Museum of Antiquity Part 53

[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFIN OF ALABASTER. (_Features of the deceased Sculptured._)]

The vases, generally named canopi, from their resemblance to certain vases made by the Romans to imitate the Egyptian taste, but inadmissible in its application to any Egyptian vase, were four in number, of different materials, according to the rank of the deceased, and were placed near his coffin in the tomb. Some were of common limestone, the most costly were of Oriental alabaster. These four vases form a complete series; the princ.i.p.al intestines of the mummy were placed in them, embalmed in spices and various substances, and rolled up in linen, each containing a separate portion. They were supposed to belong to the four genii of Amenti, whose heads and names they bore. The vase with a cover, representing the human head of Amset, held the stomach and large intestines; that with the cynocephalus head of Hapi contained the small intestines; in that belonging to the jackal-headed Tuautmutf were the lungs and heart; and for the vase of the hawk-headed Kabhsenuf were reserved the gall-bladder and liver. On the sides of the vases were several columns of hieroglyphics, which expressed the adoration of the deceased to each of the four deities whose symbols adorned the covers, and which gave the name of the deceased.

Small figures, called _shabti_, offered through respect for the dead, are to be found in great numbers in the tombs. They were images of Osiris, whose form the deceased was supposed to a.s.sume, and who thence was called the Osirian. They are in several shapes, sometimes in that of the deceased, standing in the dress of the period, but more generally in the shape of a mummy, the body swathed in bandages, from which the hands come out, holding a hoe, _hab_, and pick-ax, and the cord of a square basket, slung on the left shoulder, or nape of the neck. The head attire of the deceased is either that of the period or dignity, and in the case of monarchs accompanied by the uraeus, emblem of royalty. Some figures hold the emblem of life, _ankh_, and of stability, _tat_, or a whip, _khu_. They are generally of wood, or vitrified earthenware. The name and quality of the deceased are found on all those in the same tomb, and thrown on the ground round the sarcophagus. They usually bear in hieroglyphics the sixth chapter of the funeral ritual. Some are found with a blank s.p.a.ce left for the name of the deceased, which leads one to think that the relations and friends procured these figures from dealers; the funeral formula, with a list of the customary presentations of offerings for his soul to Osiris were already on them; nothing was wanting but the name of the deceased; this being added, they were then evidently offered as testimonies of respect by the relations and friends of the deceased, perhaps at the funeral, and then collected and placed in the tomb.

Sometimes these small figures were placed in painted cases divided into compartments. These cases were about two feet long and one foot high.

Ma.n.u.scripts on papyrus, of various lengths, have been found on some mummies. These rolls of papyrus are found in the coffins, or under the swathings of the mummies, between the legs, on the breast, or under the arms. Some are enclosed in a cylindrical case. The papyrus of the Museum of Turin is sixty-six feet long, that at Paris is twenty-two feet long; others are of different lengths, down to two or three feet. That of Turin may be considered as complete. On all, the upper part of the page is occupied by a line of figures of the divinities which the soul visits in succession; the rest is filled with perpendicular columns of hieroglyphics, which are prayers which the soul addresses to each divinity; towards the end of the ma.n.u.script is painted the judgment scene; the great G.o.d Osiris is on his throne; at his feet is an enormous female crocodile, its mouth open; behind is the divine balance, surmounted by a cynocephalus emblem of universal justice; the good and bad actions of the soul are weighed in his presence. Horus examines the plummet, and Thoth records the sentence; standing close by is the soul of the deceased in its corporeal form, conducted by the two G.o.ddesses, Truth and Justice, before the great judge of the dead. The name of Ritual of the Dead has been given by Egyptologists to these papyri, but in reality they bear the t.i.tle of "The Book of the Manifestation to Light." A copy of this, more or less complete, according to the fortune of the deceased, was deposited in the case of every mummy. The book was revised under the twenty-sixth dynasty, and then a.s.sumed its final definite form. But many parts of it are of the highest antiquity. The whole series of pilgrimages which the soul, separated from the body, was believed to accomplish in the various divisions of the lower regions, are related in this book. It contained also a collection of prayers for the use of the deceased in the other world, and of magical formulae intended to secure the preservation of the mummy from decay, and to prevent its possession by an evil spirit, till the ultimate return of the soul of the deceased.

