DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.847#0365
338 C^RE OH AGYLLA.
Home, and probably at the very period when this
tomb was built. The inner grave contained no arms,
and the outer one no ornaments. They were built
at a time when the lordly dead were interred and
not burnt, and when they were laid out gorgeously
apparelled in their last resting-place, but were not
coffined. Now the Greeks interred their dead in
the days of Cecrops, but the custom had fallen quite
into disuse, and they burnt the bodies at the time of
the Trojan war. In this tomb the slaves and ani-
mals which belonged to the warrior had been burnt;
but for the Larthia no such sacrifices were made,
and " she lay alone in her glory." Of the many
sepulchres we have visited, this is the only one in
which the door of the inner chamber has been found
closed. It appears to me to mark some peculiar
dignity or sacredness in the female dead, but I do not
think she was a priestess, because no emblems pecu-
liar to the priestly office were found beside her, un-
less the ornament upon her head, already described
in the introduction, be thought indicative of consecra-
tion. It was certainly neither crown nor diadem,
and was quite peculiar, nothing in any material
having been found like it, except the one from the
Ponte Sodo, which was excavated by Lucien Bona-
parte. When I first saw this strange ornament in
Rome, it startled me, and gave me the idea of
Aaron, the priest of Him who rules the earth and
air, and who made the great light, and the lesser
light, and all that lies between.
I was sorry to leave this interesting monument of
early civilisation, so like what is called the treasury
Home, and probably at the very period when this
tomb was built. The inner grave contained no arms,
and the outer one no ornaments. They were built
at a time when the lordly dead were interred and
not burnt, and when they were laid out gorgeously
apparelled in their last resting-place, but were not
coffined. Now the Greeks interred their dead in
the days of Cecrops, but the custom had fallen quite
into disuse, and they burnt the bodies at the time of
the Trojan war. In this tomb the slaves and ani-
mals which belonged to the warrior had been burnt;
but for the Larthia no such sacrifices were made,
and " she lay alone in her glory." Of the many
sepulchres we have visited, this is the only one in
which the door of the inner chamber has been found
closed. It appears to me to mark some peculiar
dignity or sacredness in the female dead, but I do not
think she was a priestess, because no emblems pecu-
liar to the priestly office were found beside her, un-
less the ornament upon her head, already described
in the introduction, be thought indicative of consecra-
tion. It was certainly neither crown nor diadem,
and was quite peculiar, nothing in any material
having been found like it, except the one from the
Ponte Sodo, which was excavated by Lucien Bona-
parte. When I first saw this strange ornament in
Rome, it startled me, and gave me the idea of
Aaron, the priest of Him who rules the earth and
air, and who made the great light, and the lesser
light, and all that lies between.
I was sorry to leave this interesting monument of
early civilisation, so like what is called the treasury