The Burial Customs of the Ancient GreeksGraves, Frank Pierrepont
History
The Burial Customs of the Ancient Greeks
Graves, Frank Pierrepont
Burial -- Greece; Greece -- Antiquities
The sacrifices at the sepulchre took place on stated days. At the first
of these ceremonies, called the _trita_, from the fact of its falling
on the third day[282] after the interment, a lunch was brought out for
the corpse[283]. Following that tertial offering, came another, the
_ennata_, on the ninth day. This ninth day sacrifice, since Aeschines
speaks of it as if it were the only one to be considered[284], and
since Isaeus mentions the great expense connected with it[285], was
very probably of more importance than the others. It is uncertain of
what it consisted, since it is not specified in any of the Grecian
authorities; but, if any reliance can be placed on the description of a
Roman author, it was a regular banquet prepared for the deceased[286].
The _ennata_ among the Athenians, inasmuch as we find no mention
of anything farther in our ancient writers, probably concluded the
customary ceremonies. The Argives, varied these rites by omitting the
_trita_ and _ennata_, and substituted a sacrifice on the first and on
the thirtieth day. It was their custom upon losing one of their kindred
or friends to sacrifice immediately to Apollo and thirty days after to
Hermes[287]. The Spartans, on the other hand, always moderate in all
their passions, limited their sacrifices to one on the twelfth day to
Ceres, after which they ceased to mourn outwardly[288]. But, with the
Athenians, the completion of the obsequies by no means ended all the
customary observances of a mourner. The thirtieth day, however, seems
to have been the limit set at Athens for the public manifestation[289].
Any semblance of happiness on the part of the mourner before that time
was strongly disapproved. Aeschines makes a serious accusation against
Demosthenes when he denounces him for having offered sacrifices of
thanksgiving for the death of Philip when his daughter had been dead
only seven days[290]. Euphiletus, an every-day citizen of Athens, has
his suspicions of his wife’s infidelity intensified and corroborated,
because one day, before her brother had been dead thirty days, he
discovered her with her cheeks painted[291].
Of the objects that were employed in the sacrifices and services at the
tomb, the basket that serves to carry the offerings to the column is
always in the hands of a woman. It is always the same in appearance,
long, without a cover and shallow. This basket is often mentioned in
the descriptions of religious ceremonies[292], where it is called
_kanoun_, _kanes_ and _kaniskion_. It appears on the bas-reliefs as
well as on the vases. The young girls who carry the offerings at the
Panathenaia are called _canephorae_[293] from the name of this basket.
The casket, which the women hold in the paintings, is usually a
quadrangular box with a flat cover, and sometimes has little projecting
feet to support it. This casket sometimes contains a precious offering,
such as a golden statuette or a lyre of ivory[294].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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