[39\1: Serv. ad _A._ iii, 68: Aegyptii condita diutius servant cadavera scilicet ut anima multo tempore perduret et corpori sit obnoxia nec cito ad aliud transeat. Romani contra faciebant, comburentes cadavera ut statim anima in generalitatem, i.e. in suam naturam rediret (the pantheistic touch may be neglected).--Cf. the account given by Ibn Foslan of the burial customs of the pagan Russians {49} (quoted from Frähn by J. Grimm, _Kl. Schr._ ii, 292): the preference for burning was due to the idea that the soul was less quickly set free on its way to Paradise when the body was buried intact, than when it was destroyed by fire.] [40\1: Cf. the Hymn of the Rigveda (x, 16) which is to be said at a cremation, esp. v. 2, 9 (quoted by Zimmer, _Altind. Leben_, 402 f.), and also _Rigv._ x, 14, 8 (Zimmer, p. 409). The Indians also wished to prevent the return of the dead to the world of the living. The feet of the corpse were chained so that the dead could not return (Zimmer, p. 402).] [41\1: It lies at the root of the stories of Demeter and Demophoon (or Triptolemos), and also that of Thetis and Achilles, when the goddess, laying the mortal child in the fire, ~periê/|rei ta\s thnêta\s sa/rkas, e/phtheiren ho\ ê=n autô=| thnêto/n~, in order to make it immortal (cf. Preller, _Dem. u. Perseph._, 112); cf. also the custom observed at certain festivals (? of Hecate, cf. Bergk, _PLG._ iii, 682) of lighting fires in the streets and leaping through the flames carrying children, see Grimm (E.T.), p. 625; cf. also Cic., _Div._ i, 47: o praeclarum discessum cum ut Herculi contigit mortali corpore cremato in lucem animus excessit! Ov., _M._, ix, 250: Luc., _Herm._, 7; Q.S. v, 640 ff. (For more about the "purifying" effects of fire, see below, chap. ix, n. 127.)] [42\1: Nothing else than this is implied by the words of ~Ê~ 409-10, ~ou ga\r tis pheidô\ neku/ôn katatethnêô/tôn gi/gnet', epei/ ke tha/nôsi puro\s meilisse/men ô=ka~. The souls of the dead must be quickly "assuaged with fire" (their longing gratified) and so their bodies are burnt. Purification from what is mortal and unclean, which Dieterich (_Nekyia_, 197, 3) thinks is referred to in this passage, is certainly not suggested as such by the words of the poet.] [43\1: Light may be incidentally thrown on the question of the transition from burial to cremation by such a story as that which an Icelandic Saga tells of a man who is buried by his own wish before the door of his house; "but as he returned and did much mischief his body was exhumed and burnt and the ashes scattered over the sea" (Weinhold, _Altnord. Leben_, 499). We often read in old stories how the body of a dead man who goes about as a vampire is burnt. His soul is then exorcized and cannot come back again.] [44\1: It is natural to think of Asiatic influence. Cremation hearths have recently (1893) been discovered in Babylonia.] [45\1: See Helbig, _D. Hom. Epos aus d. Denkm. erl._, 42 f.]