Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/29

 CHAP. II. THE "WORSHIP OF THB DEAD. 23 later, Lucian, ridiculing these opinions and usages, shows how deeply rooted they were in the common mind. "The dead," says he, "are nourished by the provisions which we place upon their tomb, and drink the wine which we pour out there ; so ./hat one of the dead to whom nothing is offered '.d condemned to perpetual hunger." ' These are very old forms of belief, and are quite groundless and ridiculous ; and yet they exercised ■empire over man during a great number of generations. They governed men's minds; we shall soon see that they governed societies even, and that the greater part of the domestic and social institutions of the ancients was derived from this source. CHAPTER II. The Worship of the Dead. This belief very soon gave rise to certain rules of ■conduct. Since the dead had need of food and drink, it appeared to be a duty of the living to satisfy this need. The care of supplying the dead with sustenance was not left to the caprice or to the variable senti- ments of men; it was obligatory. Thus a complete religion of the dead was established, whose dogmas might soon be effaced, but whose rites endured until the triumph of Christianity. The dead were held to be sacred beings. To them the ancients applied the most respectful epithets that could be thought of; they ' Lucian. De Luctu.