Untitled - Centrostudirpinia.it

848 DEATH.
back. Messengers in ancient times were often fiddlers and pipers :
it was nothing out of the way, to make Death and his ineny
perform a reihen (rig, round dance) ; with fife and fiddle he seeks
to win recruits. Really a pleasant fancy, tending to mitigate
the harshness of dying : the souls of the dead enter at once
upon dancing and revelry. To the ancient Romans there were
songs and dances in the Elysian fields l
; and it accords with the
resemblance of departed spirits to elves, who also love music and
dancing (p. 470). Yet our poets of the 13th cent, never once
allude to the Dance of Death, which from the 15- 16th became
such a favourite subject. The oft-recurring phrase er hat den
Tot an der hant, by the hand (Nib. 1480, 4. 1920, 4. 1958, 4.
Wigal. 2453. 4700. Alph. 28(3. 345. 359) seems to mean, not
catching hold for the purpose of dancing, but of leading away
(like dod is at hendi, p. 406).
Holy Scripture having already likened our fleeting life to grass,
it was not difficult to see in Death a mower or reaper, who
cuts men down like flowers and corn-stalks. Knife, sickle, or
scythe is found him in this connexion : There s a reaper they call
Death, Power from God most high he hath, He whets his knife
to-day, Keener it cuts the hay ; Look to thyself, flowret fair !
Pop. Hymn. The older poets never give him these implements,
but the figure of (
Death carried out is sometimes furnished with
a scythe (p. 772). In later times the harpe (sickle) of the Greek
Kronos (0. Miiller s Archaol. p. 599) may have had an influence
too, conf. falcitenens in Radevicus 2, 11. To match men with
flowers, make them bite the grass/ Lohengr. 138, is said equally
of other conquerors beside Death. But he weeds out the plants :
f
in lebens garten der Tot nu jot Turl. Wh. 23 b . Conversely
Death, like the devil, is called a sower, who disseminates weeds
among men ; do der Tot sinen sdmen under si gessete/ Wh.
(
er ier durch in des Todes furch/ he eared through him
361, 16.
D/s furrow, Ulr. Trist. 3270, simply means: he planted in him
a mortal wound (see SuppL).
Before explaining certain other conceptions, I have to enumer
ate the names and epithets of Death in our old poetry.
1
Virg. Aen. 6, 644: pars pedibus plaudunt choreas et carmina dicunt. Tibull.
. 3, 59 : hie choreae cantusque vigent.