In one of Euripides’s plays, by means of this custom and various other ceremonies, which Helen declares to be part of the Grecian religion, Theoclymenes is outwitted and the triumphant husband and wife, once more reconciled, succeed in returning to their native land[27].
If Chariton, who was a very late writer, is to be trusted, it would seem also to have been the custom, when the body could not be found, to carry along in the procession, upon a bier, an image in lieu of the actual corpse[28]. Reiske, in his commentary, does not appear to consider this evidence as conclusive, but thinks that Chariton is, in this case, confounding Grecian with Roman ceremonies. The commentator alludes to the custom at Rome, in the apotheosis of the emperor, and even in other funerals, of bearing along an effigy[29].
Were Chariton the only authority on the subject, his statement might be disregarded as of little value, but Herodotus[30] mentions this same custom of the effigy as having been observed on the death of a Spartan king, who had died abroad. Yet that fact establishes nothing more than a mere possibility. It is a well-attested fact, however, that the Athenians were wont to carry one sumptuous empty bier as representative of those who had been slain in battle, but whose bodies had not been recovered[31].
The sentiment of honoring those whose mortal remains eluded search was, in itself, very beautiful, but woe betide the man who came back after his friends had supposed him dead and had performed his funeral rites. His superstitious brethren would not allow him to take part in their sacrifices, nor even to approach those solemnities. They avoided his company as carefully as if he had been a spectre from the nether world[32].
III.
PREPARATION FOR BURIAL.
With the exception, possibly, of one or two features, survivals of their ancient religion, a description of the burial customs of the representative Greeks during the historic period, would, to-day, in no way, seem barbarous nor even extraordinary.