After the body had been made ready for burial, it was laid out in state. This was called the _prothesis_, and probably took place on the day after the death, in order that the corpse might have an early burial. From the statement of Pollux[76] concerning the order of the ceremonies, it must be inferred that this was the proper time. That author states that the _prothesis_ came first, and was followed successively by the _ekphora_ or procession and the tertial sacrifices. Those sacrifices came on the fourth day, that is, the third after the day of the demise[77], and the procession came on the day following the _prothesis_[78]. Therefore, it is necessary to conclude that the prothesis, procession and sacrifices came respectively on the first, second and third day after the decease. The basis for that calculation is found in Antiphon’s oration on the death of the chorus singer[79]. 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, 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]. The spirit of Patroclus, weary of the long delay, while the struggle continued over his mortal remains, and angered by the criminal apathy of his friend, beseeches Achilles to bury him as speedily as possible, that he may the sooner pass the gates of Hades[83]. Most truly it has been said that in the eyes of the Greeks, “a quick burial is a propitiation of the deceased[84].” Since the lying-in-state took place a day and a half in advance of burial, and since it was necessary that this ceremony should be performed on the next day after the person had died, it was set down as a great stigma on a man’s character that preparations for the _prothesis_ of his relative were not made in due time[85].