Forlong - Rivers of Life

544
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
so we read that when the warriors each “took home his fair captive, the buried
Achille claimed his share also and received Polyxena. 1
It was no uncommon thing for the dead to rise and claim their own—how dreadful
if this habit had continued! The Greeks say that Phryxus, who died in exile, and
was buried in Kolkis, got up and claimed interment in his own land, lest his soul should
be thus also exiled, which the sentence, he believed, did not warrant. It was common
for ghosts, who did not think their teguments properly interred, to wander about and
demand their righis. Suetonius insisted that Caligula’s soul ranged about the earth
annoying people, because his wretched body was not properly buried. The Athenians
carried this doctrine to its full practical outcome, by actually putting to death
noble Generals who, after saving their country by great and glorious victories, did not
stop to bury their dead or pick up their bodies when the severity of a tempest
threatened the destruction of all. These pious superstitious patriots, of course, held
that deprivation of proper burial was the most awful punishment which could be inflicted.
Thus, every proper Greek tomb had a pyra, pur¦, and Roman tombs a culina
for the immolation of the offering and due roasting of flesh for the dead. It was
scarcely possible to attend daily to all these residents of the other world, so they were
only fed at stated intervals or fetes. Plutarch says that the people of Platea gave a
funeral repast once a year to all the brave men who had fallen in that glorious battle
—a custom which was duly observed down to his time, or for five hundred years!
The fact is, these ancients held that eventually, every man and woman—no matter
how wicked they had been on earth—became in some measure deified after death; a
very comfortable and certainly a much kindlier doctrine than Christians teach. Unfortunately,
however, this multiplied the gods “as the sands on the sea shore.” All
Manes became divine, and hence tombs became temples, which caused sepulchres to
be constantly visited, enriched and worshipped. This faith probably led to the early anteand
post-Brahmanik doctrines and ideas as to transmigration. The dead were no inactive
gods; prayers to them could aid their votaries in particular, and benefit any-
one if offered with proper faith and perseverance. So all the pious, in passing a tomb,
cried: “O God beneath the earth, be propitious to me!” Another prays “to be brought
home to his country, for purer hands, and a heart more chaste than her mother!” 2
From very early times some races held an unwavering belief in immortolity; not
only the rude and uncultivated, but many who were very wise and learned, as we see
in the case of some early Greek stories. The Pythian oracle told Solon—that wise
but somewhat mythical lawgiver, who declared that “no man could be called happy
before his death”—that all must honour the mighty dead—the chiefs of the country
who live beneath the earth. 3 The Thebans, says Pausanias, offered sacrifices to
Eteokles and Polynikes for ten centuries. “The inhabitants of Akanthus worshipped
1
Ar. Civil., by Rev. T.C. Barker, Chap. II. Lon, 1871.
3
Ibid., chap. xxi, quoting Plutarch and Solon.
2 Ibid.