Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the GreeksRohde, Erwin
Religion
Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the Greeks
Rohde, Erwin
Greece -- Religion
[33\4: The idea of the grave as the dwelling-place of the Hero is
shown in a very strange fashion by the story that the Phliasians
before the feast of Demeter ~kalou=sin epi\ ta\s sponda/s~ the hero
Aras and his sons, _looking_ while so doing towards the graves of
these Heroes: Paus. 2, 12, 5.] {143}
[34\4: This hero (Xanthippos or Phokos) ~e/chei epi\ hême/ra| te
pa/sê| tima/s, kai\ a/gontes hierei=a hoi Phôkei=s to\ me\n hai=ma
di' opê=s egche/ousin es to\n ta/phon ktl.~ Paus. 10, 4, 10.
Similarly at the grave of Hyakinthos at Amyklai, Paus. 3, 19, 3. The
meaning of such an offering is the same in Greece as in similar
cases among any "savage" tribe. In Tylor, ii, 28, we read: "In the
Congo district the custom has been described of making a channel
into the tomb to the head or mouth of the corpse, to send down month
by month the offerings of food and drink."]
[35\4: Most of the examples are mentioned by Lobeck, _Agl._ 281 [u],
but he omits the most remarkable case, fully reported by Hdt. i,
67-8, of the transference of the bones of Orestes from Tegea to
Sparta (cf. Paus. 3, 3, 6; 11, 10; 8, 54, 4. The reason is obvious,
cf. Müller, _Dorians_, i, 72). Besides this note: the removal of the
bones of Hektor from Ilion to Thebes, Paus. 9, 18, 5, Sch. and Tz.,
_Lyc._ 1194, 1204; of Arkas from Mainalos to Mantinea, Paus. 8, 9,
3; cf. 8, 36, 8; of Hesiod from Naupaktos to Orchomenos, Paus. 9,
38, 3; of Hippodameia from Midea in Argolis to Olympia, Paus. 6, 20,
7; of Tisamenos from Helike to Sparta, Paus. 7, 1, 8; of Aristomenes
from Rhodes to Messene, Paus. 4, 32, 3. Strange story of the
shoulder bone of Pelops, Paus. 5, 13, 4-6. In all these cases the
removal followed upon a command of the oracle, cf. also Paus. 9, 30,
9-11. Practical stimulus may have been given occasionally by the
discovery of abnormally large bones in dug-up graves; we often hear
of such discoveries, cf. W. Schmid, _Atticismus_, iv, 572 f., and it
was always believed that such gigantic bones were remains of one of
~tô=n kaloume/nôn hêrô/ôn~, Paus. 6, 5, 1 (cf. also 1, 35, 5 ff.; 3,
22, 9). It would be the business of the oracle to determine the name
of the Hero concerned and see that the remains were reverently
preserved. (One example may be given, though from a later period. In
the dried-up bed of the Orontes a clay coffin 11 yards long was
found and a corpse within it. The oracle of the Clarian Apollo on
being applied to for enlightenment as to its origin answered
~Oro/ntên ei=nai, ge/nous de\ auto\n ei=nai tou= Indô=n~, Paus. 8,
29, 4; Philostr., _H._ 669 p. 138, 6-19 K.]
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