Many of these rituals are also found written, not in hieroglyphics, but in hieratic characters, which are an abbreviated form of hieroglyphic signs. Papyri with hieroglyphics are nearly always divided by ruled lines into narrow vertical columns of an inch or less in breadth, in which the hieroglyphic signs are arranged one under the other. Sometimes the papyri are found written in the enchorial character. Several ma.n.u.scripts in Greek on papyrus have been also discovered in Egypt; they are, however, of a late date, and relate to the sale of lands; many have been discovered referring to lands and possessions about Thebes, one of which has been given in full on page 245.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DISCOVERED TOMB WITH ITS TREASURES. (_At Pompeii._)]

_Roman Tombs._--Before commencing our description of the tombs which line the way as the visitor approaches Pompeii, and seem to prepare him for that funeral silence which reigns in the long-lost city, the more remarkable for its contrast with the gay and festive style of decoration which still characterizes the remains which surround him, it is our intention, as we have done in other instances, to give some general information upon the subject which we are about to treat in detail, for the benefit of those among our readers to whom the forms of Roman burial and the expressions of Roman sorrow are unfamiliar.

Great, absurdly great among the uneducated, as is the importance attached to a due performance of the rites of burial in the present day, it is as nothing compared to the interest which was felt on this subject by the Romans; and not by them only, but by other nations of antiquity, with whose manners we have nothing to do here. The Romans indeed had a good reason for this anxiety, for they believed, in common with the Greeks, that if the body remained unentombed, the soul wandered for a hundred years on the hither side of the Styx, alone and desponding, unable to gain admission to its final resting-place, whether among the happy or the miserable. If, therefore, any person perished at sea, or otherwise under such circ.u.mstances that his body could not be found, a _cenotaph_, or empty tomb, was erected by his surviving friends, which served as well for his pa.s.sport over the Stygian ferry as if his body had been burnt or committed to the earth with due ceremonies. Hence it became a religious duty, not rashly to be neglected, to scatter earth over any unburied body which men chanced to see, for even so slight a sepulchre as this was held sufficient to appease the scruples of the infernal G.o.ds. The reader, if there be any readers of Latin to whom these superst.i.tions are unfamiliar, may refer to the sixth book of the aeneid, line 325, and to a remarkable ode of Horace, the 28th of the first book, which turns entirely upon this subject. Burial, therefore, was a matter of considerable importance.

When death approached, the nearest relative hung over the dying person, endeavoring to inhale his last breath, in a fond belief that the _anima_, the living principle, departed at that moment, and by that pa.s.sage from the body. Hence the phrases, _animam in primo ore tenere, spiritum excipere_, and the like. It is curious to observe how an established form of expression holds its ground. Here are we, after the lapse of eighteen hundred years, still talking of receiving a dying friend's last breath, as if we really meant what we say. After death the body was washed and anointed by persons called _pollinctores_; then laid out on a bier, the feet to the door, to typify its approaching departure, dressed in the best attire which it had formerly owned. The bier was often decked with leaves and flowers, a simple and touching tribute of affection, which is of the heart, and speaks to it, and therefore has maintained its ground in every age and region, unaffected by the constant changes in customs merely arbitrary and conventional.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

In the early ages of Rome the rites of burial and burning seem to have been alike in use. Afterwards the former seems (for the matter is not very clear) to have prevailed, until towards the close of the seventh century of the city, after the death of Sylla, who is said to have been the first of the patrician Cornelii who was burnt. Thenceforward corpses were almost universally consumed by fire until the establishment of Christianity, when the old fas.h.i.+on was brought up again, burning being violently opposed by the fathers of the church, probably on account of its intimate connection with Pagan a.s.sociations and superst.i.tions. Seven days, we are told, elapsed between death and the funeral; on the eighth the corpse was committed to the flames; on the ninth the ashes were deposited in the sepulchre. This probably refers only to the funerals of the great, where much splendor and extent of preparation was required, and especially those public funerals (_funera indictiva_) to which the whole people were bidden by voice of crier, the ceremony being often closed by theatrical and gladiatorial exhibitions, and a sumptuous banquet. But we have no intention to narrate the pomp which accompanied the princely n.o.bles of Rome to the tomb: it is enough for our purpose to explain the usages of private life, to which the Street of Tombs owes its origin and its interest.

