who affift in the ceremony, hearkening entively to what fhe fings, and mixing with rs, their fighs and groans, chant out the funeral ge, in the fame doleful tune. She too, who with r nails fcratches and tears her cheeks the moft, is nt to receive the greateft reward. The virgins, ove the reft, gain most honour by this dilaceran of the face. Thus P. Bellonius, lib. ii. de dicato funere, cap. 14. Some footsteps of thefe dirges are ftill remain-heads, marched in order before the women, the in Grecia Major, the custom of lamenting the ad in rhyme being not totally abolished. A. ntorelles, in his learned Poftpraxis, fen de cu ndo Defuncto, records a dirge, ftill frequently d by the country people in Calabria: and Lis Gyraldus witneffes, that that feminine custom yelling and fcreaming, and of tearing their eeks and hair, continued among the Sabines in 3 days, and almoft throughout all Italy. But where can we find a more pathetic and movg dirge than this in our Lucretius: Solon, as Cicero, lib ii. de Leg. and Plutarch in his life, informs us, forbid, indeed, by law, this dilaceration of the cheeks, and beating of the breafts, which laft they called sigoruwia the people nevertheless could not be prevailed on to dif continue that custom; nor, as the abovecited Bellonius relates, were the Venetians of late days more fuccessful, in the late injunctions they gave to the countries of Greece, that are fubject to their obedience. The reafon, why the ancients adhered thus obftinately to this custom, was, because they credulously believed, that the manes, or ghosts of the dead, were appeafed and satisfied with blood and milk: therefore, fays Servius, the women, who affift at funerals, beat their breafts, that they may force out the milk, and all fcarify their flesh, to make themselves bleed. But because a vaft concourfe of women, of all conditions, were wont to flock to the funeral house, it was forbid by a law, for any woman to come to a funeral, except fuch as were relations of the dead, and fixty years of age: thus the great refort of men and women was taken away to leffen the lamentation. For the men too flocked in crowds to funerals; and therefore Pittacus, as Cicero, 2. de Legib. teaches, forbid all manner of perfons to attend burials, except the kindred of the deceased: which fanction Ariftotle, in Eth. ix. cap. II. tells us, was continued, and in ufe, in his days. But it is not certain, whether befides the relations; who, clad in black, and with veils over their friends likewife, and all who had at any time belonged to the family of the deceafed, as alfo the mafters of defence, the players and dancers, the flaves manumitted by will, and thofe whom the deceafed had made free before his death, the bearers of the beds, gifts, garlands, trophies, and waxen images, together with the lictors, and fervants of the fenate, which was the custom at Rome, made part of the funeral proceffion : but this is certain, that the magistracy of Athens fometimes honoured with their prefence the funerals of the confiderable citizens, ou account of whofe death they fometimes too very unfeafon. abiy prorogued the courts of juftice. And Solon, in Tzetzes, hearing that the whole city attended the funeral of a young man, deceived by the cunning of his friend Thales, immediately concluded it to be his own fon, whom they were attending to the grave. The friends and relations carried, on their fhoulders, the bier; of which there were two forts in ufe among the people of fubftance: the one was called Aixas, the other Kaim. The diftinction was only in the fize of them; and confequently in the number of the bearers: the Aixas was the largeft, and carried by an uncertain number of bearers, according to its fize: the Kaim al Y Y ways by fix, or eight; whence it was likewife called iagos, or ixspógos. And a parcel of young men, chofen by the people, carried the bier of Timoleon, fays Plutarch in his life. The funeral pomp proceeded through the chief freets of the city, till it came to the forum, or market place, where the bier was fet down, and an oration pronounced in praise of the deceased: this cuftom, as we learn from Anaximenes the orator in Plutarch, in Vita Solonis, was first inftituted by Solon; and, being in process of time difcontinued, was again revived, especially about the time, when the Greeks, at the paffes of Thermopylæ, overthrew the Barbarians, who had invaded their country. When the panegyric was ended, the proceffion moved again in the fame | order, and went to the place of fepulture which fepulture was not nevertheless performed always in the fame place, nor after the fame manner; for both place and manner differed, according to feveral laws, and the various fuperftitions that reigned in feveral ages. At first they carried back the dead to their house, and intombed them there; calling them the "lares," and tutelar gods of the house but in procefs of time this cuftom was forbid by the laws, which declared it a crime to bury any man within the walls of the city; of which we will speak particularly hereafter. It is agreed by all, that there were two forts of fepulture among the Athenians: And to me, fays Tully, that feems to have been the ancient way of burial, which Cyrus ufes in Xenophon. For the body is reftored to the earth, and being laid in it, is covered as with the covering of its mother. This cuftom of burying in the ground, fays that author, 2. de Leg. was continued at Athens, as they fay, from the days of Cecrops: the nearest relations laid the body in the ground, and the earth that was thrown over the dead body, was fown with corn. The other custom of burning the dead, began about the age of Hercules, who, to avoid being perjured, reduced to afhes the body of Archeus, the fon of Lycymnus, and thus reftored it to his father. This we learn from Andron. Hift. and Euftath. on Iliad. 