chapter I

showed, by quotation from a popular dirge and by the consideration of various customs connected with death, that in the belief of the common-folk the dissolution of a dead body is effected by the fortieth day after burial. On the other hand the Church has more prudently fixed three years as the time required for dissolution, the period which must elapse before the body may be exhumed. Thus there are two periods, fixed respectively by popular opinion and by ecclesiastical authority, between which there is a choice; the _vox populi_ and the _vox Dei_ are here in disagreement; and according as preference is locally given to the one or to the other mandate, so is a period of forty days or a period of three years locally believed to be that required for the dissolution of the body. But these two periods are also those between which there is a local variation in the custom of maintaining the ‘unsleeping lamp.’ Hence it is reasonably to be inferred that the ‘unsleeping lamp’ is in some way closely connected with the dissolution of the body.

Moreover this connexion is actually recognised by the common-folk themselves, as witness the following two couplets from a funeral-dirge. The words are put, as so often in the dirges, in the mouth of the dead man, who in this instance is supposed to be young and to be addressing his forlorn lady-love.

‘And when the priests with solemn song march toward the grave with me, Steal thou out from thy mother’s side and light me torches three; And when the priests shall quench again those lights for me,--ah then, Then, like the breath of roses, sweet, thou passest from my ken[1289].’

These lines are based on a belief which is fairly general among the Greek peasants, that consciousness of, and concern for, the things of this world are not broken off finally at the moment of death, but continue in some degree until the body of the dead is completely dissolved. Here the memories of love are spoken of as lasting until the priests quench the burning lights, which can be none other in the context than the ‘unsleeping lamp’--for three, the number mentioned, is merely a number of peculiar virtue and has no special force. It follows then that the quenching of the lights is understood in the passage to denote the accomplishment of that process of dissolution, which, though it mean the cessation of all intercourse with this upper world, is yet earnestly desired. Here in fact are plain words of popular poetry which recognise the connexion of the ‘unsleeping lamp’ with the dissolution of the body, and make the quenching of the one signify the completion of the other. It is going but a short step further to suppose that the presence of the lamp’s flame at the grave was originally intended to advance the process of dissolution--or, in other words, that the maintenance of the ‘unsleeping lamp’ at the grave until the body is finally dissolved is an act of ceremonial cremation.

This supposition gains yet more in probability when we compare with the custom of the ‘unsleeping lamp’ another not dissimilar custom which obtains in Zacynthos. There, as elsewhere, candles or lamps are lighted about the dead body while it is lying in state, and fire from them is carried to the grave. But, arrived there, instead of lighting an ‘unsleeping lamp,’ the bearers of the candles drop them into the grave beside the corpse. In this we have a close parallel to the ancient custom of putting a lamp, probably enough, as I have suggested, a lighted lamp, into the grave; and at the same time it cannot but be intimately connected with the custom of the ‘unsleeping lamp,’ the purpose of which is now known to concern the dissolution of the dead body. I claim then that the series of customs which we have reviewed, exhibiting as they do an intention to associate fire in some close way with the buried body and, as in the modern form of the custom, to associate it therewith until the process of dissolution is complete, find a common explanation in the continuance of a practice already exemplified in earlier ages, the practice of ceremonial cremation in conjunction with the full burial rite.

Nor is this explanation open to attack on the ground that a mere lamp lighted near the dead body bears so little outward resemblance to real cremation. To the outside observer the ceremonial act may seem a mere travesty of that for which it is substituted; but to the persons concerned the presence of fire, in however small a volume, may have seemed sufficient; for in all ritual it is not the act, but the intention, which has value. I have already pointed out how interment was occasionally reduced to an equally ineffective minimum; but I may perhaps cite a still closer parallel--another case in which a lamp is thought to have done duty for a real fire. There was in old time a custom, to which several ancient writers refer[1290], of keeping a lamp burning both day and night in the Prytaneum or in the chief temple of a Greek city; and both Athens and Tarentum are said to have had these lamps so constructed that they could hold a supply of oil sufficient to last a whole year. Such lamps, it has been suggested[1291], represented the fire on the city’s hearth which was not allowed to go out. The purpose of the lamp was clearly not to give light--for then it need not have been kept burning by day as well as by night--but it was a labour-saving appliance for keeping the sacred fire ever burning. The small flame was in fact a rudimentary fire. Thus all that I am supposing is that a lamp could represent a real fire just as well at the tomb as in the Prytaneum.

If then my explanation of the modern custom is right, the fact that the common-folk, though they have for many centuries employed inhumation as the ordinary Christian rite, have clung at the same time to a ceremonial form of cremation which they still connect in some way with the dissolution of the buried corpse, is additional proof of the favour with which the quicker and surer rite was formerly, and perhaps here and there still is, regarded.

