XII Further Ceremonies
In addition to the appointed sacrifices, there were apparently other celebrations held at stated times beside the tomb. These seasons Plato euphemistically called “days not to be mentioned,” and he did not, think it right at that time to hear sorrows of any kind304. These latter celebrations seem to have consisted for the most part of libations to the dead, and to have been celebrated by a cessation from the ordinary duties305. One of these mourning holidays was that called genesia306. From its apparent derivation, it may be assumed to have been the celebration of the birthday of the deceased. This conjecture is strengthened by the will of Epicurus, found in Diogenes Laertius307, in which he directs his heirs to arrange offerings to the manes of his father, mother, brothers and himself, and to celebrate his birthday each year on the tenth of the month Gamelion. Herodotus also mentions the fact that the Greeks, like the Issedones, had annual sacrifices for the dead. Whether he refers to the genesia or to another yearly offering known as the nekysia or to both is uncertain308.
This nekysia was a general holiday for all Athens and was dedicated to all the dead. It consisted of the same sort of sacrificing as that which took place on the anniversary of the birthday309. Besides these ceremonies, it was customary, in the very early times, to institute funeral games in honor of the deceased shortly after the burial. On the death of Azan, according to the myth, son of Arcas, the king from whom Arcadia received its name, these games were first established in Greece. In his case, probably, the only contest was horse-racing310. But in the Homeric times, although the chariot race was the most important, there were also a boxing match, wrestling, a foot race, an armed combat, competition in weight-casting, a trial at archery and a contest of javelin throwing311. There were suitable prizes in each event for every one of the contestants. If the games which the Greek chieftains arranged in memory of Achilles, when he died, were any more elaborate than these, as Agamemnon maintains they were, they must have occupied considerable time312.
These celebrations occasionally occurred in the historic period. Plutarch tells us that, after Timoleon’s death, the people of Syracuse determined to honor him with funeral games forever, to be celebrated with performances in music, horse-racing and wrestling313.
It was the duty of every good citizen to visit the graves of his dead not only on the days established for special services, but to come there much oftener since the Greeks believed that the deceased was always pleased by the presence of his friends of the former life. On the same principle the dead were supposed to be tormented by the visits of those formerly inimical. The claimant to the estate of Astyphilus is made by Isaeus to declare that it was generally accepted that the presence of his father would be pleasing to the deceased, and so the parent was carried out to the grave although in feeble health314. Further along in his speech the same man asserts that the father of Astyphilus had strictly forbidden the father of the defendant or any one connected with him to come near his tomb315. The same belief causes Teucer to restrain Odysseus from touching the grave of Ajax lest he offend the deceased hero316.
It is proper now to consider the conduct and dress during the period of mourning. As with us, the predominant manifestation of sorrow was abstinence from every pleasure317. Admetus weepingly declares to his wife that, when she is gone, he will put an end to all the feasts and meetings in his house, at which they had been wont mutually to enjoy wine, garlands, and song318.
The other tokens of bereavement were the cutting of the hair and the wearing of black garments. These customs seem to have been practiced at a very early period and to have lasted well down through Grecian history. The tragic poets bear witness to their prevalence. Orestes shears his hair, and his sister is dressed in black319; Helen mourns her husband with both these signs of grief320; the chorus consider the advisibility of employing the badges of sorrow while Alcestis is still hovering between life and death321; and Iphigenia begs her mother not to mourn her by severing her locks and donning robes of sable hue322. Even for a long time after Grecian independence had been lost, the same customs existed. Plutarch praised his wife for not defiling herself or her maids nor putting on a black garment323. Artemidorus, in his work on the interpretation of dreams, says that a black dress is used for mourning324. Athenaeus is authority for the fact that in his time the mourner still polled his head325. Plutarch seems to differ about this clipping of the hair. 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 long326.” 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 comfort327. 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.
The underlying thought in this matter of mourning was that one manifested his sympathy with the dead by making himself appear as hideous as possible325. In 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.
It was, perhaps, in imitation of the Persians, that the Greeks, on the death of a general, clipped even the manes and tails of their horses. When, on the expedition of Mardonius, his trusted commander, Masistius, was slain, the Persians mutilated their horses after that fashion328. At the death of the gluttonous young Hephaestion, in consequence of disobedience to his physician’s orders, Alexander, thoroughly orientalized, ordered all the mules and horses to be clipped329. Not satisfied with this, he must needs tear down all the battlements of the neighboring cities, so that they, too, might have the appearance of being shorn330. Aelian, very suitably, terms this latter extravagance, “grieving according to the custom of the barbarians331.”