4. And this laft cuftom was obferved not only at Athens, but by all the Greeks in general: for fo fays the Scholiaft of Thucydides, lib. 2. res yag Αν νόμος ̓Αθηναίοις καὶ πᾶσιν Ελλησι i. e. It was eftablished by law among the Athenians, and all the Greeks. The reafon of the inftitution of this custom was, because they believed the divine and immortal part of man to be by that ficry vehicle carried up to heaven; and that whatever was terreftrial and mortal, remained in the afhes. Befides, according to the teftimony of Pliny, lib. vii. cap. 54. they conceived, that, by burning the dead bodies, they avoided the infection that might be caused in the air, by the putrefaction of buried carcafes; but above all, the injury and ignominy which might be offered to the bodies of the dead, by taking them out of the grave before they were confumed. And for this reafon the tyrant Sylla ordered his corpfe to be burnt, left he should be ferved in the fame kind as he before had ferved his enemy Caius Mr. Cum te lucernâ balneator extinctâ But we may take notice from Paufaria against him, that no man, who was free, durft to bury Phocion, infomuch that he was buried by flaves. Nor may we omit the fevere treatment of the thirty chief.judges, who, on the accufation of Myro the Phylenfian, were banished the city; and when any of them died, and were buried, their dead bodies were dug up, and thrown out of the territories of Attica, as Plutarch reports in the life of Solon. And indeed, as Ifocrates de Jugo, fays, the people of Athens were fo jealous of their liberty, and held tyrants in fo great abomination, that when they feized their eftates, they not only demolished their houses, but purfued their hate to their dead remains, and tore them out of their graves. Befides, it was per Athenians only one hundred ninety-two: And to thefe, in honour of their bravery, were erected epulchres in the place where they were killed: ut all the others are faid to have been buried in he way that leads to the academy. Yet in great aughters, the republic of Athens, that they hight not be thought to fall off from their wonti piety and gratitude, took care that the comon foldiers fhould be buried at leaft promifcufly, one with another, in the following manner, it is recorded by Thucydides: Three days bere the obfequies were to be performed, they ilt a fhed with boards, into which they brought e bones; and every one was allowed to bring ither whatever he thought fit of what his friend d left behind him: When the funeral procef.mitted to no man, not even to an enemy, to go n was made, the feveral coffins that contained to fepulchres, except when they attended funee bones of each tribe were carried in a particu- rals. Yet Plutarch, in the life of Thefeus, accart by themselves; and one bier besides, with quaints us, that his fepulchre was a place of refins quite empty, was carried for those whofe fuge, to fhelter flaves and perfons of mean condidies were not found among the flain. Every tion, who feared to be oppreffed by the great, n that pleased, whether a citizen or a stranger, because Thefeus had been remarkable for protectended the funeral, and fome women, who ing the injured, for affifling the needy, and rere related to the deceafed, went weeping, and dreffing their grievances. But Philip the Macewailing the dead. The bones were carried to donian violated the facred privilege of fepulchres, ublic fepulchre in the suburbs of Athens, near as if, fays Livy, he had not been engaged in war tomb of Callifthus. Let this fuffice for public against the living, but dead Athenians, and even lchres. But private families had vaults, in against their tombs. The common way of burych they were buried, in their own land, and ing was by heaping up earth over the dead body: the utmost borders of it: And by this argu- the more coftly was by keeping it in a coffin, Marcellinus proves the relation there was especially of marble: but the most sumptuous of veen Thucydides and Cimon: and it was all was in a vaulted cell, in the midst of which ned difhonourable not to be laid in the fepul- the coffin was placed. One of these marble cofof their ancestors. But at Athens the bodies fins is ftill to be feen among the rarities of the riminals were projected, as they called it, Grand Duke of Tuscany, with the following in. wn in a certain place, where they lay expofed fcription engraved on it: te ground; nor was it permitted, even to the of fuch as had been executed, to bury them: like treatment too was given to their bodies, 3 for crimes difcovered after their death, ⚫ condeinned to be dug out of their graves. tarch, in the Lives of the ten Orators, mens a decree of the Athenians, by which it was id to bury, neither in Athens, or within the ts of its jurifdi&ion, the bodies of Archeptois and Antiphon, who were convicted of concy against the government. And the like fate, the fame author, in the place above cited, ld have happened to the orator Hyperides, if kinfman Alphenus had not burnt his body, was given him by Philopites the physician, brought his bones to Athens, contrary to the ees, as well of the Athenians, as Macedo1s: for he was not only banished, but forbid wife to be buried in his own country. And friends of Themistocles did him the like good ce, fays Æmilius Probus in his life; for they ied his bones privately, which was forbid to be e at all by the laws, because he was guilty of fon. And Plutarch, in the life of Phocion, es notice, that his enemies commanded his bofhould be thrown out of the borders of the tic territories, and that no Athenian fhould fume to fet fire to his funeral pile: And for s reafon the people conceived fuch a hatred ΑΧΙΛΛΕΥΣ ΕΠΑΦΡΑ ΤΗ ΤΩ ΦΙΣΚΩ X. В. Ф. Which is as much as to fay, Achilles Epaphra gave this monument to his dear wife, Geminia Myrtale, for the fake of her eternal memory. No man has the power to fell it, or to place in it a dead body, unless the faid Achilles in civility give him leave. But if any one throw out the body of Myrtale, he shall be fined x. cl. clɔ. ɔ. Moreover, it was the cuftom of the Athenians to bury their dead with their face towards the weft; but the Megarenfians, on the contrary, interred theirs with their face towards the east. This, whatever Diogenes Laertius by a flip of memory fays, is afferted by Plutarch, in the life |