In the Homeric times, the blood of men and animals was regarded as the nourishment most agreeable to the dead. Achilles, on the tomb of Patroclus, slew twelve young Trojans, four horses, two dogs and a herd of cattle and of sheep[33]. Ulysses, sacrificing the sheep on the side of the pit he had dug, called on the shades of the dead heroes, and the shades, gathering about him in swarms, drank eagerly this bloody libation[34]. Human sacrifices are referred to as occurring in the prehistoric period. But these barbarous customs no longer existed when veritable history commenced. The law of Solon forbade the sacrifice of an ox in the funeral ceremonies[35].
In the sixth century, B. C., the law of Ceos still permitted the sacrifice of victims according to the ancient rite[36], but, in the fifth century, those sacrifices appear to have become the privilege of the gods and of the dead heroes[37].
But, excepting the relics of this traditional ceremony of occasionally sacrificing at the grave, almost everything connected with the interment of the dead seems essentially modern. To be sure, this had not always been the case. The authors who wrote in the classical and later periods, afford much evidence of the long strides that this progressive people had made away from their old rude customs. Plato[38] relates that, formerly, it was the fashion for the relatives of the deceased to send for women whose business it was to collect the bones of the dead in jars; while still earlier, as he informs us, the Greeks buried their dead at home.
At Athens, Solon[39] made great improvements. He it was that forbade men to speak ill of the dead, on the ground that piety required them to consider the dead as sacred. Such a doctrine against the perpetuation of hatred is not many removes from the dispensation of the nineteenth century. Sparta also had a reformer in Lycurgus, but his measures, as we should expect of one who was trying to rear a race of warriors and law-abiding citizens, looked more to the intellectual and social advancement than to religious progress. His aim was to do away with all foolish superstitions and femininities of sentiment[40]. He even allowed the monuments to be erected near the temples that the youths might become accustomed to seeing them.
The best connected account of the ceremonies under discussion is to be found in Lucian’s “de Luctu.” In spite of the cynical view and the satirical comment indulged in by that author, there seems, if we may judge by other writers, to be nothing exaggerated in his descriptions; and the customs depicted therein were probably little changed throughout the whole course of Greek history.
As soon as death had laid hands upon the victim, the relatives or friends, after gently closing the eyes of their loved one, inserted, in the dead man’s mouth, the obol, a coin valued at about three half pence, or about three cents of our money, which was to serve as passage money over the Styx. They were very careful not to overlook this duty, since it was believed that, if old Charon could not collect his ferriage, the unlucky shade would be sent back to life[41].
They also examined the coin closely, to see whether it would pass current among the inhabitants of the lower world[42].
An admirable verification of this custom was, in this century, excavated in the town of Samos in Cephallenia. A tile coffin dug up at that place was found to contain the bones of an initiate of the Bacchic mysteries and between the back teeth of the skull, the danake, a coin, somewhat more in value than an obol, was still firmly lodged. The late excavations in Italy, Greece and Asia have revealed numerous coins in the tombs[43]. The painting on a vase, which is described by Pottier, shows a small coin held between the thumb and fore finger of the figure which represents the deceased[44].
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].