DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0201
THE SHRINES OF ATTICA
179
against selfishness hold up their balances and put it
in. It is weighed and found wanting. They toss the
soul to the black devils, who make off with it. This
street play is a clear survival of an early tradition.
On Byzantine pictures the soul appears as a small
doll, and the spectacle of the last judgment with
the scales and the demons is a favorite Byzantine
representation.
As for games of children, the hoop and the top
and the doll, the kite and the ball, are as modern as
they are old, and I have played jackstoncs with girls
in Athens in almost precisely the same manner as
Pollux described the game.
But the street scenes are not always so gay. Posted
on the walls you may often see an announcement with
a margin of black nearly an inch broad notifying
friends and relatives that mass will be celebrated in
a designated church for the repose of the soul of a
beloved father and brother. On Christmas Day the
merry crowd on Stadion Street was hushed for a mo-
ment. Four men dressed uniformly in dark clothes
of ecclesiastical cut, ornamented with crosses, were
heading a cortege. They bore various ecclesiastical
symbols, and one held aloft the white cover of the
coffin. The corpse, dressed as in life and with the
face exposed, was carried on a bier covered with
flowers. An empty hearse followed, and four or five
carriages. There was no music. The procession
moved silently along, and people took off their hats
as it passed. But sometimes priests march in advance,
chanting a mournful threnody, and I have seen men
and boys shabbily dressed bearing the cross and the
white slab. I shall not forget the face of a beautiful
179
against selfishness hold up their balances and put it
in. It is weighed and found wanting. They toss the
soul to the black devils, who make off with it. This
street play is a clear survival of an early tradition.
On Byzantine pictures the soul appears as a small
doll, and the spectacle of the last judgment with
the scales and the demons is a favorite Byzantine
representation.
As for games of children, the hoop and the top
and the doll, the kite and the ball, are as modern as
they are old, and I have played jackstoncs with girls
in Athens in almost precisely the same manner as
Pollux described the game.
But the street scenes are not always so gay. Posted
on the walls you may often see an announcement with
a margin of black nearly an inch broad notifying
friends and relatives that mass will be celebrated in
a designated church for the repose of the soul of a
beloved father and brother. On Christmas Day the
merry crowd on Stadion Street was hushed for a mo-
ment. Four men dressed uniformly in dark clothes
of ecclesiastical cut, ornamented with crosses, were
heading a cortege. They bore various ecclesiastical
symbols, and one held aloft the white cover of the
coffin. The corpse, dressed as in life and with the
face exposed, was carried on a bier covered with
flowers. An empty hearse followed, and four or five
carriages. There was no music. The procession
moved silently along, and people took off their hats
as it passed. But sometimes priests march in advance,
chanting a mournful threnody, and I have seen men
and boys shabbily dressed bearing the cross and the
white slab. I shall not forget the face of a beautiful