Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/50

 44 ANCIENT BELIEFS. BOOK 1, There was a perpetual interchange of good offices between the living and the dead of each family. The ancestor received from his descendants a series of funeral banquets, that is to say, the only enjoyment that M^as left to him in his second life. The descendant received from the ancestor the aid and strength of which he had need iu this. The living could not do without the dead, nor the dead without the living. Thus a powerful bond was established among all the generations of the same family, which made of it u body forever inseparable. Every family had its tomb, where its dead went to repose, one after another, always together. This tomb was generally near the house, nor far from the door, "in order," says one of the ancients, " that the sons, in entering and leaving their dwelling, might always meet their fathers, and might always address them an invo- cation." ' Thus the ancestor remained in the midst of his relatives; invisible, but always present, he continued to make a part of the family, and to be its father. Im- mortal, happy, divine, he was still interested in all of his whom he had left upon the earth. He knew their needs, and sustained their feebleness; and he who still lived, who labored, who, according to the ancient ex- pression, had not yet discharged the debt of existence, he had near him his guides and his supports — his forefathers. In the midst of difficulties, he invoked their ancient wisdom; in grief, he asked consolation of them ; in danger, he asked their support, and after a. fault, their pardon. Certainly we cnntiot easily comprehend how a man could adore his father or his ancestor. To make of ' Euripides, Helena, 11C3-11G8.