DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0592
564
OF THE MISCELLANV CUSTOMS OF GREECE,
And may the earth that is upon her laid,
Lie heavy on her corse, and crush her impious head.
Ammianus has ingeniously inverted this order in the following epigram (1):
Which Martial translates thus (2) :
Sit tibi terra levis, rnollique tegaris arena,
JYe tua nonpossint, eruere ossa canes.
Let there be one, who lighter dust, or sand
Shall sprinkle o'er your corse with sparing hand,
So to the dogs you'll be an easy prey.
Pass we now to the monuments erected in hon©ur of the dead, but not
containing any of their remains, and thence called xevoratpia, xsvfytu.
Of these there were two sorts ; one was erected to such persons as
had been honoured with funeral rites in another place ; of which we find
frequent mention in Pausanias (3), who speaks of such honorary tombs
dedicated to Euripides, Aristomenes, Achilles, Dameon, Tiresias, &c.
The second sort was erected for those that had never obtained a just
funeral; for the ancients were possessed with an opinion, that the ghosts
of men unburied could have no admittance into the blessed regions, but
were forced to wander in misery one hundred years ; and that when any
man had perished in the sea, or any other place where his carcase could
not be found, the only method of giving him repose was to erect a sepul-
chre, and by repeating three times, with a loud voice the name of the
deceased, to call his ghost to the habitation prepared for it; which action
was termed -^v^ayuyia.
This practice seems to have been very ancient : Pelias is introduce d
in Pindar (4), telling Jason, he must recall the soul of Phryxus, who died
in Colchis, into his native country. iEneas in Virgil performs the same
office to Deiphobus (5) :
Tunc egomet tumulum Rhozteo in littore inanem :
Constitui, et magna manes ter voce vocavi.
Thy tomb I rear'd on the Rhcetean coast,
And thrice aloud call'd on thy wand'ring ghost.
Ausonius has elegantly described, and assigned the reason of this cus •
torn (6) :
Hoc satis et tumulis, satis et ielluris egenis;
Voce dire animasfuneris instar habet •'
Gaudent compositi cineres sua nomina did ;
Frontibus hoc scriptis et monumenta jubant .-•
Tile etiam mcesti cui defuit urna sepulchri,
JYomine ter dicto pene sepulius erit.
Small is the privilege the unbury'd crave,
No grave, or decent burial they have ;
Only instead of pompous funeral,
Aloud upon their wand'ring ghosts we call ;
This they command, with this they most are pleas'd,
And empty mon'ments with inscriptions rais'd :
For he, whose manes have been recall'd,
Though his dead corpse of fit interment fail'd,
Is nigh as happy, and as fully blest,
As he whose bones beneath a tomb-stone rest. h. h-
(1) Antholog. lib. ii. tit. eh Trovnfsf. (4) Pythionic. Od. iv,
(2) Lib. ix. Epitaph. Phiten. (5) ^neid. vi. v. 505.
0?) Atticis, Messenicis, Eliac. JBoeoticis. (6) P[*fa*. Tarentalium.
OF THE MISCELLANV CUSTOMS OF GREECE,
And may the earth that is upon her laid,
Lie heavy on her corse, and crush her impious head.
Ammianus has ingeniously inverted this order in the following epigram (1):
Which Martial translates thus (2) :
Sit tibi terra levis, rnollique tegaris arena,
JYe tua nonpossint, eruere ossa canes.
Let there be one, who lighter dust, or sand
Shall sprinkle o'er your corse with sparing hand,
So to the dogs you'll be an easy prey.
Pass we now to the monuments erected in hon©ur of the dead, but not
containing any of their remains, and thence called xevoratpia, xsvfytu.
Of these there were two sorts ; one was erected to such persons as
had been honoured with funeral rites in another place ; of which we find
frequent mention in Pausanias (3), who speaks of such honorary tombs
dedicated to Euripides, Aristomenes, Achilles, Dameon, Tiresias, &c.
The second sort was erected for those that had never obtained a just
funeral; for the ancients were possessed with an opinion, that the ghosts
of men unburied could have no admittance into the blessed regions, but
were forced to wander in misery one hundred years ; and that when any
man had perished in the sea, or any other place where his carcase could
not be found, the only method of giving him repose was to erect a sepul-
chre, and by repeating three times, with a loud voice the name of the
deceased, to call his ghost to the habitation prepared for it; which action
was termed -^v^ayuyia.
This practice seems to have been very ancient : Pelias is introduce d
in Pindar (4), telling Jason, he must recall the soul of Phryxus, who died
in Colchis, into his native country. iEneas in Virgil performs the same
office to Deiphobus (5) :
Tunc egomet tumulum Rhozteo in littore inanem :
Constitui, et magna manes ter voce vocavi.
Thy tomb I rear'd on the Rhcetean coast,
And thrice aloud call'd on thy wand'ring ghost.
Ausonius has elegantly described, and assigned the reason of this cus •
torn (6) :
Hoc satis et tumulis, satis et ielluris egenis;
Voce dire animasfuneris instar habet •'
Gaudent compositi cineres sua nomina did ;
Frontibus hoc scriptis et monumenta jubant .-•
Tile etiam mcesti cui defuit urna sepulchri,
JYomine ter dicto pene sepulius erit.
Small is the privilege the unbury'd crave,
No grave, or decent burial they have ;
Only instead of pompous funeral,
Aloud upon their wand'ring ghosts we call ;
This they command, with this they most are pleas'd,
And empty mon'ments with inscriptions rais'd :
For he, whose manes have been recall'd,
Though his dead corpse of fit interment fail'd,
Is nigh as happy, and as fully blest,
As he whose bones beneath a tomb-stone rest. h. h-
(1) Antholog. lib. ii. tit. eh Trovnfsf. (4) Pythionic. Od. iv,
(2) Lib. ix. Epitaph. Phiten. (5) ^neid. vi. v. 505.
0?) Atticis, Messenicis, Eliac. JBoeoticis. (6) P[*fa*. Tarentalium.