After the body had been made ready for burial, it was laid out in state. This was called the prothesis, and probably took place on the day after the death, in order that the corpse might have an early burial. From the statement of Pollux[76] concerning the order of the ceremonies, it must be inferred that this was the proper time. That author states that the prothesis came first, and was followed successively by the ekphora or procession and the tertial sacrifices. Those sacrifices came on the fourth day, that is, the third after the day of the demise[77], and the procession came on the day following the prothesis[78]. Therefore, it is necessary to conclude that the prothesis, procession and sacrifices came respectively on the first, second and third day after the decease. The basis for that calculation is found in Antiphon’s oration on the death of the chorus singer[79]. Probably that order of events was established by the law of Solon, which is reported somewhat imperfectly in Demosthenes[80]. In the case of those Athenians, however, who had fallen in battle, the lying-in-state took place three days before the procession[81].
This desire which the Greeks had for an early burial, was due to the same solicitude that caused them to be in haste to provide the passage-money for crossing the Styx.
Socrates is made to say that, when the soul has departed, men carry away the bodies of their near friends and bury them as soon as they can[82]. The spirit of Patroclus, weary of the long delay, while the struggle continued over his mortal remains, and angered by the criminal apathy of his friend, beseeches Achilles to bury him as speedily as possible, that he may the sooner pass the gates of Hades[83].
Most truly it has been said that in the eyes of the Greeks, “a quick burial is a propitiation of the deceased[84].”
Since the lying-in-state took place a day and a half in advance of burial, and since it was necessary that this ceremony should be performed on the next day after the person had died, it was set down as a great stigma on a man’s character that preparations for the prothesis of his relative were not made in due time[85].
A law of Ceos, enacted probably in the latter part of the sixth century, and resembling the law of Solon very closely, regulates the matter of burials with considerable particularity. This law aims to restrain the excessive cost of funeral ceremonies. It limits the wrappings of the dead to three white cloths, of which the total price shall not exceed one hundred drachmas, about twenty dollars of our money; the body must be laid on a bed with slender legs, and must not be entirely concealed by the draping, a precaution against violent deaths[86]. In the paintings, the face and the upper part of the breast are uncovered. The color of the wrappings or shroud on the lecyths are not uniformly white, for some of violet and some even of green, are seen on these white vases, which belong to the fourth and fifth centuries before our era, and which are found almost exclusively in the tombs of the Athenians[87].
It has already been stated that the women who took part in the funeral rites were required to be near relatives of the deceased. This legal requirement is illustrated by a painted terra-cotta plaque, published by Benndorf, on which are inscriptions near the figures. By these inscriptions, it appears that the persons about the bed of the deceased are the grandmother, the mother, and the sisters, the father and the brothers[88].
The relatives who, in the pictures, stand about the funeral bed or bier, display gestures of some violence, indicating that time has not yet softened the keenness of their sorrow. They hold various objects in their hands, which are intended as offerings at the tomb. A sort of narrow scarf is very frequent[89]. It is composed of a flat band of cloth, terminating in a fringe at each end, and the color is by no means uniform; red, black and violet appearing in different instances. This long, narrow scarf was employed in all religious ceremonies, sacrifices, thanksgivings and consecrations. Its significance is difficult to determine. The purpose of the fan, however, in the hands of a mourner of the period of the white lecyths, was undoubtedly to guard the body from the attacks of flies during its exposure[90].
Another singular object which is present at various scenes of mourning and burial is a bird. Its use is a matter of surmise, and the fact that the bird is of no one species, but sometimes a dove and, at times, a duck or some other bird, makes the interpretation of its presence none the less puzzling. The most satisfactory suggestion is, that it is simply intended as a pleasant reminder to the deceased of an object familiar to him in the life just closed[91]. As companions and sources of amusement and pleasure, the dog and the bird played a prominent part in the in-door life of the Greeks. On that account, probably, the young man with his dog and the young girl with her bird are very often seen in funeral bas-reliefs.
A scholiast remarks on this custom of prothesis, or lying-in-state, that “the ancients laid their corpses before the doors and beat their breasts[92].” Becker finds considerable difficulty in reconciling this with Solon’s law ordering “the dead man to be laid out within the house according as he left orders.” If we were to interpret the expression, “before the doors,” as indicating that the ceremony took place outside the house, it would indeed be difficult to harmonize the two authorities; but modern scholars generally have seen that it is not a strained construction to interpret the phrase as meaning the vestibule or fore part of the house[93].
In the entrance-hall of the house, then, the body was laid out with the feet turned toward the door, to indicate, perhaps, that he was about to go forth on his last journey, never again to return to the habitations of the living[94]. From the fact that the head was placed on a rest[95] of some sort, it has been inferred[96] that the corpse was laid out on a kline or bed. There is no passage in any author to substantiate this, but the paintings on the white lecyths present the fact very clearly[97]. There is also an account of a prothesis in which they strew sweet marjoram and broken vine branches underneath the body[98].
Near the body[99], were placed the lecyths or cruses which have been already in part described. These were afterwards to be burned or buried with the corpse. According to a scholiast, these lecyths were used by the Athenians as vessels for holding the unguents with which the dead were to be anointed, but their use for containing perfumes is now conceded[100]. There was a class of men at Athens whose occupation consisted in the manufacture and decoration of white lecyths[101]. These vases were not baked as hard as most other earthen vessels but were fashioned with great delicacy of manipulation. They were soft and fragile and rested on a circular broad base, they narrowed abruptly as they rose, then expanded suddenly into a cylindrical body of about the same diameter as the base, then contracted into a short neck on which was supported a cup-shaped mouth piece from the side of which started the small round handle that was attached at its lower end to the body of the vase. The upper and lower part were covered with a black coating or enamel[102].
The centre or body was painted white and, on that background, were drawn and painted the funeral scenes with considerable artistic skill and more or less accuracy of drawing and detail according to the grade of article that the artificer desired to make. The ultimate design of the workman was not to produce a work of art but an article of commerce, although, incidentally, figure-painting of a high order of merit was often attained[103]. They were not manufactured later than the second century before the Christian era[104], and represent the customs of the Athenians for a period extending through the fifth and fourth centuries.
When the lecyths were once buried with the corpse, it was considered a very serious offence to disturb them. On a lecyth that was unearthed in a grave at Cumae, there is a curse of blindness invoked on any one who might venture to steal it[105]. The custom of leaving objects of value at the tombs made them liable to depredations and many funeral inscriptions conveyed threats of punishment against those who should take or disturb whatever was thus offered to the dead[106].
Just outside the door of the house within which the body was laid out, stood an earthen vessel of lustral water, so that the visitors who went to look on the features of their friend for the last time, could purify themselves from any pollution which they might have incurred by entering a home defiled by death. Since everything appertaining to the stricken house was held to be contaminated, the purifying water had to be obtained from another house[107]. This vessel which contained the water was variously styled an ostrakon[108], an ardanion[107] or a pegaion[109].
This exposure of the body to the view of the friends was not merely for display but served often as a police regulation, and, at the same time, it prevented the lamentable mistake of burial where unconsciousness had simulated death. To some extent, it took the place of our coroner’s inquest, for we learn from Pollux[107] that “the laying out was for this reason, too, that the corpse might be seen not to have suffered violence.” The utility of this measure was promoted by the law which ordered the prothesis not to be for a longer or shorter time than to show whether the person was in a trance or really dead[110].
