[2653]. Pausan. vi. 26. 6, sqq.
[2654]. Hazelquist, Travels, p. 234. Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 428.
[2655]. Aristot. Hist. Animal. v. 19.
[2656]. Here the ferry-boats, in the present day, are built of hill-cedar, fastened together with clamps of iron, and ornamented with carvings. Vigne, Affghanistân, p. 32.
[2657]. When certain articles of this merchandise, as pepper, for example, reached Athens, the merchants were sometimes denounced by sycophants as spies of the great king, and threatened, at least, with the torture. Antiphon. ap. Athen. ii. 73. Casaub. Animadv. t. vi. p. 445.
CHAPTER XIV.
FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
Having now gone through the whole circle of private life among the Hellenes, we shall consider them in the hour of death, and during the ceremonies with which dust was committed to dust. From a great variety of causes, the dissolution of the body was regarded by the pagans of antiquity with less terror and apprehension than modern nations experience. Their belief in the continuance of existence was not perhaps more unshaken than that of pious men in Christian countries, but the life to come was contemplated as more nearly resembling the present; and they imagined that, by the performance of certain rites and ceremonies, and through the favour of the gods in various ways obtained, they might easily secure to themselves a blissful immortality, which, according to their creed, was denied to none but the incorrigibly flagitious. In earlier times, moreover, before the birth of the sceptical systems of philosophy, no chilling doubts had been thrown on the doctrine of immortality. Ignorant they might be of the Divine nature, of the relations of man to his Creator, of the true duties, obligations, and rules of life; but they were so fully convinced of the existence of a race of superior beings, that they might almost be said to feel its truth as they did that of their own existence. These beings they believed to be everlastingly occupied with human, or rather with Hellenic, concerns; for it seems evident that most of the gods were looked upon more as the parents and guardians of the Grecian race than as remote and general watchers over the whole universe. To pass out of life, therefore, was but to pass out of the domains of one god into those of another; to exchange the protection of the celestial for that of the infernal Zeus. Everywhere and on all occasions Gods were supposed to attend their footsteps, but more especially at the moment of their decease, when a cloud of heavenly messengers hovered around them, some to accomplish the separation between soul and body, others to lead and protect the spirit in its descent to the subterranean world, and others again to watch over its happiness while there, sharing along with it the same dwelling-place, and bearing the same relation to it as a monarch does to his subjects.
Possessed firmly by persuasions of this kind, it is little to be wondered at that the ancient Greek experienced less reluctance to enter upon the domains of the dead than is now too commonly felt.[[2658]] He had, besides, another motive to cheer his departure. It was his firm expectation to be welcomed on his entrance to the Elysian fields by his parents or friends or companions, by all, in short, whom he had loved in life, and who had preceded him to that sacred and serene abode. Thinking and feeling thus, death seemed scarcely death, but a mere shifting of the scene or change of locality. It was but falling asleep in one place to wake in another where their happiness could know no change; where God would wipe away tears from all eyes, and where there should be no more trouble or sorrow or suffering for ever.
These, nevertheless, must be regarded as the habitual convictions of the mind, which, however they might influence the actions and resolutions of men, could by no means stifle their feelings, or prevent that sorrow and regret which must always be experienced by persons about to be separated from those they love. Hence the death-bed of the Greeks presented not a scene of stoical indifference. All the tenderness and sympathy of which the human heart is capable was usually awakened. The friends, and more especially the women of the family, crowded about the couch to press the dying hand, and catch the last breath as it fluttered in broken murmurs from the lips.[[2659]] Most persons, when about to bid an eternal adieu to the world, desired to lay some command on their sorrowing friends, not as an imperious task but as a labour of love, by performing which they might be reminded of the departed. Such commands as these the Grecian women were most anxious to receive, that they might treasure them up in their souls, and by pondering on them incessantly, day and night, keep vividly alive in their memory the idea of those who had once been all in all to them. Nor when the spirit had departed did they forsake the corpse, nor abandon it to the care of menials. With their own hands they closed the beloved eyes,[[2660]] and tied up the mouth from which words of kindness or comfort were never more to sound. Putting a severe restraint upon their feelings, they straightened,[[2661]] laved, anointed, and laid out the corpse,[[2662]] covered it with costly garments,[[2663]] and placed crowns of flowers upon its head: it was then borne to the vestibule of the mansion and laid with the feet towards the door,[[2664]] to intimate that it was about to proceed on its last journey, and take up its abode in the house prepared for all living. Vessels of lustral water[[2665]] were then placed beside it; that, being accounted unclean, all those who passed in or out and might be supposed to be reached by the effluvia which exhaled from the dead, might sprinkle and purify themselves. Branches of laurel and acanthus, with locks of hair, were suspended over the doorway, each being a symbol speaking to the imagination of that lively people. While thus exposed the corpse was watched day and night by its natural guardians, until the moment arrived for bearing it forth to the funeral pile or the grave. It was then laid in a coffin, generally of cedar or cypress-wood,[[2666]] which, being placed upon a bier,[[2667]] was borne away, the mourning friends and family attending.