The other distinguishing feature of the mourning, the adoption of black robes, although it usually indicates actual bereavement, was sometimes employed before the loss had really come, but when it was impending. Thus, when the sister-in-law of Lysias was summoned to the prison where her husband awaited death, she came clad, as was befitting, in a black garment332. It was this fashion at Athens, of wearing black to show the death of a relative that gave point to Pericles’s dying assertion: “None of my fellow citizens have, through me, been obliged to assume a sable garb333.”
White was worn sometimes on the death of a great general or other high official. Timoleon was borne to the grave accompanied by a procession of Syracusans, crowned with garlands and clothed in white. Pure white334 is also the color which Plato directs to be worn on the death of a priest335.
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 water336.”
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 frame337, but where a man had done nothing except evil, they wished that mother earth, like a huge night-mare, might pin him down338. 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.
Notes
1 Aelian, Var. Hist. V. 14.
2 Eurip., Sup. 524.
3 Isoc., Plat. 416.
4 Isaeus, de Nicos. Her. 78.
5 Isae., de Phil. Her. 143.
6 Lysias, in Philon 883.
7 Aeschines, in Tim. 40.
8 Hdt., 7, 133, Plat., Gorg. 516 E, and Ar., Nub. 1450.
9 Plut., Them. 22.
10 Pausan., 4, 18, 4.
11 Thucyd., 1, 134.
12 Aeschin., in Ctes. § 245.
13 Simcox, ibid.
14 Plato, Legg. IX., 12.
15 Eurip., Troad. 446.
16 Becker, Char. p. 401.
17 Philostrates, Heroics 7, 8, 10.
18 Thuc., I., 138.
19 Eurip., Suppl. 934-37.
20 Plut., Symp. 4, 2 and 3.
21 Artemidorus, Oneirocritica, II., 9.
22 Artemid., ibid.
23 Demos. in Euerg. p. 1160.
24 Eurip., Troad. 1137.
25 Chariton, de Chaerea et Callirrhoe, IV., 1, 12.
26 Callimachus, Epic. 18, cf. Epig. 19.
27 Eurip. Helen. 1241.
28 Chariton, IV, 1.
29 Tacitus, Annales, 3, 5.
30 Herodotus, 6, 58.
31 Thucyd. 2, 34.
32 Plut., Rom. Quaest. 5.
33 Iliad, XXIII. 166.
34 Odyssey, XI. 23, 50.
35 Plutarch, Solon § 21.
36 Koehler, Mittheilungen des deutschen Inst. 1. S. 143.
37 Pindar, Olymp. 1, 90.
38 Plato, Min. p. 315.
39 Plutarch, Solon, 12.
40 Plut., Lyc. 27.
41 Eurip. Hecub. v. 430. Eurip. Phoeniss. v. 1400. Homer, Iliad, XI 453.
42 Lucian, De Luctu 10. Od. XI 425 and XXIV, 295.
43 Seyffert, de nummis in ore defunctorum repertis, Dresden 1712. Ross, Arch. aufsatze, 1, 3, 29, 32. Stackelberg, Graeben der Hellenen. S. 42.
