Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

FUNUS.

185

FUXUS.

find Unboned ; and among the Athenians,
those children who were released from all
other obligations to unworthy parents, were
nevertheless hound to bury them by one of
Solon's laws. The neglect of binding one's
relatives is frequently mentioned by the
orators as a grave charge against the moral
character of a man ; in fact, the burial of the
body by the relations of the dead was consi-
dered one of the most sacred duties by the
universal law of the Greeks. Sophocles re-
presents Antigone as disregarding all conse-
quences in order to bury the dead body of
her brother Polyneices, which Creon, the
king of Thebes, had commanded to be left
unburied. The common expressions for the
funeral rites, ra Succua, v6y.ip.ix or vofii^ofieva,
TTpoa-qKovTa, show that the dead had, as it
were, a legal and moral claim to burial. After
a person was dead, it was the custom first to
place in his mouth an obolus, called danace
(&av6.KT\), with which he might pay the ferry-
man in Hades. The body was then washed
and anointed with perfumed oil, the head
was crowned with the flowers which hap-
pened to be in season, and the body dressed
in as handsome a robe as the family could
afford. These duties were not performed by
hired persons, like the pollinctores among the
■Romans, but by the women of the family,
upon whom the care of the corpse always de-
volved. The corpse was then laid out (n-pdSe-
tri5, -poTiflecr#ai.) on a bed, which appears to
have been of the ordinary kind, with a pil-
low for supporting the head and hack. By
the side of the bed there were placed
painted earthen vessels, called AtjkuOoi, which
were also buried with the corpse. Great
numbers of these painted vases have been
found in modern times; and they have been
of great use in explaining many matters con-
nected with antiquity. A honey-cake, called
fieAiTTovTa, which appears to have been in-
tended for Cerberus, was also placed by the
6ide of the corpse. Before the door a vessel
of water was placed, called ompaxov, dpSdAioi/
or apSai/toj/, in order that persons who had
been in the house might purify themselves by
sprinkling water on their persons. The re- '
latives stood around the bed, the women
uttering great lamentations, rending their
garments, and tearing their hair. On the
day after the irp6de<rt.s, or the third day after
death, the corpse was carried out (ex<#>opd,

£KKop.iSri) for burial, early in the morning and
before sunrise. A burial soon after death
was supposed to be pleasing to the dead. In
some places it appears to have been usual to
bury the dead on the day following death.
The men walked before the corpse, and the
women behind. The funeral procession was
preceded or followed by hired mourners
(BptpHf&oi), who appear to have been usually
Carian women, playing mournful tunes on
the flute. The bod}- was either buried or
burnt. The word Ba-rnnv is used in connec-
tion with either mode ; it is applied to the
collection of the ashes after burning, and
accordingly we find the words xaUiv and
BdiTTeiv used together. The proper expres-
sion for interment in the earth is kcltopvt-
reiv. In Homer the bodies of the dead are
burnt; but interment was also used in very
ancient times. Cicero says that the dead were
buried at Athens in the time of Cecrops ; and
we also read of the bones of Orestes being
found in a coffin at Tegea. The dead were
commonly buried among the Spartans and
the Sicyonians, and the prevalence of this
practice is proved by the great number of
skeletons found in coffins in modern times,
which have evidently not been exposed to
the action of fire. Both burning and bury-
ing appear to have been always used to a
greater or less extent at different periods ;
till the spread of Christianity at length put
an end to the former practice. The dead
bodies were usually burnt on piles of wood,
called pyres (n-vpai). The body was placed
on the top ; and in the heroic times it was
customary to burn with the corpse animals
and even captives or slaves. Oils and per-
fumes were also thrown into the flames.
■\Yhen the pyre was burnt down, the remains
of the fire were quenched with wine, and the
relatives and friends collected the bones.
The bones were then washed with wine and
oil, and placed in urns, which were some-
times made of gold. The corpses which were
not burnt were buried in coffins, which were
called by various names, as aopoi, jnleAoi,
iaproi, kapveuces, Spolrai, though some of these
names are also applied to the urns in which
the bones were collected. They were made
of various materials, but were usually of
baked clay or earthenware. The following
woodcut contains two of the most ancient
kind; the figure in the middle is the section

Cuthns. (Stnckelberg, t pje Grabur der Hellenen,' pi. 7, 8.)