Frank Pierrepont Graves

“ The common people speak through the memorials that have been left in sculptures, inscriptions, and vases, of their attachment to life and their despondency and gloom in view of death.
In nothing, is the refinement of the Greek more clearly shown than in his reverence for the dead and in the ceremonies which surrounded the burial. He [10] spoke of burial as “the customary,” “the fitting,” or “the right.” Even those persons were remembered who were stricken by sudden death at the wayside. The law of Athens required any one who chanced upon a corpse at least to cover it with earth [1] . ”

“ The ancient Greeks have departed, and, except when the prying hand of the archaeologist has torn away their surroundings, they have lain undisturbed for many centuries in the bosom of the earth. Let it be our wish that she still continue to rest lightly on good and bad alike. ”

“ With rare exceptions, the basket containing the offering is borne by women, and it is women who bind the bands around the pillar and place the crowns on the [79] base. Their gestures are, in general, calmer and more measured in the ceremonies at the grave than in the prothesis. Some of them, however, are yet seen carrying their hands to their heads, as if to tear out their hair, but their usual attitude is tranquil. There is less of the expression of grief than of religious respect and melancholy resignation. ”

“ Achilles, on the tomb of Patroclus, slew twelve young Trojans, four horses, two dogs and a herd of cattle and of sheep [33] . Ulysses, sacrificing the sheep on the side of the pit he had dug, called on the shades of the dead heroes, and the shades, gathering about him in swarms, drank eagerly this bloody libation [34] . Human sacrifices are referred to as occurring in the prehistoric period. But these barbarous customs no longer existed when veritable history commenced. The law of Solon forbade the sacrifice of an ox in the funeral ceremonies [35] . ”

“ It may not have been the rule in all the states of Greece, as it was at Athens, to make black the mourning color. Sparta, perhaps out of a feeling of antagonism to Athens, appears to have employed white mourning, referred to by Socrates as “robes rinsed in water [336] .”
It was the custom among the Greeks, when a good character like Alcestis, had departed, to pray that the earth might rest lightly upon the mortal frame [337] , but where a man had done nothing except evil, they wished that mother earth, like a huge night-mare, might pin him down [338] . ”

“ He says: “In the case of mourning among the Greeks, the women have their hair cut close, but the men wear it long since it is customary for the men when not afflicted by grief to have it cut short and for the woman to let it grow long [326] .” In another place he declares that you may take away a man’s signs of mourning by cutting his hair and drying his tears, and still bring him no comfort [327] . Undoubtedly, in Plutarch’s time, the fashion had changed and the later Greeks were wont to let their hair grow long to indicate their sorrow. ”

“ Theseus, who was renowned for his piety, in speaking of those slain at Thebes, declared that he would burn the corpse of Capaneus apart, because he was struck by the flame hurled from Zeus’s own hand, but that he would burn all the others on a single funeral pyre [19] . Plutarch declares that the bodies of those who have been killed by that means never putrefy, and that “many people never burn nor bury such bodies, but let them lie above ground with a fence about them, so that every one may see that they remain uncorrupted [20] .” ”

“ Lucian, in a general way, declares that the fashion of the Greeks as contrasted with the various customs practiced respectively among the Persians, the Indians, the Scythians, and the Egyptians, was to cremate their dead [158] . Some have accepted this statement in a literal sense; on the other hand, a German scholar [159] of no little repute insists that “in the historic period, interment was universal.” The truth, as usual, lies between these extremes. Burial and cremation existed together at every period. ”

“ In [86] the early times, when the Greeks wore beards and long hair, the desired effect might be gained by polling but, when the Roman fashion of close-cutting had been adopted, it must have looked as odd to see the hair streaming down the neck of a bereaved man, as one of the enormous ruffs worn by Raleigh would appear in New York to-day. Whatever may have been the custom in the Romanized era of Plutarch, it is very certain that black robes and shorn hair betokened bereavement during the largest portion of the history of Greece. ”

“ The ancient Hindus believed that, at the feasts, the manes of their ancestors seated themselves at the table near the living and enjoyed the viands set before them. The Greeks seem to have entertained the same belief and to have followed the same custom. Those rites long outlasted the beliefs which gave rise to the observances. The provision of material food for the dead was not only regarded as a duty but was viewed as a means of propitiating their good will. ”

“ Plato [38] relates that, formerly, it was the fashion for the relatives of the deceased to send for women whose business it was to collect the bones of the dead in jars; while still earlier, as he informs us, the Greeks buried their dead at home.
At Athens, Solon [39] made great improvements. He it was that forbade men to speak ill of the dead, on the ground that piety required them to consider the dead as sacred. Such a doctrine against the perpetuation of hatred is not many removes from the dispensation of the nineteenth century. ”

“ Again the pretty myth of Alcestis would be completely spoiled, if we venture to assume that her body was burned. Even Lucian seems to admit exceptions to his rule that the Greeks always burned, when he speaks of an old man as “having one foot in the grave, if not the other [170] .” That the Athenians of Solon’s time did sometimes, at least, employ burial is shown by the clever argument put forward by Solon, and the brilliant reply by Hereas in the dispute between Athens and Megara for the possession of Salamis. ”

“ There appears, also, to have been a custom of making music at the foot of the tomb, for the purpose of cheering the deceased in his solitude. The instrument used is the lyre. On one of the paintings, it is a young man, probably the deceased, sitting, who holds the lyre while the assistants appear to listen.
Such were the practices of the Greeks while the bereavement was recent, but it was always the duty of the survivors, as long as their lives might last, to tend their ancestors’ graves. ”