In the older times funerals were celebrated at night because the rites of religion were celebrated by day; and it was pollution for the ministers, or for anything connected with wors.h.i.+p of the deities of the upper world, even to see, much more to touch, anything connected with death. From this nightly solemnization many of the words connected with this subject are derived. Those who bore the bier were called originally _Vesperones_, thence _Vespillones_, from _Vespera_, evening; and the very term _funus_ is derived by grammarians, _a funalibus_, from the rope torches coated with wax or tallow which continued to be used long after the necessity for using them ceased.

This practice, now far more than two thousand years old, is still retained in the Roman Church, with many other ceremonies borrowed from heathen rites. St. Chrysostom a.s.sures us that it is not of modern revival, and gives a beautiful reason for its being retained. "Tell me," he says, "what mean those brilliant lamps? Do we not go forth with the dead on their way rejoicing, as with men who have fought their fight?"

The corpse being placed upon a litter or bier, the former being used by the wealthy, the latter by the poor, was carried out preceded by instrumental musicians, and female singers, who chanted the dirge.

These hired attendants, whose noisy sorrow was as genuine as the dumb grief of our mutes, were succeeded, if the deceased were n.o.ble, or distinguished by personal exploits, by numerous couches containing the family effigies of his ancestors, each by itself, that the length of his lineage might be the more conspicuous; by the images of such nations as he had conquered, such cities as he had taken; by the spoils which he had won; by the ensigns of the magistracies which he had filled; but if the fasces were among them these were borne reversed. Then came the slaves whom he had emanc.i.p.ated (and often with a view to this post-mortem magnificence, a master emanc.i.p.ated great numbers of them), wearing hats in token of their manumission. Behind the corpse came the nearest relations, profuse in the display of grief as far as it can be shown by weeping, howling, beating the b.r.e.a.s.t.s and cheeks, and tearing the hair, which was laid, as a last tribute of affection, on the breast of the deceased, to be consumed with him. To shave the head was also a sign of mourning. It is a curious inversion of the ordinary customs of life, that the sons of the deceased mourned with the head covered, the daughters with it bare.

With this attendance the body was borne to the place of burial, being usually carried through the Forum, where, if the deceased had been a person of any eminence, a funeral oration was spoken from the rostra in his honor. The place of burial was without the city, in almost every instance. By the twelve tables it was enacted that no one should be burned or buried within the city; and as this wholesome law fell into disuse, it was from time to time revived and enforced. The reasons for its establishment were twofold, religious and civil. To the former head belongs the reason, already a.s.signed for a different observance, that the very sight of things connected with death brought pollution on things consecrated to the G.o.ds of the upper world. So far was this carried that the priest of Jupiter might not even enter any place where there was a tomb, or so much as hear the funeral pipes; nay, his wife, the Flaminica, might not wear shoes made of the hide of an ox which had died a natural death, because all things which had died spontaneously were of ill omen. Besides, it was an ill omen to any one to come upon a tomb unawares. Another reason was that the public convenience might not be interrupted by private rites, since no tombs could be removed without sacrilege when once established, unless by the state, upon sufficient cause. The civil reasons are to be sought in the unwholesome exhalations of large burying-grounds, and the danger of fire from burning funeral piles in the neighborhood of houses. It is not meant, however, that there were no tombs within the city. Some appear to have been included by the gradual extension of the walls; others were established in those intervals when the law of the twelve tables fell, as we have said, into desuetude; nor does it appear that these were destroyed, nor their contents removed. Thus both the Claudian and the Cincian clans had sepulchres in Rome, the former under the Capitol.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ARTICLES FOUND IN A TOMB.]