44 Pottier, Étude sur les lecythes blancs attiques, p. 49.
45 Aristophanes, Ranae, 140.
46 Lucian, Cataplus, 18.
47 Lucian, De Luctu, 11.
48 Isaeus, de Philoctem., Her. p. 144. Isaeus, de Ciron. Her. p. 209.
49 Iliad, XI. v. 395.
50 Iliad, XXIV. v. 707-805.
51 Eurip., Phoeniss. 1660.
52 Aristoph., Eccles., 538.
53 Plutarch, Timoleon, 26.
54 Aristoph., Lysist., 602. Aristoph., Eccles. 538. Eurip., Phoeniss, 1636.
55 Alciphron, Epist. 1, 36.
56 Aristoph., Lysist. 601.
57 Aristoph., Lysist. 601.
58 Lucian, de Luctu, §11.
59 Lucian, de Luctu, §11.
60 Eurip., Alcestis, 843.
61 Legg., 12, p. 947.
62 Paus., 4, 13, 1.
63 Plato, Legg. p. 947.
64 Archilochus, in Plut. de Aud. Poet 6.
65 Artemid., Oneirocr. II. 3.
66 Iliad, XVIII. 353.
67 Koehler, Mittheil. der deutsch., etc. I. S. 140, 255.
68 Aeschines, in Cets. 77.
69 Heydemann, Mittheil., aus Antik. S. 57.
70 Iliad, XXIV. 79. Odyssey, V. 265.
71 Museum of Varvakeion of Athens, Benndorf, S. 7.
72 Museum of Art and Industry at Vienna, Benndorf, 33.
73 Pottier Appendix.
74 Schol. Plato, Hipp. min. p. 368 C.
75 Plutarch, Aristides §21, p. 332.
76 Pollux. VIII. 146.
77 Aristoph., Lysist. (with Scholia), 613.
78 Demosth., Macart., p. 1071.
79 Antiphon, de Chor. p. 782.
80 Demosth., Macart., p. 1071.
81 Thucyd., 2, 34.
82 Xen., Mem. 1, 2, 53.
83 Iliad, XXIII., 71.
84 Eustathius ad II. VIII., 410.
85 Isaeus, de Philoc. Her. p. 143.
86 Koehler, Mittheilungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Institutes in Athen, I. S. 140, 255.
87 Dumont, Peint. Ceram., p. 55.
88 Benndorf, Gr. u. Sicil. Vasenb. taf. I, S. 3.
89 Benndorf, Gr. und Sicil. Vas. taf. 17, 2, 25.
90 Benndorf, Gr. und Sicil. Vas. taf. 33, V. p. 12. 5.
91 Anthology, Greek, VII., 199, 203-206.
92 Ad. Aristoph., Lysist. 611.
93 Bos. p. 410, chap. XIX.; Herman—Blümner, p. 364, §39; St. John, p. 416.
94 Eustath. ad Il. XIX. 212.
95 Lysias, in Eratosth. p. 395.
96 Becker, page 387.
97 Pottier, plate I.
98 Aristoph., Eccles. 1030.
99 Aristoph., Eccles. 996.
100 Schol. ad Plat. Hip. Min. p. 368 C.
101 Ar., Eccles. 1032.
102 Pottier, Plate p. 92.
103 Pottier, p. 105 and Plates in Appendices.
104 Dumont, Peint. ceram., p. 55.
105 C. I. G. 8337 cf. 8346 K.
106 C. I. G. 916. Kaibel, Epigrammata Graeca, 502, 523 Pottier, p. 70. Vidal-Lablache, De tit. fun. p. 58-67.
107 Pollux VIII, 65. cf. Schol. ad Aristoph. Nub. 838.
108 Aristoph., Eccles., 1033.
109 Eurip., Alc. 99 et seq.
110 Plato, Legg. 12, 959.
111 Iliad XI., 395 and Iliad XXIV.
112 Plutarch, Tim. 39.
113 Plato, Legg. 12, 947.
114 Plut., Sol., 12 and 21.
115 Demos., Macart., p. 1071.
116 Stob., Tit. 44. 40.
117 Aesch., Choeph. 20-28.
118 Eurip., Hecuba, 323.
119 Aesch., Sept. cont. Theb. 323.
120 De Luctu, 12.
121 Plut., Consol. ad ux. 3; Midgley’s translation.
122 Benndorf, Gr. und Sicil. Vas. taf. 17, 1, 33. Benndorf taf. I. S. 1.
123 Mitchell, Hist. Anc. Sculp. p. 491.
124 Pottier. p. 56.
125 Antiphon, Choreut., 34. Pollux, VIII., 146.
126 Plato, Legg. 12, 959.
127 Callimachus, Ep. 15.
