Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/135

 CHAP. IX. MORALS OF THE AXCLENT FAMILY. TJO authority of a fiUlier, who could sell him or condemn him to death. But this son had also his part in the worship ; he filled a place in the religious ceremonies ; his presence on certain days was so necessaiy that the Roman who had no son was forced to adopt a fictiiious one for those days, in order that the rites might be per- formed.' And here religion established a very power- ful bond between father and son. They believed in a second life in the tomb — a life happy and calm if the funeral repasts were regularly offered. Thus the flither is convinced that his destiny after this life will depend upon the care that his son will take of his tomb, and the son, on his part, is convinced that his father will be- •come a god after death, whom he will have to invoke. We can irangine how much respect and reciprocal affection this belief would establish in the family. The ancients gave to the domestic virtues the name of piety — the obedience of the son to his father, the love which he bore to his mother. This was piety — pietas erga parentes. The attachment of the father for the child, the tenderness of the mother, — these, too, were piety — pietas ergaliberos. Everything in the family was divine. The sense of duty, natural affection, the religious idea, — all these were confounded, were con- sidered as one, and w>re expressed by the same word. It will, perhaps, appear strange to find love of home counted among the virtues; but it was so counted among the ancients. This sentiment had a deep and powerful hold ujwn their minds. Anchises, when he sees Troy in flames, is still unwilling to leave his old home. Ulysses, when coimtless treasures, and immor- tality itself, are offered him, wishes only again to see the flame of his own heaith-fire. Let us come down to ' Dionys. of Halic, II. 20, 22. 9