[Illustration]
A beautiful illustration of an ancient Grecian sepulchre or funeral
chamber, heads the second chapter of Mr. Britton's "Union of
Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting," from which work we have copied
the annexed engraved view. The interior of the chamber exhibits a
skeleton and the urns containing the ashes of the dead. The combat leads
us to the conclusion, that the tomb contains the remains of a chief; for
it was the barbarous custom of the Greeks to sacrifice captives at the
tombs of their heroes.
Of the funeral rites and ceremonies of the Greeks and other nations, we
subjoin the following:--
The most simple and natural kind of funeral monuments, and therefore the
most ancient and universal, consist in a mound of earth, or a heap of
stones, raised over the ashes of the departed: of such monuments mention
is made in the Book of Joshua, and in Homer and Virgil. Many of them
still occur in various parts of this kingdom, especially in those
elevated and sequestered situations where they have neither been defaced
by agriculture nor inundation.
The ancients are said to have buried their dead in their own houses,
whence, according to some, the original of that species of idolatry
consisting in the worship of household gods.
The place of burial amongst the Jews was never particularly determined.
We find that they had burial-places upon the highways, in gardens, and
upon mountains. We read, that Abraham was buried with Sarah, his wife,
in the cave of Macphelah, in the field of Ephron, and Uzziah, King of
Judah, slept with his fathers in the field of the burial which pertained
to the kings.
The primitive Greeks were buried in places prepared for that purpose in
their own houses; but in after ages they adopted the judicious practice
of establishing the burial grounds in desert islands, and outside the
walls of towns, by that means securing them from profanation, and
themselves from the liability of catching infection from those who had
died of contagious disorders.
The Romans prohibited burning or burying in the city, both from a sacred
and civil consideration, that the priests might not be contaminated by
touching a dead body, and that houses might not be endangered by the
frequency of funeral fires.
The custom of burning the dead had its foundation laid deep in nature:
an anxious fondness to preserve the great and good, the dear friend and
the near relative, was the sole motive that prevailed in the institution
of this solemnity. "That seems to me," says Cicero, "to have been the
most ancient kind of burial, which, according to Xenophon, was used by
Cyrus. For the body is returned to the earth, and so placed as to be
covered with the veil of its mother." Pliny also agrees with Cicero upon
this point, and says the custom of burial preceded that of burning among
the Romans. According to Monfauçon, the custom of burning entirely
ceased at Rome about the time of Theodorius the younger. When cremation
ceased on the introduction of Christianity, the believing Romans,
together with the Romanized and converted Britons, would necessarily, as
it is observed by Mr. Grough, "betake themselves to the use of
sarcophagi (or coffins,) and probably of various kinds, stone, marble,
lead," &c. They would likewise now first place the body in a position
due east and west, and thus bestow an unequivocal mark of distinction
between the funeral deposit of the earliest Roman inhabitants of this
island, and their Christian successors. The usual places of interment
were in fields or gardens,[4] near the highway, to be conspicuous, and
to remind the passengers how transient everything is, that wears the
garb of mortality. By this means, also, they saved the best part of
their land:
--Experiar quid concedatur in illos
Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis, atque Latina.
_Juv. Sat I._
The Romans commonly built tombs for themselves during their lifetime.
Hence these words frequently occur in ancient inscriptions, V.F. Vivus
Facit, V.S.P. Vivus Sibi Posuit. The tombs of the rich were usually
constructed of marble, the ground enclosed with walls, and planted round
with trees. But common sepulchres were usually built below ground, and
called hypogea. There were niches cut out of the walls, in which the
urns were placed: these, from their resemblance to the niche of a
pigeon-house, were called columbaria.
[4] Our blessed Saviour chose the garden sometime for his
oratory, and, dying, for the place of his sepulture; and we also
do avouch, for many weighty causes, that there are none more fit
to bury our dead in than in our gardens and groves where our
beds may he decked with verdant and fragrant flowers. Trees and
perennial plants, the most natural and instructive hieroglyphics
of our expected resurrection and immortality, besides what they
might conduce to the meditation of the living, and the taking
off our cogitations from dwelling too intently upon more vain
and sensual objects: that custom of burying in churches, and
near about them, especially in great and populous cities, being
both a novel presumption, indecent, and very prejudicial to
health.--_Evelyn's Discourse on Forest Trees_.
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