But they extended this Piety not only to those, who had sacrific'd their Blood in Defence of the publick Safety, but likewise to their Kindred, and Men of the meanest Condition : whose Relations the Demarchus, or Chief of the People, could oblige to bury the dead Body, by laying a heavy Fine on those that neglected to do so within a certain time: That Magiftrate had likewise a Power to limit and fix the Expence of a Funeral, as also to contract himself for it with the publick Undertakers. Euftathius, in Com, Il. ad calcem, celebrates Pisistratus, for having always two or three Servants attending him, whose whole Business it was to carry Money for him to bestow on the Funerals of the Poor. The Charity of Cimon to the dead Poor, who left not enough to bury them, and whom he interr'd at his own Expence, is likewise extoll'd by Æmilius Probus: and Plutarch, in his Life, records of him, that, having with great Care and Trouble got together the Bones of Theseus, he brought them to Athens. Nor may we forget a signal Office of Piety, mention'd by Demofthenes, advers. Macartat. and enjoin'd by an Attick Law, which commanded every Passenger, who happen'd to see upon the Road a dead Body, tho' of a Person unknown to him, to throw at least three Handfuls of Earth on the Face of the Defunct for his Sepulture, fince at that time he could not have the Means of burying him otherwise. This is attested likewife by Ælian. Var. Hift. lib. 5. and by Phocylides, Moschus, Sophocles, and Acron. And this Custom was so generally receiv'd, and deem'd so indispensibly necessary, that it was expected even of those, who were going on Business that requir'd the greatest Haste, as Quintilian says, lib. 1. Decad. 5. and Horace, Carm. lib. 1. Od. 28. alludes to it in these exprefs Words of Archytas the Philosopher to the Seaman : At tu, nauta, vagæ ne parce malignus arenæ, Offibus & Particulam dare. Quanquam festinas, non eft mora longa, licebit Injecto ter pulvere curras. Which Creech thus interprets, But Seaman, pray be just; put near the Land; Tho Tho' hasty now, driv'n by a profp'rous Gale, Nor, as the Scholiaft on the Antig. of Sophocles informs us, were they permitted to throw Ciods of Earth, but what they call'd χόος, Mould, or crumbled Earth: And this Office they call'd ἐπιβάλλειν γῆν, or κόνειν ταλύνας. They fear'd, perhaps, that if they had thrown folid Clods of Earth, they would have lain heavy on the dead Body. Let this suffice for the Piety of the Athenians towards the Dead : I will now, that I may not seem tedious to the Reader, nor create in him a fufpicion of Truth in a Matter so very obscure, select only the most remarkable Ceremonies, which they observ'd in Funerals, as I find them recorded in the most authentick Authours. First then, to begin my intended Discourse with what was practic'd in the last Agonies of the dying Person; I find in Diodorus Siculus and Valerius Maximus, that when the fick Person perceiv'd his End draw nigh, he took a Ring off his Finger, and gave it to the Stander by, who was dearest to him: Historians report this to have been done by Alexander. Then pronouncing these last Words, Vive ac vale, (vide Servium in Æneid. 5.) he breath'd out his Soul, embracing and kissing his best-belov'd. For they believ'd the Mouth to be the Passage thro' which the Soul went out of the Body, and therefore endeavour'd to catch it as it fled, by holding their Mouth open close to that of the Person expiring. Thus Antigone in Euripides, in Phœniss. says: O my dearest, and my best belov'd, I will put thy Mouth to mine. After whose Example, perhaps, Anna in Virgil Æn. 4. V. 684. Et extremus fi quis fuper halitus errat, Ore legam. And Livia in the Epicedium of Albinovanus : Sospite te, faltem moriar, Nero: tu mea condas Hence, at Rome, as we learn from Seneca in Epist. 30. and from the Tragedian of that Name in Herc. Fur. it was proverbially faid of the Old, who were worn out with Age, that their Soul was in their Mouth: Thus the Romans deriv'd this Credulity from the Greeks: And Aristotle in his Treatise de Insp. & Refp. says, That Inspiration is the Protasis, and Expiration the Catastrophe of Life. that But the Wishes of the above-mention'd Livia, suggest to us another Office that was apply'd to dying Persons, and which the Greeks, in their Language, call'd καθαιρεῖν τὸς ὀφθαλμὲς, the Latines, condere, or tegere oculos; to close their Eyes. This was the Duty of the nearest Relation, or of the dearest Friend, who immediately clos'd the Eyelids of his departed Relation or Friend: For, as Pliny teaches, lib. 11. cap. 37. they held it a Crime against the Gods to fee the Eyes of a dead Person. And that the Custom, of which we are speaking, was religiously observ'd, as a pious Office, that ought not to be neglected, we have the Testimony of many of the Antients: particularly of Euripides in Hecuba, and in Phœnissa, of Homer. Odyff. 