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

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INHUMATION, CREMATION, AND THK SOUL.
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542 INHUMATION, CREMATION, AND THE SOUL.
depart from their homes, with the Hindu devotees, such as
Calanus, Alexander's Brahman', the cleansing of the soul is
paramount. But there is no evidence that either the Asiatic or
European cremationists ever burned the bodies of those whom
they held dear until they had evolved the idea of the purification
of the soul by the funeral tire-.
Eustathius knew that the Brahmans practised cremation for
the same reason as those Greeks, who had this custom in
common with the barbarians of the North.
A story cited and discredited by Eustathius, ascribed to
Heracles the introduction of cremation. Evidently then the
custom was not immemorial in Greece, since there was a legend
concerning its first a])pearance in that country. Thus the
Greek traditions are in full
harmony with our conclusions
respecting the origin and spread of cremation.
As the Homeric doctrine of the soul ditifers essentially from
that of the Egyptians, and agrees not only with that of Celts
and Scandinavians, but also with that of the Vedic people, it is
now ceilain that it is not Mediten-anean in origin, but comes
from upper Euroj>e. The ancient Hindus, as we have seen,
regarded fii-e with deep i'e\erence in all its as])ects save that of
the ' corpsc-devoui'er.' This respect
foi- the element they had
in common with their Persian kinsfdk, but in the cour.se of
time the latter ga\e to tire a still more exalted place in their
religion than had ever Ix'cn accoi'ded to Agni
in the Vedic
system. K;irth too is counted very sacred by the Hindus, who
])lace on the bare earth dying persons as well as childing women.
This revei'eiiee foi' earth, like that t'oi' fire, the Pei'sians carried
still hirtlier. The Arcsta in its
opening cha])ter denounces
those people who t'ithei Itutiied or bui'ied their dead.
Aecoi'diiig to tlu' Arcstd. the tirst object of man is ])uiitv,
])n'cc