Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/33

 <:;nAP. ii. the worship of the dead. 27 dead, they immediately left their tombs, and became wandering shades, that were heard in the silence of the night. They reproached the living with their negli- gence; or they sought to punish them by afflicting them with diseases, or cursing their soil with sterility. In a word, they left the living no rest till the funeral feasts were re-established. The sacrifice, the offering of nourishment, and the libation restored them to the tomb, and gave them back their rest and their divine attributes. Man was then at peace with them.' If a deceased person, on being neglected, became a malignant spirit, one who was honored became, on the other hand, a tutelary deity. He loved those who brought him nourishment. To protect them he con- tinued to take 2)art in human affairs, and frequently played an important part there. • Dead though he was, he knew how to be strong and active. The living prayed to him, and asked his support and his favors. When any one came near a tomb, he stopped, and said, We can judge of the power which the ancients attributed to the dead by this prayer, which Electra addresses to the manes of her father: "Take pity on me, and on my brother Orestes; make him return to this country ; hear my prayer, O my father ; grant my • Ovid, Fast., II. 649-5oG. Thus in ^.schylus : Clytem- nestra, v arned by a dream that the manes of Agamemnon are irritated against lier, liastens to send offerings to his tomb. ^ Eurip., ^Zc, lOOi (lOlG) : " Tiiey believe that if wo have no care for these dead, and if we neglect their worship, they will do us harm, and that, on the contrary, they do us good if .we render them propitious to us by offerings." Porphyry, J)e Abstin, II. 37. See Horace, Odes, II. 23; Plato, Laws, IX. p. i»2(. 927.
 * ' Subterranean god, be propitious to me." '