DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0084
lxxxiv WHY VASES WERE PLACED IN TOMBS, [introduction.
the tomb, or to contain the wine, honey, and milk, left as offer-
ings to the manes,6 or to make the customary libations, or more
rarely to hold the ashes of the dead.7 There can be little doubt,
whatever purposes they originally served, that these vases were
placed in the tomb by the ashes of the deceased, together with
his armour and jewellery, as being among the articles which he
most prized in life.
That these vases are found in such multitudes in Etruria is
the more astonishing when we remember that almost all the
tombs which contain them bear manifest proofs of having been
rifled in bygone times. It is extremely rare to find a virgin
sepulchre. At Vulci, where the painted vases are most abundant,
not more than one tomb in a hundred proves to be intact. It is
obvious that those who in past ages violated these sepulchres
were either ignorant of the value of the vases, or left them from
superstitious motives—most probably the former, for they are
often found broken to pieces, as though they had been dashed
wantonly to the earth in the search for the precious metals.
We know that the sepulchres of Corinth and of Capua were
6 The notion of feeding the souls of other offerings to the dead. Horn,
the departed was very general among Iliad. XXIII. 170; Virg. Ma. VI. 225;
the ancients. In Egypt, for instance, Serv. in loc. Vases are often found in
the tomb of Osiris, in the Isle of Phike the tombs of Etruria, as well as of Greece,
in the Nile, contained 360 vessels—%oaL and her colonies in Italy, which retain
—which were daily filled with milk by manifest proofs of subjection to fire,
the priests. Diod. Sic. I. p. 19, ed. 7 This is sometimes the case with
Rhod. In Greece the souls were sup- those of Sicily and Magna Graecia,
posed to be fed by the libations and especially of Apulia and Lucania; more
feasts held at the sepulchre. Lucian, de rarely with those of Etruria. A curious
Luctu, p. 809, ed. 1615. And so in but beautiful conceit on certain of these
Italy, where the manes were appeased by cinerary vases is uttered by Sir Thomas
libations of wine, milk, and blood ; and Browne, in his Hydriotaphia, chap. III.
the wailing-women therefore beat their " Most imitate a circular figure, in a
breasts to force out the milk, and tore spherical and round composure; whether
their flesh to make the blood flow ; all from any mystery, best duration, or ca-
for the satisfaction of the departed. Serv. pacity, were but a conjecture. But the
ad Ma. V. 78. A similar custom, pro- common form with necks was a proper
bably of equal antiquity, prevails in figure,making our last bed like our first;
China, of making an annual "feast for nor much unlike the urns of our nativity,
the hungry ghosts." It was the custom while we lay in the nether part of the
of the ancients to burn on the funeral earth, and inward vault of our micro-
pyre the vases containing oil, honey, or cosm."
the tomb, or to contain the wine, honey, and milk, left as offer-
ings to the manes,6 or to make the customary libations, or more
rarely to hold the ashes of the dead.7 There can be little doubt,
whatever purposes they originally served, that these vases were
placed in the tomb by the ashes of the deceased, together with
his armour and jewellery, as being among the articles which he
most prized in life.
That these vases are found in such multitudes in Etruria is
the more astonishing when we remember that almost all the
tombs which contain them bear manifest proofs of having been
rifled in bygone times. It is extremely rare to find a virgin
sepulchre. At Vulci, where the painted vases are most abundant,
not more than one tomb in a hundred proves to be intact. It is
obvious that those who in past ages violated these sepulchres
were either ignorant of the value of the vases, or left them from
superstitious motives—most probably the former, for they are
often found broken to pieces, as though they had been dashed
wantonly to the earth in the search for the precious metals.
We know that the sepulchres of Corinth and of Capua were
6 The notion of feeding the souls of other offerings to the dead. Horn,
the departed was very general among Iliad. XXIII. 170; Virg. Ma. VI. 225;
the ancients. In Egypt, for instance, Serv. in loc. Vases are often found in
the tomb of Osiris, in the Isle of Phike the tombs of Etruria, as well as of Greece,
in the Nile, contained 360 vessels—%oaL and her colonies in Italy, which retain
—which were daily filled with milk by manifest proofs of subjection to fire,
the priests. Diod. Sic. I. p. 19, ed. 7 This is sometimes the case with
Rhod. In Greece the souls were sup- those of Sicily and Magna Graecia,
posed to be fed by the libations and especially of Apulia and Lucania; more
feasts held at the sepulchre. Lucian, de rarely with those of Etruria. A curious
Luctu, p. 809, ed. 1615. And so in but beautiful conceit on certain of these
Italy, where the manes were appeased by cinerary vases is uttered by Sir Thomas
libations of wine, milk, and blood ; and Browne, in his Hydriotaphia, chap. III.
the wailing-women therefore beat their " Most imitate a circular figure, in a
breasts to force out the milk, and tore spherical and round composure; whether
their flesh to make the blood flow ; all from any mystery, best duration, or ca-
for the satisfaction of the departed. Serv. pacity, were but a conjecture. But the
ad Ma. V. 78. A similar custom, pro- common form with necks was a proper
bably of equal antiquity, prevails in figure,making our last bed like our first;
China, of making an annual "feast for nor much unlike the urns of our nativity,
the hungry ghosts." It was the custom while we lay in the nether part of the
of the ancients to burn on the funeral earth, and inward vault of our micro-
pyre the vases containing oil, honey, or cosm."