If the family were of sufficient consequence to have a patrimonial tomb the deceased was laid in it; if he had none such, and was wealthy, he usually constructed a tomb upon his property during life, or bought a piece of ground for the purpose. If possible the tomb was always placed near a road. Hence the usual form of inscription, _Siste, Viator_ (Stay, Traveler), continually used in churches by those small wits who thought that nothing could be good English which was not half Latin, and forgot that in our country the traveler must have stayed already to visit the s.e.xton before he can possibly do so in compliance with the advice of the monument. For the poor there were public burial-grounds, called _puticuli, a puteis_, from the trenches ready dug to receive bodies. Such was the ground at the Esquiline gate, which Augustus gave Maecenas for his gardens. Public tombs were also granted by the state to eminent men, an honor in early times conferred on few. These grants were usually made in the Campus Martius, where no one could legally be buried without a decree of the senate in his favor. It appears from the inscriptions found in the Street of Tombs, at Pompeii, that much, if not the whole of the ground on which those tombs are built, was public property, the property of the corporation, as we should now say; and that the sites of many, perhaps of all, were either purchased or granted by the decurions, or munic.i.p.al senate, in grat.i.tude for obligations received.

Sometimes the body was burned at the place where it was to be entombed, which, when the pile and sepulchre were thus joined, was called _bustum_; sometimes the sepulchre was at a distance from the place of burning, which was then called _ustrina_. The words _bustum_ and _sepulchrum_, therefore, though often loosely used as synonymous, are not in fact so, the latter being involved in, but by no means comprehending the former. The pile was ordered to be built of rough wood, unpolished by the ax. Pitch was added to quicken the flames, and cypress, the aromatic scent of which was useful to overpower the stench of the burning body. The funeral piles of great men were of immense size and splendidly adorned; and all cla.s.ses appear to have indulged their vanity in this respect to the utmost of their means, so that a small and unattended pyre is mentioned as the mark of an insignificant or friendless person. The body was placed on it in the litter or bier; the nearest relation present then opened the eyes, which it had been the duty of the same person to close immediately after death, and set fire to the wood with averted face, in testimony that he performed that office not of good will, but of necessity. As the combustion proceeded, various offerings were cast into the flames.

The manes were believed to love blood; animals, therefore, especially those which they had loved while alive, were killed and thrown upon the pile, as horses, dogs and doves, besides the beasts commonly used in sacrifice, as sheep and oxen. Human beings, especially prisoners of war, were sometimes put to death, though not in the later times of the republic. The most costly robes and arms of the deceased, especially trophies taken in warfare, were also devoted in his honor, and the blaze was fed by the costly oils and gums of the East. The body being reduced to ashes, these were then quenched with wine, and collected by the nearest relation; after which, if the grief were real, they were again bedewed with tears; if not, wine or unguents answered the purpose equally well. The whole ceremony is described in a few lines by Tibullus:

There, while the fire lies smouldering on the ground, My bones, the all of me, can then be found.

Arrayed in mourning robes, the sorrowing pair Shall gather all around with pious care; With ruddy wine the relics sprinkle o'er, And snowy milk on them collected pour.

Then with fair linen cloths the moisture dry, Inurned in some cold marble tomb to lie.

With them enclose the spices, sweets and gums, And all that from the rich Arabia comes, And what a.s.syria's wealthy confines send, And tears, sad offering, to my memory lend.

_Eleg. iii._ 2-17.

The ashes thus collected were then finally deposited in the urn, which was made of different materials, according to the quality of the dead; usually of clay or gla.s.s, but sometimes of marble, bronze, and even the precious metals. The ceremony thus over, the praefica gave the word, _Ilicet_ (the contracted form of _Ire licet_, It is lawful to go), and the bystanders departed, having been thrice sprinkled with a branch of olive or laurel dipped in water, to purify them from the pollution which they had contracted, and repeating thrice the words, _Vale_, or _Salve_, words of frequent occurrence in monumental inscriptions, as in one of beautiful simplicity which we quote:

"Farewell, most happy soul of Caia Oppia. We shall follow thee in such order as may be appointed by nature. Farewell, sweetest mother."

