Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/25

 CHAP. I. NOTION'S ABOUT THE SOUL AND DEATH. 19 and to itself. From this came the belief in ghosts. All antiquity was iDersuaded that without burial the houl was miserable, and that by burial it became forever happy. It was not to display their grief that they performed the funeral ceremony, it was for the rest and happiness of the dead.* We must remark, however, that to place the body in the ground was not enough. Certain traditional rites had also to be observed, and certain established formulas to be pronounced. We find in Plautus an account of a ghost ;'^ it was a soul that was compelled to wander because its body had been placed in the ground without due attention to th^ rites. Suetonius relates that when the body of Caligula was placed in the earth without a due observation of the funeral ceremonies, his soul was not at rest, and continued to appear to the living until it was determined to disinter the body and give it a burial according to the rules. These two examples show clearly what eflfects were attributed to the rites and formulas of the funeral cere- mony. Since without them souls continued to wan- der and appear to the living, it must have been by them that souls became fixed and enclosed in their tombs ; and just as there were formulas which had this virtue, there were others which had a contrary virtue — that of evoking sonls, and making them come out for a timo from the sepulchre. We can see in ancient writers how man was tor- mented by the fear that after his death the rites would • Odyssey, XI. 72. Eurip., Troad., 1085. Hdts., V. 92. Virg.,VI. 371, 379. Horace, Odes,I. 23. Ovid, Fasi!., V. 483. Pliiiy, Epist., VII. 27. Suetonius, Galig., 59. Servius, ad /En., III. GS.
 * Plautus, Mostellaria.