Thus then the study of ordinary funeral-usage has confirmed the conclusions drawn in preceding chapters from the study of a certain abnormal state of after-death existence. As incorruptibility was the greatest bane to the dead, so dissolution was the greatest boon that the living could give them. This dissolution was to be effected by one of two methods, cremation and inhumation, which in theory were alternative but in practice were frequently combined. The combination of them was due in the first instance to the amalgamation of two races to which they respectively appertained; but in later times the racial difference between the two rites was obliterated, and they were judged on their own merits, with the result that a preference for cremation manifested itself in funeral-usage. This preference was due to a recognition that cremation was a quicker and surer method of dissolution, and is itself strong testimony to the desire to effect dissolution. The end to which both rites were directed was the same, but since one led to that end more quickly and surely than the other, it was rightly preferred.

Further the motive which prompted the living to effect the dissolution of the dead was not in general selfish; for dissolution, as we have seen, was a boon to the dead. That complete severance from this world, which came with the dissolution of the body, was in some way for the benefit of the dead. Patroclus sought for it, and Achilles granted his petition through love; and some three thousand years later the men of Parga are found effecting the rapid dissolution of their kinsfolk with the same motive. Only in one set of circumstances was the selfish motive of fear in operation, namely, where, the resuscitated dead were, by the influence of Slavonic superstition, invested with the character of malignant blood-thirsty monsters against whom self-defence was imperative, and whose complete severance from this world was desirable as a safeguard for the living. But such circumstances were the exception. The rule was that cremation and inhumation alike were means to the dissolution of the dead and their complete severance from this world, and the motive which prompted living men to seek that end was love of the dead who would in some way benefit thereby.

FOOTNOTES:

[1226] Bern. Schmidt, _Lieder, Märchen, Sagen etc._, Folk-song no. 33.

[1227] Cf. above, p. 389.

[1228] See above, p. 307, note 1, and p. 313.

[1229] The feasts at earlier dates, as on the third and ninth days, will be shown later to be popular in origin. See below, pp. 530 ff.

[1230] Ἰ. Σ. Ἀρχέλαος, ἡ Σινασός, p. 82.

[1231] _Op. cit._ p. 81. The form here is σαρανταρίκια.

[1232] Δελτίον τῆς ἱστορ. καὶ ἐθνολ. ἑταιρ. τῆς Ἑλλάδος, III. p. 337. The form is σαραντάρια.

[1233] See above, p. 373.

[1234] Soph. _Antig._ 256. Cf. Jebb’s note _ad loc._, from which I take the further references.

[1235] Aelian, _Var. Hist._ V. 14.

[1236] Aelian, _Hist. Anim._ V. 49.

[1237] Cf. Fauriel, _Chants de la Grèce Moderne, Discours Préliminaire_, p. 40; Μιχαὴλ Σ. Γρηγορόπουλος, ἡ νῆσος Σύμη, p. 46.

[1238] _Early Age of Greece_, Vol. I. cap. 7.

[1239] Bury, _History of Greece_, p. 41.

[1240] Rohde, _Psyche_, cap. I.

[1241] Hom. _Il._ VI. 417 ff., XXIII. 252 ff., XXIV. 791 ff.; _Od._ XI. 72 ff. and XII. 11 ff.

[1242] _Psyche_ I. pp. 31-32.

[1243] Cf. Lucian, _De Luctu_ 14, ἐσθῆτα καὶ τὸν ἄλλον κόσμον συγκατέφλεξεν ἣ συγκατώρυξεν.

[1244] Described in Ἐφημερὶς Ἀρχαιολ. 1889, pp. 171 ff.

[1245] Described in _Athen. Mittheilungen_, 1893, pp. 73-191.

[1246] The perusal of Philios’ narrative leaves the impression that several cases of cremation were discovered. Yet in his concluding summary he says: “Burial, not burning, of the dead was in those times the more prevalent custom, since in one case and one only can we admit that the corpse was not buried but burnt.” I note that Brückner and Pernice (_op. cit._ p. 149) in referring to Philios’ results tacitly soften his rigid ‘one and one only’ into the more supple ‘one or two.’ For justification of this see Philios, _op. cit._ pp. 178, 179, 180, 185.

[1247] Hirschfeld, in _Annali_, 1872, pp. 135, 167, cited by Brückner and Pernice _op. cit._ p. 148. Κουμανούδης, in Πρακτικὰ, 1873-4, p. 17.

[1248] _Op. cit._ pp. 91 ff.

[1249] _Op. cit._ p. 178.