128 Diog. Laert., 1, 122.
129 Plut., Tim. 39.
130 Demosthenes, Macart., 1071. Theocr. 15, 132. Plato, Legg. 12, 960.
131 Bos. p. 414.
132 Iliad, XXIII., 226.
133 Od., XXIV., 72.
134 Demos., Macart. 1071; Plato, Legg. 12, 944; Plato, Legg. 12, 960.
135 Plato, Legg. 12, 947.
136 Pollux, VII, 195.
137 Soph., Electra, 1488.
138 Eurip., Alcestis, 607.
139 Plutarch, Tim. 39.
140 Plato, Legg. 12, 947.
141 Lucian, Demon. 67.
142 Iliad, XXIV., 721.
143 Lucian, De Luctu, 19.
144 Plato, Legg. 7, 800.
145 Hesychius, s. v. Karinai.
146 Pollux, IV., 75.
147 Sext. Emp. adv. Mathem. VI., 18.
148 Raoul. Rochette, p. 582.
149 Bilderaltas, taf. XCIV., pl. 5.
150 Demosth., in Macart. p. 1074.
151 Lysias, De Caede Erat. p. 11.
152 Terence, Andria, I., 1, 90.
153 Catalogue of the Collection of M. Rayet, No. 26. Gaz. des B—Arts, 1878.
154 Annali, 1872; Monumenti, IX., tav, 39, 40.
155 Micali, Monumenti, &c., tav. 96.
156 Plato, Legg. XII. p. 947; C.; VII. 6, p. 796, C.
157 Plutarch, Philopoemen, §21. 5.
158 Lucian, De Luctu, 21.
159 Wachsmuth, Hellen. Alterth. II. 2. p. 79.
160 Plutarch, de Aud. Poet. 6.
161 Plutarch, Solon, 12.
162 Isaeus, De Nicos. Hered. p. 78.
163 Plutarch, Tim. 39.
164 Plutarch, Philop. 21.
165 Diog. Laert., V. 70.
166 Boettiger.
167 Bos.
168 Stackelberg, Pl. 7.
169 Plut. Thes.
170 Hermot. 78.
171 Plut., Solon 10. Ael., Var. Hist. VII, 19. Diog. Laert., 1. 48.
172 Ael., Var. Hist. V. 14.
173 Plut., Lyc. 27.
174 Thucyd., I. 134.
175 Paus., 2. 7. 3.
176 Athenaeus, IV. 49.
177 Plato, Phaedo. p. 115.
178 Stackelberg.
179 Odys. XXIV. 70.
180 Rhesus, 960.
181 Lucian, Nigrin., 38.
182 Il. VI, 418. Ody. XI. 74.
183 Il. XXIII, 13, Ody. XXIV. 68.
184 Il. XXIII. 220. Lucian, De Luctu 19.
185 Aesch., Choeph. 86 and 128. Il. XXIII. 222.
186 Il. XXIII. 250. Il. XXIV. 791.
187 Andria, I. 1, 100.
188 Soph., Elect., 54, 747, 1113.
189 Plut., Philop. 21.
190 Stackelberg, Pl. 7 and 8.
191 Thucyd. II., 34.
192 Pollux, X, 150.
193 Pliny, Nat. Hist. 36, 17; 2, 96.
194 Stackelberg, Pl. 7, No. 3.
195 Stackelberg, Pl. 5 and 6.
196 Stackelberg, Pl. 7, No. 1 and 2.
197 Stackelberg, Pl. 8. See also supra, p. 62.
198 Cum., Attic Sepulchral Inscriptions, Prolegomena.
199 Herodotus, 1, 93.
200 Benndorf, Gr. u. Sicil., Vasenb. taf. 24, 2.
201 Lucian, XII., 22.
202 Stackelberg, Pl. 5, No. 1.
203 Pausanias, II., 7, 3.
204 Stackelberg, Pl. 5, No. 1.
205 Am. jour. arch. 5, p. 13.
206 Stackelberg, Pl. 1, Nos. 2 and 3.
207 Stackelberg, Pl. 2, No. 1.
208 Stackelberg, Pl. 2, No. 2.
209 Stackelberg, Pl. 2, No. 3.
210 Pausanias, II., 7, 4.
211 Milchhöfer, Die Museum Athens, S. 9.
212 Journal of Hellenic Studies, V, 105.
213 Plut., Dec. Orat., p. 364.
214 Cic., Legg. II, 26, 66.
215 Schol. ad Pind. Isth. 3, 110.
216 Perrot, Hist. de l’Art, p. 161.
217 Champollion, Lett. V, 185.
218 Thuc. II, 17.
219 C. I. G., 4278 (b.)
220 Ar., Equit. 1312. and Ar., Ran. 477.
221 Ar., Vesp. 829.
222 C. I. G., 4278 (e.)
223 C. I. G., 4278.
224 C. I. G., 2448.
225 Cic., Legg. II, 26.
226 Plat., Legg. 12, p. 959.
