DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0400
CHAP. XVIII.]
FUNERAL FEASTS.
295
The funeral feast is still kept up by the most civilised
pagans of our own day, the Chinese, and even by certain
people of Christendom,—by such as on account of their
isolated position, or of national prejudices, have adhered
most closely to the customs and usages of antiquity. The
wakes of the Celtic races of our own land have in all pro-
bability an identity of origin—in feeling at least—with the
funeral feasts of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans.
Dances, among the ancients, had often a direct religious
meaning and application, and were introduced at sacrifices
together with songs in honour of the Gods.3 Music, to our
ideas, is hardly consistent with a scene of mourning, yet it
might be solemn and dolorous. That such was intended to
be its character in this case the accompanying figures
forbid us to suppose ; it must have been lively and
animated, in harmony with the action of the dancers.
But on other Etruscan monuments it seems to have been
of a different character. Not a few bas-reliefs represent
the prceficee, or hired mourners, wailing over a corpse,
Norchia were for thefuneral feasts, itwell
illustrates this etymology. That the
ancients did hold these feasts in the
open air, and among the tombs, is pretty
evident. At Pompeii a triclinium for
such purposes stands in the midst of the
sepulchres. Lucian (de Luctu. p. 813.
ed. 1615) tells us that the feast was held
to comfort the relatives of the deceased,
and induce them to take food.
3 Plato, de Leg. VII. 799. Tibul. II.
1, 56, Quintil. 1.11. Of this character
were, the Corybantian, or armed dances
of Phrygia in honour of Cybele ; the
Hyporchema and Geranos in honour of
Apollo (see Muller, Dor. II, 8,14) ; and
the Salian dances of the Etruseans and
Romans in honour of Mars. TheDiony-
siac, though also religious, were peculiar
in their mimetic character—in represent-
ing the deeds of the god. Servius (ad
Virg. Eclog. V. 73), gives us the philo-
sophy of sacred dancing among the an-
cients :—haec ratio est, quod nullam
majores nostri partem corporis esse vo-
luerunt, qute non sentiret religionem :
nam cantus ad animum, saltatio ad mo-
bilitatem pertinet corporis. The bodily
expression of some sentiment was the
essence of all the dancing of the Greeks,
says Becker (Charicles, sc. VI.) ; and it
might be added, of the Romans. Ger-
hard (Ann. Inst. 1831, p. 321), thinks
the dances in these tombs symbolize the
welcome given to the deceased in the
abodes of the blessed, and were there-
fore placed in the most prominent posi-
tion.
FUNERAL FEASTS.
295
The funeral feast is still kept up by the most civilised
pagans of our own day, the Chinese, and even by certain
people of Christendom,—by such as on account of their
isolated position, or of national prejudices, have adhered
most closely to the customs and usages of antiquity. The
wakes of the Celtic races of our own land have in all pro-
bability an identity of origin—in feeling at least—with the
funeral feasts of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans.
Dances, among the ancients, had often a direct religious
meaning and application, and were introduced at sacrifices
together with songs in honour of the Gods.3 Music, to our
ideas, is hardly consistent with a scene of mourning, yet it
might be solemn and dolorous. That such was intended to
be its character in this case the accompanying figures
forbid us to suppose ; it must have been lively and
animated, in harmony with the action of the dancers.
But on other Etruscan monuments it seems to have been
of a different character. Not a few bas-reliefs represent
the prceficee, or hired mourners, wailing over a corpse,
Norchia were for thefuneral feasts, itwell
illustrates this etymology. That the
ancients did hold these feasts in the
open air, and among the tombs, is pretty
evident. At Pompeii a triclinium for
such purposes stands in the midst of the
sepulchres. Lucian (de Luctu. p. 813.
ed. 1615) tells us that the feast was held
to comfort the relatives of the deceased,
and induce them to take food.
3 Plato, de Leg. VII. 799. Tibul. II.
1, 56, Quintil. 1.11. Of this character
were, the Corybantian, or armed dances
of Phrygia in honour of Cybele ; the
Hyporchema and Geranos in honour of
Apollo (see Muller, Dor. II, 8,14) ; and
the Salian dances of the Etruseans and
Romans in honour of Mars. TheDiony-
siac, though also religious, were peculiar
in their mimetic character—in represent-
ing the deeds of the god. Servius (ad
Virg. Eclog. V. 73), gives us the philo-
sophy of sacred dancing among the an-
cients :—haec ratio est, quod nullam
majores nostri partem corporis esse vo-
luerunt, qute non sentiret religionem :
nam cantus ad animum, saltatio ad mo-
bilitatem pertinet corporis. The bodily
expression of some sentiment was the
essence of all the dancing of the Greeks,
says Becker (Charicles, sc. VI.) ; and it
might be added, of the Romans. Ger-
hard (Ann. Inst. 1831, p. 321), thinks
the dances in these tombs symbolize the
welcome given to the deceased in the
abodes of the blessed, and were there-
fore placed in the most prominent posi-
tion.