Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/213

 CHAP. VII. THE RELIGION OF THE CITY. 207 thove should be a sacred meal. For this purpose, men chosen by the city, were required to eat together, in its name, within the enclosure of the prytancum, in the presence of the sacred fire and the protecting gods. The Greeks were convinced that, if this repast was inter- rupted but for a single day, the state was menaced with the loss of the favor of its gods. At Athens, the men who took part in the common meal were selected by lot, and the law severely pun- ished those who refused to perform this duty. The citizens who sat at the sacred table were clothed, for the time, with a sacerdotal character; they were called parasites. This word which, at a later period, became a term of contempt, was in the beginning a sacred title.' In the time of Demosthenes the parasites had disappeared ; but the prytanes were still required to eat together in the prytaneura. In all the cities there were halls destined for the common meals." If we observe how matters passed at this meal, we shall easily recognize the religious ceremony. Every guest had a crown upon his head; it was a custom of the ancients to wear a crown of leaves or flowers when one performed a solemn religious act. " The more one is adorned with flowers," they said, "the surer one is of pleasing the gods ; but if you sacrifice without wearing a crown, they will turn from you."^ "A crown," they also said, " is a herald of good omen, which jjrayer sends before it towards the gods." * For the same reason the banqueters were clothed in robes of white ; white was > Plutarch, Solon, 24. Athenseus, VI. 2G. ' Demosthenes, Pro Corona, 53. Aristotle, Politics, VII. 1, 19. Pollux, VIII. 155. ' Fragment of Sappho, in Athenajus, XV. IG.
 * Atlienaeus, XV. 19.