“ Artemidorus states clearly in his work on the interpretation of dreams that the appearance to a sick man of “white garments indicates death, because the dead are wont to be buried in white; while the black dress prophesies safety, since not those who have died, but those who are in mourning use the latter dress [65] .” Finally, in the scene where the Greeks prepare the body of Patroclus for burial, after drawing on some underwear of fine linen, over all they cover the hero’s body with a snowy funeral robe [66] . ”

“ In some of the paintings, on the vases, which have been discovered, the colors are remarkably well preserved. On the lecyths, only one woman has been found wearing a dead black robe [69] . It will be noticed that the expression employed by the ancient authors, does not apply strictly to the color black, as we generally understand it. In this connection, a black robe need not imply anything more than a dark shade of garment in contrast with the whiteness of the material in which the dead body is robed. ”

“ With the exception, possibly, of one or two features, survivals of their ancient religion, a description of the burial customs of the representative Greeks during the historic period, would, to-day, in no way, seem barbarous nor even extraordinary.
In the Homeric times, the blood of men and animals was regarded as the nourishment most agreeable to the dead. ”

“ A modern scholar [13] attributes this treatment to the fear which the Greeks had that the corpse might become a vampire; but the sentimental reason of Josephus, that the felonious hand was considered alien to the body, appears much more like the ancient manner of thought. As an additional degradation to the corpses of suicides, Plato recommends that they be buried without honor apart from the other dead in an uncultivated and nameless region, and that their place of interment be unmarked by any pillar or name [14] . ”

“ The color black is very rare in the vase paintings, and particularly in funeral scenes. On one lecyth, the ornamental bands which lie over and hang down from the funeral bed, and the covering of the bed, are painted in violet [71] , on another lecyth, the shroud is dark green; the undergarment of one of the women is dark green, and her outer garment is brown; on another lecyth, a man is represented wearing an outer garment of dark lilac, and a woman has a mantle of brown [72] .
[28]
These white lecyths, by the way, were small vases, the body of which is generally of a white or gray color. ”

“ Euphiletus, an every-day citizen of Athens, has his suspicions of his wife’s infidelity intensified and corroborated, because one day, before her brother had been dead thirty days, he discovered her with her cheeks painted [291] .
Of the objects that were employed in the sacrifices and services at the tomb, the basket that serves to carry the offerings to the column is always in the hands of a woman. It is always the same in appearance, long, without a cover and shallow. ”

“ Just outside the door of the house within which the body was laid out, stood an earthen vessel of lustral water, so that the visitors who went to look on the features of their friend for the last time, could purify themselves from any pollution which they might have incurred by entering a home defiled by death. ”

“ On the other hand, even if we should disregard the fact that black seems usually to have been the color of the mourner’s dress, and the necessary consequence that the shroud of the deceased could hardly have been of the same color, we certainly still have other good authority for supposing the dead person to have been robed in white. ”

“ At Rome, the dressing of the corpse was performed by a hired undertaker called the pollinctor, but, among the Greeks, this delicate task was looked after by the nearest female relatives and was considered a very [23] sacred duty [48] . The paintings that have been found on the funeral vases, exhibit a remarkable superiority, in numbers, of the women at the ceremonies preparatory to interment. Only a single lecyth has been found on which a man is depicted as taking part in the preliminary stages of the preparation. ”

“ Most of the accounts which we have of the details of cremation are found in Homer. That great bard gives some idea of the minor customs which found place about the funeral pyre. From the account given to Achilles by Agamemnon, as being a later arrival in the land of shades, the Greeks were wont, it would seem, to sacrifice “fat sheep and crooked-horned oxen” about the pyre and cover the deceased with unguents and honey [179] . Costly garments were also burned together with the corpse. ”

“ As companions and sources of amusement and pleasure, the dog and the bird played a prominent part in the in-door life of the Greeks. On that account, probably, the young man with his dog and the young girl with her bird are very often seen in funeral bas-reliefs.
A scholiast remarks on this custom of prothesis, or lying-in-state, that “the ancients laid their corpses before the doors and beat their breasts [92] .” Becker finds considerable difficulty in reconciling this with Solon’s [33] law ordering “the dead man to be laid out within the house according as he left orders.” ”

“ The sentiment of honoring those whose mortal remains eluded search was, in itself, very beautiful, but woe betide the man who came back after his friends had supposed him dead and had performed his funeral rites. His superstitious brethren would not allow him to take part in their sacrifices, nor even to approach those solemnities. ”

“ When the question of a funeral feast in honor of Patroclus was considered, Achilles, being his nearest friend then present, prepares for it in his own tent. The perideipnon for all those who had lost their lives in behalf of [72] Greece at the disastrous battle of Chaeronea was held at the house of the orator Demosthenes. That was for the reason, as he himself states, that although each was nearer to his own kin than the orator, yet no other man was so near to them collectively [270] . ”

“ The people of the richer classes, when they possessed a bit of land, often directed that they should be interred [68] therein; so it happened that there was no large assemblage of graves at any one place. In one of Demosthenes’s orations, the stone-cutter comes to the house that he may complete the tomb in the neighboring field [249] . More frequently the graves were constructed by the side of some much traveled road where the passer-by might observe the monument. From an inscription on a child’s tomb, we learn that “her parents sorrowfully buried her at the junction of three roads [250] .” ”

“ Probably that order of events was established by the law of Solon, which is reported somewhat imperfectly in Demosthenes [80] . In the case of those Athenians, [30] however, who had fallen in battle, the lying-in-state took place three days before the procession [81] .
This desire which the Greeks had for an early burial, was due to the same solicitude that caused them to be in haste to provide the passage-money for crossing the Styx.
Socrates is made to say that, when the soul has departed, men carry away the bodies of their near friends and bury them as soon as they can [82] . ”