[1399] Harpocrat. s.v. λουτροφόρος. ἔθος δὲ ἦν καὶ τοῖς ἀγάμοις ἀποθανοῦσι λουτροφορεῖν, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ μνῆμα ἐφίστασθαι. τοῦτο δὲ ἦν παῖς ὑδρίαν ἔχων. The same words are repeated by Photius and Suidas. With ἐφίστασθαι it appears necessary to supply λουτροφόρον. Cf. Pollux VIII. 66 τῶν δ’ ἀγάμων λουτροφόρος τῷ μνήματι ἐφίστατο, κόρη ἀγγεῖον ἔχουσα ὑδροφόρον.... For other references see Becker, Charicles p. 484. This information, as regards the emblem used, is held to be incorrect. The λουτροφόρος was not a boy bearing a pitcher, but the pitcher itself. See Frazer, Pausanias, vol. v. p. 388.
[1400] For this view see Frazer, Pausanias, vol. v. p. 389. ‘It may be suggested that originally the custom of placing a water-pitcher on the grave of unmarried persons ... may have been meant to help them to obtain in another world the happiness they had missed in this. In fact it may have been part of a ceremony designed to provide the dead maiden or bachelor with a spouse in the spirit land. Such ceremonies have been observed in various parts of the world by peoples, who, like the Greeks, esteemed it a great misfortune to die unmarried.’
[1401] Plut. 529.
[1402] Cf. Lucian, de Luctu 11.
[1403] For a discussion of the point in relation to funerals see Becker, Charicles pp. 385 f. and in relation to marriage pp. 486 f.
[1404] Lucian, de Luctu 11.
[1405] I. 6.
[1406] Cf. Passow, Popul. Carm. Graec. Recent. no. 415, and Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, I. p. 153, who describes a dead woman, whose funeral he witnessed, as ‘parée à la Gréque de ses habits de nôces.’
[1407] Passow, Popul. Carm. 378.
[1408] Charicles p. 487.