The distinction between cenotaphs and tombs has been already explained. Cenotaphs, however, were of two sorts: those erected to persons already duly buried, which were merely honorary, and those erected to the unburied dead, which had a religious end and efficacy.

This evasion of the penal laws against lying unburied was chiefly serviceable to persons s.h.i.+pwrecked or slain in war; but all came in for the benefit of it whose bodies could not be found or identified.

When a cenotaph of the latter cla.s.s was erected sacrifices were offered, the names of the deceased were thrice invoked with a loud voice, as if to summon them to their new abode, and the cenotaph was hallowed with the same privileges as if the ashes of the deceased reposed within it.

The heir, however, had not discharged his last duty when he had laid the body of his predecessor in the tomb; there were still due solemn rites, and those of an expensive character. The Romans loved to keep alive the memory of their dead, showing therein a constancy of affection which does them honor; and not only immediately after the funeral, but at stated periods from time to time, they celebrated feasts and offered sacrifices and libations to them. The month of February was especially set apart for doing honor to the manes, having obtained that distinction in virtue of being, in old times, the last month of the year. Private funeral feasts were also celebrated on the ninth day after death, and indeed at any time, except on those days which were marked as unlucky, because some great public calamity had befallen upon them. Besides these feasts, the dead were honored with sacrifices, which were offered to the manes, and with games; but the latter belong more to those splendid public funerals which we have professed not to describe. The inferiae consisted princ.i.p.ally of libations, for which were used water, milk, wine, but especially blood, the smell of which was thought peculiarly palatable to the ghosts. Perfumes and flowers were also thrown upon the tomb; and the inexpediency of wasting rich wines and precious oils on a cold stone and dead body, when they might be employed in comforting the living, was a favorite subject with the _bons vivans_ of the age. It was with the same design to crown it with garlands, and to honor it with libations, that Electra and Orestes met and recognized each other at their father's tomb. Roses were in especial request for this service, and lilies also:

Full canisters of fragrant lilies bring, Mixed with the purple roses of the Spring; Let me with funeral flowers his body strow, This gift which parents to their children owe, This unavailing gift at least I may bestow.

_Dryden, aen, vi. 883._

_Inscriptions._--Before entering upon a description of the catacombs, we will speak of the inscriptions of the ancients. Most of the tombs are really Egyptian, and no nation has left so many inscriptions as the Egyptian. All its monuments are covered with them. Its temples, palaces, tombs, isolated monuments, present an infinite number of inscriptions in hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic characters. The Egyptians rarely executed a statue, or figured representation, without inscribing by its side its name or subject. This name is invariably found by the side of each divinity, personage, or individual. In each painted scene, on each sculptured figure, an inscription, more or less extensive, explains its subject.

The characters used by the Egyptians were of three kinds--hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic. The latter has been also termed _enchorial_, or popular. The first was doubtless a system of representational signs, or picture writing--the earliest form of writing, in the first stage of its development; the hieratic is an abbreviated form of the hieroglyphic; the demotic, a simplified form of the hieratic, and a near approach towards the alphabetic system.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HIEROGLYPHICS.]

Hieroglyphics (styled by the Egyptians _skhai en neter tur_--writing of sacred words) are composed of signs representing objects of the physical world, as animals, plants, stars, man and his different members, and various objects. They are pure or linear, the latter being a reduction of the former. The pure were always sculptured or painted. The linear were generally used in the earlier papyri, containing funeral rituals.

They have been divided into four cla.s.ses:--1, Representational or ikonographic; 2, Symbolic or tropical; 3, Enigmatic; 4, Phonetic. From the examination of hieroglyphic inscriptions of different ages, it is evident that these four cla.s.ses of symbols were used promiscuously, according to the pleasure and convenience of the artist.

1. Ikonographic, representational, or imitative hieroglyphics, are those that present the images of the things expressed, as the sun's disk to signify the sun, the crescent to signify the moon. These may be styled pure hieroglyphics.

