In the “Frogs” of Aristophanes, Dionysus is told by Heracles, who has returned from the lower regions, that he will be obliged to pay two _obols_ as ferriage, since his servant, Xanthias, is with him[45]. It seems to have been believed that the sooner this money was provided the corpse, the earlier would his voyage over the Styx take place. In a dialogue of Lucian, a shade who has been left behind, because Charon finds his craft already too full, declares that he will prosecute the boatman, since, by leaving a corpse who was provided with the _obol_ and now a day old, he was acting contrary to the laws of his superior, Rhadamanthus[46]. With the hope, then, of hastening the voyage, the fare was inserted as soon as possible. The next stage of the ceremonies was the preparation of the deceased for his journey. Fearing that there was insufficiency of water in the lower world, the corpse was thoroughly bathed. Then it was anointed with sweet smelling unguents and crowned with flowers in their season. Finally the friends dressed it in magnificent garments that it might not take cold on the road or appear naked before Cerberus[47]. At Rome, the dressing of the corpse was performed by a hired undertaker called the _pollinctor_, but, among the Greeks, this delicate task was looked after by the nearest female relatives and was considered a very sacred duty[48]. The paintings that have been found on the funeral vases, exhibit a remarkable superiority, in numbers, of the women at the ceremonies preparatory to interment. Only a single _lecyth_ has been found on which a man is depicted as taking part in the preliminary stages of the preparation. It is to the women that was given the care of making the toilet of the dead body, of washing it, perfuming it and wrapping it in the shroud. This custom is referred to by Homer when Diomede is lightly wounded by Paris and cries out that he “knows how to strike an enemy more forcibly, that a man touched by his spear is a dead man and that around him the vultures are more numerous than the women[49].” At the funeral ceremonies of Hector, the chief part is assigned to the women[50]. When the tyrannical Creon forbade the burial of Polynices, Antigone, his sister, demanded the privilege of bathing the corpse, and, in spite of the king’s opposition, she endeavored to bury her brother with her own hands[51].