Individuals may have found still further opportunities of {169} bringing gifts to their own dead and showing their reverence for them. The cult paid by the family to the spirits of their ancestors is hardly distinguished, except by the greater limitation of the circle of worshippers, from the worship of underworld deities and Heroes. In the case of the souls, however, nature itself united the sacrificers and worshippers (and no one else) with the object of their devotion. If we wish to form some idea of the way in which (under the influence of a civilization that tended to reduce all primitive grandeur to mere idyll) the worship of the dead altered its character in the direction of piety and intimacy--we need only look at the pictures representing such worship (though rarely before the fourth century) on the oilflasks which were used at funerals in Attica and then laid by the side of the dead in the grave. These slight sketches breathe a spirit of simple kindliness; we see the mourners decking the grave monument with wreaths and ribbons; worshippers approaching with gestures of adoration, bringing with them many objects of daily use--mirrors, fans, swords, etc., for the entertainment of the dead.[101\5] Sometimes the living seek to give pleasure to the spirit of the dead by the performance of music.[102\5] Gifts, too, of cakes, fruit, and wine are being made--but the blood of the sacrificial animals is never spilt.[103\5] There was a time when more solemn--and less comfortable--thoughts prevailed;[104\5] and of these we learn something from the much older sculptured reliefs, found on sepulchral monuments in Sparta, which give the dead a more awe-inspiring attitude. The ancestral pair sit in state and are approached by members of the family (represented as much smaller figures) offering their worship. These bring with them flowers, pomegranates, and sometimes even animals for sacrifice, a cock, a pig, or a ram. Other and later types of such "banquets of the dead" show the dead person standing up (not infrequently by the side of a horse or lying upon a couch and accepting the drink-offering made to him by the survivors.[105\5] These reliefs allow us to see at what a distance the departed spirits are supposed to stand from the living: the dead do, indeed, seem now to be "better and stronger" beings; they are well on the road to becoming "Heroes". Drink offerings such as those we see offered on these reliefs--a mixture of honey-water, milk, and wine, and other liquids, offered in accordance with precise ritual--always formed a regular part of sacrifices made to the dead.[106\5] Besides these, animals, too, were slain, especially sheep (less often oxen) of black colour. These must be completely burnt, as being intended for the sole enjoyment of the dead--a custom {170} observed at all sacrifices made to the spirits of the underworld.[107\5]