[1250] Brückner and Pernice take this view of the fact, though the words which they use are coloured by their acceptance of Rohde’s theory of propitiatory offerings to the dead. ‘Vor der Beerdigung, so scheint es nach den Funden des Herrn Philios, sind an der Grabstätte des öfteren Brandopfer dargebracht worden.’ _Op. cit._ p. 151.

[1251] See _op. cit._ pp. 78-9.

[1252] See above, p. 347.

[1253] _Il._ XXIV. 719 ff.

[1254] Cf. _Athen. Mittheil._ 1893, p. 103.

[1255] Plutarch, _Solon_ 20.

[1256] Lysias, _Or._ XII. 18, 19.

[1257] Lucian, _de Luctu_, 12 and 13.

[1258] _Hom._ 32 _in Mat._ p. 306.

[1259] Preserved among the archives of Zante, which the kindness of Mr Leonidas Zoës enabled me to inspect.

[1260] _Psyche_, I. pp. 209 and 360. From this source I draw several of the following references.

[1261] Tsountas in Ἐφημερὶς Ἀρχαιολ. 1888, p. 136.

[1262] Plut. _Lycurg._ 27.

[1263] Iambl. _Vit. Pythag._ 154.

[1264] Pliny, _N. H._ XXXV. 160.

[1265] Dem. _Orat._ 43 § 71.

[1266] _Antig._ 1201. Prof. Jebb in his note on this passage expresses the opinion that the θάλλοι νεοσπάδες were not fuel: in view of the Attic law above cited I am inclined to dissent. He also takes κλήματα in Ar. _Eccles._ 1031 to mean ‘olive twigs’ and not, as more usual, ‘vine-shoots.’ I pass by the passage as doubtful evidence.

[1267] Ross, _Arch. Aufs._ I. 31.

[1268] Artemid. _Oneirocr._ IV. 57.

[1269] Herod. V. 8.

[1270] Lucian, _de Luctu_, 21.

[1271] _Antiquities of the Christian Church_, Bk XXIII. cap. 2, whence I take the following references.

[1272] Minucius, p. 32.

[1273] _Acta Tharaci_ ap. Baron. an. 299, n. XXI., Ammian. Marcell. lib. XXII. p. 241, Euseb. lib. VIII. cap. 6.

[1274] Tertull. _De Anima_, cap. 51.

[1275] Tertull. _de Resur._ cap. 1.

[1276] _Cod. Th._ lib. IX. tit. 17 _de Sepulcris violatis_, leg. 6.

[1277] _Saturnal._ lib. VII. cap. 7.

[1278] See Finlay, _History of Greece_, vol. V. pp. 274-6.

[1279] Passow, _Popularia Carm. Graeciae recentioris_, nos. 222-224. I translate here no. 222.

[1280] So I interpret, but without certainty, the words καὶ τὸ βεζύρη κάψαν, literally ‘and they burnt the Vizir.’

[1281] The Liápides were an Albanian tribe employed by the Turks.

[1282] No. 223.

[1283] Actual data on this point are difficult to obtain; but archaeologists whom I consulted in Greece were all agreed, that lamps are more frequent in graves of late date, most frequent in the Greco-Roman period.

[1284] Hieron. _Vita Pauli_ 4, cap. 66.

[1285] Chrysostom, _Hom._ 32 _in Mat._ p. 306.

[1286] Cited by Durant, _de Ritibus_, lib. I. cap. XXIII. n. 14 (p. 235). I have been unable to discover the original passage. Cf. Bingham, _op. cit._ XXIII. 3.

[1287] See Bingham, _Antiquities of the Christian Church_, Bk XXIII. cap. 3 _ad fin._

[1288] Κωνστ. Ν. Κανελλάκης, Χιακὰ Ἀνάλεκτα, p. 341.

[1289] These lines, or others in the same tenor, are well known among the professional μυρολογίστριαις (women hired to mourn at funerals). The version which I here follow is given by Passow, _Popul. Carm._ no. 377 A.

Κι’ ὄντες νά με περάσουνε ψάλλοντες οἱ παπᾶδες, Ἔβγα κρυφὰ ’π’ τὴ μάνα σου κι’ ἄναψε τρεῖς λαμπάδες· Κι’ ὄντες νά μου τὰ σβέσουνε παπᾶδες τὰ κηριά μου, Τότες τρανταφυλλένια μου βγαίνεις ἀπ’ τὴν καρδιά μου.

[1290] Theocritus XXI. 36 f.; Athenaeus 700 D; Pausan. I. 26. 7.

[1291] Frazer, in _Journ. of Philol._ XIV. 145 ff.

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