2. The symbolical, or tropical (by Bunsen termed ideographic), subst.i.tuted one object for another, to which it bore an a.n.a.logy, as heaven and a star expressed night; a leg in a trap, deceit; two arms stretched towards heaven expressed the word offering; a censer with some grains of incense, adoration; a bee was made to signify Lower Egypt; the fore-quarters of a lion, strength; a crocodile, darkness.

The following hieroglyphics were on the triumph Hall Thothmes III., and mean, after translating:

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"I went: I order that you reduce and crush all the high officers of Tsahi. I cast them together with all their possessions at thy feet."

This kind of character appears to have been particularly invented for the expression of abstract ideas, especially belonging to religion or the royal power. These are the characters generally alluded to by the ancients when they speak of hieroglyphics, and are the most difficult of interpretation.

3. Enigmatic are those in which an emblematic figure is put in lieu of the one intended to be represented, as a hawk for the sun; a seated figure with a curved beard, for a G.o.d. These three kinds were either used _alone_, or _in company_ with the phonetically written word they represented. Thus: 1. The word Ra, sun, might be written in letters only, or be also followed by the ikonograph, the _solar disk_ (which if alone would still have the same meaning--Ra, the sun). So, too, the word "moon," Aah, was followed by the crescent. In these cases the sign so following the phonetic word has been called a _terminative_, from its serving to determine the meaning of what preceded it. We give here a few words translated:

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"In your transformation as golden sperbe you have accomplished it."

2. In the same manner, the _tropical_ hieroglyphics might be alone or in company with the word written phonetically; and the expression "to write," _skhai_, might be followed or not by its tropical hieroglyphic, the "pen and inkstand," as its determinative sign. 3.

The emblematic figure, a _hawk-headed_ G.o.d, bearing the disk, signifying the "sun," might also be alone, or after the name "Ra"

written phonetically, as a determinative sign; and as a general rule the determinative followed, instead of preceding the names.

Determinatives are of two kinds--ideograms, and generic determinatives: the first were the pictures of the object spoken of; the second, conventional symbols of the cla.s.s of notions expressed by the word.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

4. Phonetic. Phonetic characters or signs were those expressive of sounds. They are either purely _alphabetic_ or _syllabic_. All the other Egyptian phonetic signs have _syllabic_ values, which are resolvable into combinations of the letters of the alphabet. This phonetic principle being admitted, the numbers of figures used to represent a sound might have been increased almost without limit, and any hieroglyphic might stand for the first letter of its name. So copious an alphabet would have been a continual source of error. The characters, therefore, thus applied, were soon fixed, and the Egyptians practically confined themselves to particular hieroglyphics in writing certain words.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"Out of bad comes good."

Hieroglyphic writing was employed on monuments of all kinds, on temples as well as on the smallest figures, and on bricks used for building purposes. On the most ancient monuments this writing is absolutely the same as on the most recent Egyptian work. Out of Egypt there is scarcely a single example of a graphic system identically the same during a period of over two thousand years. The hieroglyphic characters were either engraved in relief, or sunk below the surface on the public monuments, and objects of hard materials suited for the glyptic art. The hieroglyphics on the monuments are either sculptured and plain, or decorated with colors. The colored are divided into two distinct cla.s.ses, the monochromatic of one simple tone, and the polychromatic, or those which rendered with more or less fidelity the color of the object they were intended to depict. The hieroglyphic figures were arranged in vertical columns or horizontal lines, and grouped together as circ.u.mstances required, so as to leave no s.p.a.ces unnecessarily vacant. They were written from right to left, or from left to right. The order in which the characters were to be read, was shown by the direction in which the figures are placed, as their heads are invariably turned towards the reader. A single line of hieroglyphics--the dedication of a temple or of any other monument, for example--proceeds sometimes one half from left to right, and the other half from right to left; but in this case a sign, such as the sacred tau, or an obelisk, which has no particular direction, is placed in the middle of the inscription, and it is from that sign that the two halves of the inscription take each an opposite direction.