227 Lysias, in Diog. §21.
228 Demos., in Steph., p. 1125.
229 Plut., Dec. Or. Vit., p. 364.
230 Cic., Legg. II, 26.
231 C. I. G. 916.
232 C. I. G. 989.
233 Lucian, Nigr. 30.
234 Paus. 2, 7, 4.
235 Plut., Lyc. 27.
236 C. I. G. 997.
237 C. I. G. 632 & 942.
238 Plut., Them. 32.
239 Dec. Or. Vit. p. 406.
240 Stklbrg. Pl. 7.
241 Infra p. 48.
242 Stklb. Pl. 8.
243 Stklb. Pls. 72-74. cf. Aristoph. Nub. 398.
244 Plut., de Gen. Socr. 5.
245 Strabo, 8, 6, 23.
246 Pollux, 9, Seg. 15.
247 Ety. Mag. at word.
248 Ety. Mag. at word.
249 In Euerg. p. 1159.
250 C. I. G. No. 1003.
251 Plut., Dec. O. V. p. 545.
252 Plut., Cim. 2.
253 Marcellinus.
254 Demos., in Eubul. p. 1307.
255 Cic. Legg. II, 26.
256 Demos., in Macart. 1037.
257 Plat. Min. p. 315.
258 Thucyd. III. 104.
259 Plut., Arat. 53.
260 Paus., I, 29, 4.
261 Thucyd. II, 34.
262 Plut., Apoth. Lac. I. p. 954.
263 Plut., Lyc. 27.
264 Polyb., VIII. 30.
265 Paus., I, 43, 2.
266 Lucian, De Luctu, 24.
267 Artemid., Oneir. V, 82.
268 Demos., in Macart. 1071.
269 Demos., de Corona, p. 321.
270 Demos., de Corona, p. 321.
271 Coulanges, La cité antique, chap. II.
272 Cicero de Leg. II, 25.
273 Suidas, at that phrase.
274 Athen. X, 7, p. 427.
275 Diog. Laert. VIII, 14.
276 Plut. Solon. 21.
277 Aesch. Pers. 615.
278 Paus., V. 13, 2.
279 Plut. Aris. 21.
280 Bockh. ad Pind. Olymp. 1, 90.
281 Lucian, Charon seu Cont. 22.
282 Aristoph. Lysist. 610-612.
283 Aristoph. Schol. ad Lysist. 612.
284 Aeschin. in Ctesiph. p. 617.
285 Isaeus, de Ciron. Her. p. 224.
286 Plautus, Aul., II, 4, 45.
287 Plut. Quaest. Gr. 24.
288 Plut., Lycurg. 27.
289 Pollux; I, 7, 66.
290 Aesch. in Ctes. p. 468.
291 Lysias; I. p. 15.
292 Aristoph. Peace. 948. Eurip. Elec. 805-1142. Acharnians, 241. Hercules Fur. 320.
293 Michaelis, Der Parthenon, taf. 12, 5; 14, 5.
294 P. Girard, Bull. de corr. hellen. II., p. 73.
295 Plut. Aris. §21.
296 Aristoph. Lysist., 601.
297 Aeschy. Pers. 615. Eurip. Iph., 160, 632. Lucian, Char. §32. C. I. G., No. 2248.
298 Alcestis, 783.
299 Suppliants, 782.
300 Xen. Mem., II, 2, 13.
301 Lycurg. in Leocr., p. 141.
302 Isoc., Plat., p. 418.
303 Aeschy., Pers., 408.
304 Legg. 7, p. 800.
305 Timaeus, Lex p. 41.
306 Hesychius, genesia.
307 Diog. Laert. X.
308 Hdt. IV, 26.
309 Hesychius, nekysia.
310 Paus., 8, 4.
311 Il. XXIII, 265-897.
312 Od. XXIV, 85.
313 Plut., Tim. 39.
314 Isaeus, de Astyph. Her., p. 75.
315 Isaeus, de Astyph. Her., p. 77.
316 Soph., Ajax, 1372.
317 Lucian, De Luctu, 20.
318 Eurip., Alc. 334.
319 Aeschyl., Choeph. 7.
320 Eur., Helen. 1087.
321 Eur., Alc. 215.
322 Eur., Iphigen. Aul. 1416.
323 Plut. Consol. ad Ux. 4.
324 Artem., Oneir., II, 3.
325 Athen, XV. ch. 5.
326 Plut., Rom. Quaest. 14.
327 De Superst. 7.
328 Hdt. 9, 24.
329 Plut., Alex. 72.
330 Plut. Pelop., 33.
331 Aelian, Var. Hist. VII, 8.
332 Lysias, XIII, 40.
333 Plut., Per. 38.
334 Plut., Tim. 39.
335 Legg. 12, 947.
336 Plut., Quaest. Rom. 26.
337 Eur., Alc. 462.
338 Callimachus, Ep. 28.
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