During the days of preparation for burial and that on which the departed was entombed, his relatives either overcome by sorrow or bound down by the usages of the time, had been fasting. This abstinence had the usual effect, and, by the time the remains of the dear one had been laid under ground, his immediate family were almost ready to faint with hunger. That they might no longer thus afflict themselves and that their friends might offer them suitable comfort, the Greeks instituted the perideipnon, or funeral feast[266]. At this feast, the dead man was considered the host and it was regarded as his expression of thanks to his comrades for their courtesy in burying him[267]. Since it was the duty of the nearest surviving relative to provide for all the customary obsequies[268], properly this entertainment was provided at his house[269]. When the question of a funeral feast in honor of Patroclus was considered, Achilles, being his nearest friend then present, prepares for it in his own tent. The perideipnon for all those who had lost their lives in behalf of Greece at the disastrous battle of Chaeronea was held at the house of the orator Demosthenes. That was for the reason, as he himself states, that although each was nearer to his own kin than the orator, yet no other man was so near to them collectively[270].

The perideipnon was the beginning of a series of feasts or ministrations having for their object the nourishment of the dead in their new state of existence[271]. It was a belief common to some other earlier nations as well as the Greeks that those who had experienced the change of death were still in need of food and drink and it was conceived to be the duty of the living to satisfy the desire for sustenance of that nature. The ancient Hindus believed that, at the feasts, the manes of their ancestors seated themselves at the table near the living and enjoyed the viands set before them. The Greeks seem to have entertained the same belief and to have followed the same custom. Those rites long outlasted the beliefs which gave rise to the observances. The provision of material food for the dead was not only regarded as a duty but was viewed as a means of propitiating their good will.

If the funeral repasts were not continued at frequent intervals, it was believed that the spirits became malevolent and came out from the tombs, that the wandering shades could be heard in the silent night, reproaching the survivors with impious negligence and that they sought to punish their recreant relatives with sickness and unfruitfulness of the soil, until the neglected office was resumed.

It was the habit of the Greeks at these festivals, to recount whatever virtues the deceased may have possessed, but, quite contrary to the modern notion of the obituary and the epitaph, no exaggeration or embellishment was allowed, for it was reckoned impious to lie on such occasions[272]. It was from this usage of presenting the best view of the dead, that there arose the sarcasm applied to bad characters, “you would not be praised even at your funeral entertainment[273].” At this supper, whatever fragments might chance to fall from the table were always consecrated to the manes of the departed[274]. Pythagoras, having in mind, perhaps, the belief that all which fell to the floor belonged to the dead, strictly forbade his disciples to pick up the particles they may have dropped in any of their feastings[275].