THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

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512 INHUMATION, CKEMATION, AND THE SOUL.
)i)).
INHUMATION, CREMATION, AND THE S(WL. oil
Skeat. M.A.. Strait-. ( "\\\\ Service. (i'.i
N(/(/. Ijiin^', lA-.ii', .M\crs.
As the dromos at Menidi shows that such grave-offerings
All these considerations make it clear that the people of
were innneinorial in Attica, so too the custom of Tronis finds
the Mj^cenean Age, like the inhumationist Greeks of later times,
its counterpart at Mycenae
in the altar slab over Grave IV.
believed that the soul dwelt in the grave beneath the earth.
(p. 5), with a fuunel-like aperture, which probably conveyed the
Naturally then the term ^^oz/io? is commonly applied to the
offering directly to the dead within.
dead.
Such offerings were the renewal of the food placed in
Now let us examine the Homeric doctrine on the same point.
the grave at tiie funeral. This seems often to have been
The soul leaves the body at death and wings its way tt)
burned. Thus, in the shaft-graves of Mycenae, burnt remains
Hades bemoaning
its fate, as it leaves for ever its manhood and
were found near the dead. The ash-jars of Xa(][a(la contained
youth \ But within the portals of the Unseen it cannot pass
the relics of the funeral feast. Burnt remains are found in the
until the body is consumed by fire.
Stone Age inhumation graves of central Europe. Possibly,
departed soul has a long way to go to the House of
even the burnt human remains found with inhumation burials
Hades, and is therefore glad of company on the road. Thus
in some British graves niay be explained in the same way.
Deiphobus cried, "Not unavenged
is Asius, nay, methinks
As the dead recpiired food, so also they needed clothing to
that even on his road to Hades, strong warden of the gate,
wear in the grave. Thus the dead at Mycenae were laid to
he will rejoice at heart, since, lo, I have sent him escort for
their eternal rest arrayed in their full apparel and ornaments.
the way-."
As the latter were not burned, ])lainly they were to be worn by
For the complete separation of the soul from the body
it is
the soul in the grave. In a later age, when the soul was supposed
indis;pensable that the latter be burned. Until this all-im-
to depart to a separate realm, it was necessary to burn
portant act is fulfilled the soul fiits between the living and the
the clothes, as is proved by the story of Periander'. Tht; dead, for access to Hades is denied it. Therefore the soul of
ghost
of his wife Melissa said "she was chill, having no chjthes
;
the
besought Achilles: "Thou slcepest and hast forgotten
garments buried with hei- were of no manner of use, since they
me, O Achilles. Not in life
my hast thou been unmindful of
had not been burnt.
me, but in
my death. Bury me with all speed that I pass the
As the dead ne('(]e(l l)Oth food and raiment, as in life, so
gates of Hades. Far off the spirits banish me, the phantoms
it was only natuial llial tlioii' final al)ode should resemble thr
of men outworn, nor suffer me to mingle with them beyond the
house which thoy had occ-uj)icd on this side the grave. Thus
river, but vainly 1 wander along the wide-gated dwelling of
the terra-cotta coffins in wliicji llio CiTtans de])osited the bones
Hades. Now give me, I pray pitifully of thee, thy hand, for
of their ancestors occasionally take the sha))e of a dwelling. In
n(;ver more again shall 1 come back from Hades, when ye
fact they alone i-e])i'o(luce the extei-ioi- of the have
Myceiiean house,
given me my due of fire. Lay not my bones apart fi'om
whether in ( 'icte or elsewhere '.
Trns, sliaped like I'ound huts
thine, let one cofi'cr hide oui- honest"
standing on piles have alse been found in '. .Melos and Amorous.
Si-clciiciilt mid I'n^tirhliclilu-it^iihnthc dcr Gri(clicii,
l-'.rwiii KdIkIc, I'.-i/i-hc,
24 ,s7/(/.
//. XVI. S.")!; :
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llei.Ml. V. '.!_'.
'I'soiintas ami :\Iaii:itt. op. rit.. 'pi'XTi
5' (K fxOeuji' TTTafxfiVT) 'AiOocriJf ji^jirjua.,
pp. I:i7, -'.">'.l Cd.
ov TToTfxov -/Oouiaa, \nrova a.vbi>oTr)Ta Kal iifiv''-
Till' alioi itriiial Saiiiis of the Mala\- I'ciiin^iila erect at the fixil nf ilie
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Cf. II. xxii. ;it)2 (lli'clui-'s soul); XX. 'J'.ll, xiii. 41");
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Od. x, -"iCO -^vxv 5' Aidoadf
t^'i'ave a tiiaii;.'ular liut (if shelter rai^eil (in thice piles alidiit. three I'eet hi^'lr In
it a]c plao'i f(Mi(l aii(l iit( n-iU etc. laccueliuL' td the sex i.t' the deadl made in
Ka.Tq\tUv ;
XI. liij.
"
tc
mv
the hut t'i\is the
//. XIII. tl'). ('/'. //. XXIV. "2 Ui f-jahjv o6/.toc ".\iOo? (i'trco; M. i'2'2 moj' "Aioos
iniinatui'e, r(. p. 1 |:',. .\ hitle w len hidder leadine up
sjiirit ea-y ace-- to it. \-\>y iIk -e lacts I am indeiited Id fra iid Mr W. W.
fi!(T(-il.
//. xxiii.