10. and Iliad. I. and of Plato in Socr. While these Things were doing, all who were present, call'd with a loud Voice, and by his own Name, the Person, who was dead, and immediately with Wailings and Tears ran to embrace the Corps: This we learn from Servius on the 4th Æneid, and from Propertius, lib. 4. Eleg. 6. For, as Alcinous, de doct. Plat. cap. 12. says, he, who with dry Eyes, can behold the Death of his Relations and Friends, has a Mind insensible, and void of all Affection. Hir'd Women attended to take Care of the Body, and these shut the Mouth of the dead Person, while the Body was yet warm: Yet Crito perform'd the last Offices to the condemn'd Socrates, that Women, by their unavailing Laments, might not shake the Constancy of his undaunted Soul. Then they laid out the other Members, and wash'd the Corps with warm Water: because, says Cicero, lib. 1. de Leg. they believ'd the vital Spirit to be shut out, and often to deceive them; for which reason, they were wont to wash the Bodies of their Dead with warm Water: In the next Place they anointed the Body with Oil, if the Person were free, and not of servile Condition: For Unction was forbid to Slaves by the Laws of Solon; who likewise prefcrib'd Bounds to Tears and Mourning; but to publick indeed, rather than to private: Even he himself, as Stobæus, Serm. 276. witnesses, wept for the Loss of his Son; and when it was told him, That Weeping would avail him nothing: I know it well, said he, and for that very Reason I weep. And indeed, Quis matrem, nisi mentis inops, in funere nati says Ovid, de Remed. Amor. Especially when, as the Custom was, they plac'd the Child, after it was wash'd and anointed, on the Knees of the forrowful Mother, who, taking it into her Lap, and cherishing the cold Limbs in her trembling Bosom, cloath'd it at length in its funeral Attire; as we learn from Lucian, de luctu, and from Herodotus Muf 5. The Romans call'd the Mother of a dead Child, funera Mater, and that too very properly, since the whole Funeral, the Loss and the Grief were chiefly hers: This is attested by Pliny, lib. 11. cap. 45. and by Servius in Eclog. 6. Confirm'd likewife by the Mother of Euryalus, who in Virg. Æn. 9. hearing of the Death of her Son, cries out in the Bitterness of Anguish : 1 Nec te tua funera mater Produxi, preffive oculos, aut vulnera lavi, But by the Laws of the twelve Tables, it was forbid among the Romans, to take into their Laps, the Body of any, who were kill'd with Lightning; or to allow to such the accustom'd Rites of Funeral; because, according to the Dotrine of the Greeks, they were esteem'd holy, and worthy of Divine Honour: of which we have spoken above, p. 629. Vide etiam Artemid. lib. 2. cap. 8. The funeral Vestment, or Shrowd, was made of fine, white Linnen, and they call'd it 'n son. In weaving one of these, the chaste Penelope imploy'd many Years, to get rid of her importunate Wooers, to whom she pretended the was making that Winding Sheet for her Husband Ulyffes. Thus Homer, Odyff. B. Nor in the Camp of the Greeks did any take Offence at Hippodamia and Diomedea, the laft of whom Patroclus, when alive, lov'd even to Madness; and who, both of them, adorn'd his Funeral with the richest of Vestments, as Dictys Cretenfis has it in lib. 4. Nor can we doubt, but that, in Process of Time, when Corruption of Manners had crept in among the Athenians, even they too made use of costly Dresses for their Dead: We read in Ælian Var. Hist. cap. 16. and in Diogenes Laertius Laertius in vit. Socr. that Apollodorus offer'd Socrates, after this Philosopher had swallow'd the poisonous Draught, and was in his last Agony of Life, a white Vestment and Robe : and Plutarch, in vita Lysandri, tells us, that Philocles, the Prætor of Athens, after having wasn'd his Body, put on his richest Robes, and, thus attir'd, underwent with an undaunted Mind the Death to which his Conquerour Lysander had doom'd him. Certain it is that they adorn'd their Dead with Crowns and Garlands, made of the Leaves of Olive; and sometimes of Parsley, as Suidas reports, that Dares deliver'd in his Book de Certaminibus: and Lucian de Luctu adds, that they stuck in among the Leaves the Flowers that the Season afforded: This Garland was put on by the nearest Relation: and Plutarch relates of Pericles, that, tho' he strove to retain his Gravity, and labour'd not to discover his inward Anguish, yet he could not refrain from Tears, when he crown'd with this funeral Garland the Head of his dead Son Patolus. Lastly, they put into the Mouth of the deceas'd two pieces of Money, of the value of one Penny each, to pay his Passage over the River Styx : Thus the Expositour on the Frogs of Ariftophanes, who says besides, that this Freight-money was in their MotherTongue call'd Aανάκη; but the Atticks call'd it Καρκαδον, and the Latines Naulum. These Ceremonies being thus perform'd to the Body, it then was, by the permission of a Law of Solon's, plac'd any where within the Doors of the House: and this they call'd the Collocation of the Body: but the same Law commanded, that it should be carry'd out to Burial the next Morning after the Collocation, and that too before Day-light. This Law was expir'd, or at least was grown out of use, in the Time of Demetrius Phalereus: and tho' it was then re new'd, it hinder'd them not from keeping the Body in the House, as the Romans likewise did, for the space of seven intire Days: during which time Frankincense, Storax, and other Perfumes were continually burning on a little Altar, that was plac'd by the Feet of the Corps. And this Custom of keeping the Body thus long was observ'd for this reason, to wit, because the Presence of the Deceas'd alleviated the Sorrow of the Mourners, and accustom'd their Mind by degrees to part for good and all with what they so dearly lov'd. For this Reason the Greeks, when they were before Troy, bury'd not the Body of Achilles, till after they had kept it seventeen whole Days, Befides: |
