DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0564
6K THE MISCELLANY CUSTOMS OF GREECE.
he thought it wholly absurd and unreasonable, that those who, through
the whole course of their lives, had been accustomed to contemn riches
and superfluous ornament, should be decked therewith when dead. Nor
were any ointments or costly perfumes used there, being looked on as
conducing nothing to the felicity of the dead, and unworthy of the Lace-
daemonian gravity.
The next ceremony was bedecking the dead body with chaplets of
flowers and green boughs. Thus Talthybius puts on Hecuba to adorn
her grandson Astyanax (1) :
--Tli7rKoitTtv £*c Trepis-ittois vexpcv,
~£T£tpcivon Q-\ ocr» a-oi S~6va.jU.li, d( t'^ii r& <ri.
That you adorn the corpse- with costly robes,
With chaplets, and what other pomp you can.
When persons of worth and character died in foreign countries, their re-
mains being brought home in urns, were honoured with the ceremonies
customary at other funerals, but more especially with this I am speaking
of. Plutarch reports, that the cities through which Demetnus's ash-
es were conveyed, sent mourners to meet the sacred urn, with others to
perform the rites usual on such occasions, or at least they crowned it with
garlands (2). The same author reports, that Philopcemen's relics were
attended by captives in chains, and his urn so covered with ribands and
chaplets, that scarce any part of it was to be seen (3) This ceremony
was either taken from the games, wherein the conquerors were rewarded
with crowns of leaves, as signifying that the dead had finished their
course (4), or was designed to express the unmixed and neverfading
pleasures the dead were to enjoy, upon their removal out of this painful
and troublesome world '5) : for garlands were an emblem of mirth and
joyfulness, and therefore usually worn at banquets and festivals. The
same may be observed of ointments and perfumes, the constant attendants
of gaiety and pleasantness. To both these ceremonies we have an inge-
nious allusion of an old poet in Stobaeus :
Ob fsiev y^p stoic iv 7Tot' Wipa.vai/nivoi
TIpxKtSiueQ 4,vBto-' nil x.a.<rctKt%pttT/uivci,
El fXII JCitTcCaVTCIC iuBiCVC 7TttW tfc'.
i Act TstyT# yip to/ ij KH^evrai {jctxapict
nSf yxp Ktyu <r/c, o (jt.OLK'j.p tjk o'iyvrcii.
Not that we less compassionate are grown,
Do we at funerals our temples crown,
Or with sweet essences adorn our hair,
And all the marks of pleasing transport wear;
But cause were sure of that more happy state,
To which kind death doth ev'ry soul translate,
Which here by drinking we anticipate ;
For soon as death his fatal shaft hath hnrl'd,
And us transmitted to the other world,
We drinking sign th' immortal beverage,
And in sweet joys eternity engage ;
Hence they by every one are only said
To be right happy that are truly dead. h. h.
This done, they proceeded tfporWstfdar, collocare. to lay out the dead bo-
dy ; sometimes they placed it upon the ground, sometimes upon a bier5
(1) Euripid. Troad. v, 1143.
(2) Demetrio.
0?) Philopoeine'ne,
(4) Suidas.
IB) Clemens Alexandria. Itjbu, lib. ii. cap. 8
he thought it wholly absurd and unreasonable, that those who, through
the whole course of their lives, had been accustomed to contemn riches
and superfluous ornament, should be decked therewith when dead. Nor
were any ointments or costly perfumes used there, being looked on as
conducing nothing to the felicity of the dead, and unworthy of the Lace-
daemonian gravity.
The next ceremony was bedecking the dead body with chaplets of
flowers and green boughs. Thus Talthybius puts on Hecuba to adorn
her grandson Astyanax (1) :
--Tli7rKoitTtv £*c Trepis-ittois vexpcv,
~£T£tpcivon Q-\ ocr» a-oi S~6va.jU.li, d( t'^ii r& <ri.
That you adorn the corpse- with costly robes,
With chaplets, and what other pomp you can.
When persons of worth and character died in foreign countries, their re-
mains being brought home in urns, were honoured with the ceremonies
customary at other funerals, but more especially with this I am speaking
of. Plutarch reports, that the cities through which Demetnus's ash-
es were conveyed, sent mourners to meet the sacred urn, with others to
perform the rites usual on such occasions, or at least they crowned it with
garlands (2). The same author reports, that Philopcemen's relics were
attended by captives in chains, and his urn so covered with ribands and
chaplets, that scarce any part of it was to be seen (3) This ceremony
was either taken from the games, wherein the conquerors were rewarded
with crowns of leaves, as signifying that the dead had finished their
course (4), or was designed to express the unmixed and neverfading
pleasures the dead were to enjoy, upon their removal out of this painful
and troublesome world '5) : for garlands were an emblem of mirth and
joyfulness, and therefore usually worn at banquets and festivals. The
same may be observed of ointments and perfumes, the constant attendants
of gaiety and pleasantness. To both these ceremonies we have an inge-
nious allusion of an old poet in Stobaeus :
Ob fsiev y^p stoic iv 7Tot' Wipa.vai/nivoi
TIpxKtSiueQ 4,vBto-' nil x.a.<rctKt%pttT/uivci,
El fXII JCitTcCaVTCIC iuBiCVC 7TttW tfc'.
i Act TstyT# yip to/ ij KH^evrai {jctxapict
nSf yxp Ktyu <r/c, o (jt.OLK'j.p tjk o'iyvrcii.
Not that we less compassionate are grown,
Do we at funerals our temples crown,
Or with sweet essences adorn our hair,
And all the marks of pleasing transport wear;
But cause were sure of that more happy state,
To which kind death doth ev'ry soul translate,
Which here by drinking we anticipate ;
For soon as death his fatal shaft hath hnrl'd,
And us transmitted to the other world,
We drinking sign th' immortal beverage,
And in sweet joys eternity engage ;
Hence they by every one are only said
To be right happy that are truly dead. h. h.
This done, they proceeded tfporWstfdar, collocare. to lay out the dead bo-
dy ; sometimes they placed it upon the ground, sometimes upon a bier5
(1) Euripid. Troad. v, 1143.
(2) Demetrio.
0?) Philopoeine'ne,
(4) Suidas.
IB) Clemens Alexandria. Itjbu, lib. ii. cap. 8