Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/162

156 and its protecting god. The religious act here was of the same nature as in the family. It consisted essentially of-a repast, partaken of in common ; the nourish- ment had been prepared upon the altar itself, and was consequently sacred; while eating it, the worshippers recited prayers; the divinity was present, and received his part of the food and drink.

These religious repasts of the cury lasted a long time at Rome; Cicero mentions them, and Ovid describes them. In the time of Augustus they had still pre- served all their antique forms. "I have seen, in those sacred dwellings," says a historian of this epoch, "the repast displayed before the god ; the tables were of wood, according to ancestral usage, and the dishes were of earthen ware. The food was loaves, cakes of fine flour, and fruits. I saw the libations poured out; they did not fall from gold or silver cups, but from vessels of clay, and I admired the men of our day who remain so faithful to the rites and customs of their fathers." At Athens these repasts took place during the festival called Apaturia

There were usages remaining in the latest period of Greek history which throw some light upon the nature of the ancient phratry. Thus we see that in the time