Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/17

 THE ORIGIN OF MYTHS 3 3. Of course it was necessary to replenish the supply of food and drink occasionally ; consequently the worship of the dead at the tomb consisted chiefly in the repeated offering of the means of subsistence. The custom grew up of doing this on the anniversaries of the birth and death of the departed one, and during the general cele- brations in honor of the dead. Such occasions at Athens were the Nekysia or Nemeseia on the 5th day of the month Boedromion (September-October), and the Cliytroi on the 13th of Anthesterion (February-March) ; at Home, the Lemur ia on the 9th, llth, and 13th of May, and the dies parentales, which were celebrated towards the close of the older Roman year, beginning with the 13th of February, and ending with the Feralia on the 21st. Souls punished neglect by sending sickness or death ; and so by the Greeks they were called Keres, i.e. destroyers ; by the Romans, Larvae or Lemures, specters. Therefore, to guard against the evil influence of these dreaded beings, and to prevent their return into their former dwellings, all such rites were resorted to as were commonly em- ployed in the effort to avoid any other evil. 4. At this stage in the development of the idea souls were believed to retain the form and physical peculiarities of the dead body. It was thought that by an offering of fresh blood (which is lacking after the heart ceases to beat) they could be temporarily called back to life, and could answer questions, a supposition out of which were developed necromancy and the oracles of the dead. In connection with these oracles there appeared at a later period in Greece oneiromancy also (divination by dreams ascribed to the deities of the lower world). For it was believed that the god or demigod living in the depths of