DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0601
OF THE MISCELLANY CUSTOMS OF GREECE.
reign countries ; whence before they departed they called the names of
all that were missing out of their company three times : this Ulysses in
Homer declares he did, when he lost some of his men in battle with the
Cicones (1). Hercules in Theocritus calls Hylas three times (2) :
On Hylas thrice he calt'd, with voice profound. favtkes.
The reasons of this custom were, according to John Tzelzes (3), partly,
that such as were left behind might, upon hearing the noise, repair to
their ships, and partly testify their unwillingness to depart without their
companions.
To return: they had anniversary days, on which they paid their de-
votions to the dead ; these were sometimes termed Ns^s'tfia, as being ce-
lebrated upon the festival of Nemesis, who was thought to have especial
care for the honours of the dead (4) ; sometimes 'Qgara(o), as also Fsve-
tfia (6) ; the reason of which seems to be, that it signifies the anniversary
day of a man's nativity, which after his death was solemnized with the
same ceremonies that were used upon the anniversary of his death (7),
which were properly termed NsWtfia- hence it is that these two words are
commonly thought to signify the same solemnity.
The honours of the dead were distinguished according to the quality
and worth of the person they were conferred on: such as by their vir-
tues and public services, had raised themselves above the common level,
had tyu'ixas n^ag, the honours ot heroes ; the participation hereof was
termed etvisggrfdui. or TSreu^e'vai rijxwv jj'pwj'xwv, idoSsuv or /tfoXufjwr'i'wv: others,
who had distinguished themselves from the former, were raised a higher
degree, and reckoned among the gods, which consecration was term-
ed Ssoirowa, and was very different from the former, to worship the
former persons being only termed eay/£sjv, but the latter Susiv. The
latter honour was very rare in the heroic times, but in subsequent
ages, when great examples of virtue were not so frequent, and men
more addicted to flattery, it became more cheap, insomuch that those
persons, whom former ages had only worshipped as heroes, were after-
wards accounted gods; an instance whereof we have (to omi^ several
others) in Lampsace, one of Plutarch's heroines (8). The Athenians
were especially remarkable for immoderate and profuse distributions of
those honours, and it is generally observed that that nation exceeded all
the rest of the Grecians in the arts of flattery and superstition, as appears
from several instances in the precedent books.
I shall observe, in the last place, that these and the rest of the ho-
nours of the dead, were thought most acceptable when offered by their
nearest friends ; when by their enemies, they were rejected with indig-
nation : whence Sophocles introduces Electra advising her sister Cry-
sothemis, that they should by no means offer Clytemnestra's gifts to Aga-
memnon (9) :
1ufj.Q(a ?rpwa.-\,As fxnS'it' is y<tf <rot &'tutt,
OOdyss. 64.
(2) Idyll. ?'.v. 58.
(3) Chiliad, v. Hist. 14.
(4) Moschopulus, Suidas.
(5) Hesychius, Phavorinus.
(6) Suidas, &c.
(7) Suidas, Hesychius, Phavorinus, Moscho-
poius, &c.
(8) Lib. de Mulierum Claris factk
(.9) Electra, v. 432.
reign countries ; whence before they departed they called the names of
all that were missing out of their company three times : this Ulysses in
Homer declares he did, when he lost some of his men in battle with the
Cicones (1). Hercules in Theocritus calls Hylas three times (2) :
On Hylas thrice he calt'd, with voice profound. favtkes.
The reasons of this custom were, according to John Tzelzes (3), partly,
that such as were left behind might, upon hearing the noise, repair to
their ships, and partly testify their unwillingness to depart without their
companions.
To return: they had anniversary days, on which they paid their de-
votions to the dead ; these were sometimes termed Ns^s'tfia, as being ce-
lebrated upon the festival of Nemesis, who was thought to have especial
care for the honours of the dead (4) ; sometimes 'Qgara(o), as also Fsve-
tfia (6) ; the reason of which seems to be, that it signifies the anniversary
day of a man's nativity, which after his death was solemnized with the
same ceremonies that were used upon the anniversary of his death (7),
which were properly termed NsWtfia- hence it is that these two words are
commonly thought to signify the same solemnity.
The honours of the dead were distinguished according to the quality
and worth of the person they were conferred on: such as by their vir-
tues and public services, had raised themselves above the common level,
had tyu'ixas n^ag, the honours ot heroes ; the participation hereof was
termed etvisggrfdui. or TSreu^e'vai rijxwv jj'pwj'xwv, idoSsuv or /tfoXufjwr'i'wv: others,
who had distinguished themselves from the former, were raised a higher
degree, and reckoned among the gods, which consecration was term-
ed Ssoirowa, and was very different from the former, to worship the
former persons being only termed eay/£sjv, but the latter Susiv. The
latter honour was very rare in the heroic times, but in subsequent
ages, when great examples of virtue were not so frequent, and men
more addicted to flattery, it became more cheap, insomuch that those
persons, whom former ages had only worshipped as heroes, were after-
wards accounted gods; an instance whereof we have (to omi^ several
others) in Lampsace, one of Plutarch's heroines (8). The Athenians
were especially remarkable for immoderate and profuse distributions of
those honours, and it is generally observed that that nation exceeded all
the rest of the Grecians in the arts of flattery and superstition, as appears
from several instances in the precedent books.
I shall observe, in the last place, that these and the rest of the ho-
nours of the dead, were thought most acceptable when offered by their
nearest friends ; when by their enemies, they were rejected with indig-
nation : whence Sophocles introduces Electra advising her sister Cry-
sothemis, that they should by no means offer Clytemnestra's gifts to Aga-
memnon (9) :
1ufj.Q(a ?rpwa.-\,As fxnS'it' is y<tf <rot &'tutt,
OOdyss. 64.
(2) Idyll. ?'.v. 58.
(3) Chiliad, v. Hist. 14.
(4) Moschopulus, Suidas.
(5) Hesychius, Phavorinus.
(6) Suidas, &c.
(7) Suidas, Hesychius, Phavorinus, Moscho-
poius, &c.
(8) Lib. de Mulierum Claris factk
(.9) Electra, v. 432.