TYPES OF ANCESTOR-WORSHIP But ancestor-worship pure and simple is directed towards ances tors possessing venerable powers of one sort or another, coupled with either a kindly interest in their descendants or at least the ability to do them harm if they neglect them. It may be of several kinds, according to the beliefs of the people practising it.
Communal Worship.—(I.) The dead may be worshipped en masse by the family, clan, or other community to which they belong; i.e., of which, while alive, they were really or supposedly members. The best known instances of this come from ancient Italy. The cult of the manes (q.v.) at Rome was not a worship of any individuals ; that of the di parentes or parentum was the cult or tendance of all the dead of a particular line. This fits the belief in the genius quite logically. The really worshipful thing, the life-force, is gone from the dead mart and there is little or nothing left to give him individuality or importance. For the most part, the cult consisted in the provision of food, either solemnly given to the ghosts, as at the Lemuralia, etc., or in the form of a communal banquet, in which presumably the ghosts had their share. But that these ghosts were not without power, at least collectively, is shown to some extent by the story that once, when the rites of the parentalia in February were neglected, the result was a plague which lasted until they were restored (cf. [I], above; Ovid. Fast., ii. 545-554), hut more decisively (for such tales may be the result of Ovid's or another's imagination) by the dates of the festivals, in early spring and early summer, just when the ghosts who live in the ground can help or harm the crops, and by the inclusion of the di manes in the formula of devotio (Livy, viii. 9, 6), from which it appears that they were strong at least to curse.
Individual Worship.—(II.) On the whole, however, the worship of individual ancestors is more common. This may, after a fashion, be combined with (I.), for a large number, or even the entire series of ancestors, so far as they are remembered, may receive collective cult. This is often the case in Africa. For instance, at the adae or ceremony of worship of ancestral spirits carried out by a queen-mother among the Ashanti, Capt. Rattray heard of seven stools, each belonging to one of the dead queen mothers, having each an offering placed upon it (Rattray, Ashanti, p. 104). But these same people have many prayers in which the ancestral spirits (samanfo) are addressed collectively. Such things, however, are to be expected among a people believing in more than one supernatural being of any kind, for it is not always thought necessary to address each object of cult in a separate prayer or ceremony.
Grades of Ancestors.—(III.) For the reason given in (3) above, not all ancestors are equally worshipful. It is plain that since a commoner was of little importance in life he is not a very powerful ghost ; consequently, while such minor spirits are tended only by their immediate relatives, or perhaps not at all, the ghosts of great men are singled out for much more elaborate cult by the whole community. Thus the spirit of a Samoan chief is "supposed to be nearer than the spirits of common people," and is consulted "on all important occasions" (Rev. G. Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians, p. 209). His magical power, of course, was far greater than that of a commoner in his lifetime ; but the ghosts even of commoners count for something ; they "are consulted also" by their own descendants (ibid.). This is much the same idea as that underlying Greek hero-cult. But it is not merely prominence, even magical prominence, in life which brings about promotion after death to the rank of a worshipful ancestor. Seniority also has much to do with it; we often find that the founder of a family continues to be worshipped by that family throughout an indefinite number of generations; this worship is, of course, not affected by the circumstance that the founder in question never had any real existence. We find this at all manner of stages in culture, from the reverence paid by Australian blacks of to-day to their mythical alrheringa (see FAMILY; ARUNTA), to the practice of the civilized Greeks, who not only described themselves as "sons or descendants of such a one" (e.g., Iamidai, descended from the legendary seer, Iamus, son of Apollo) but also definitely worshipped their founder, honouring him above all the intervening ancestors. On the other hand, the older ghosts may be forgotten in time—the number of generations in a pedigree that can be remembered, while of ten considerable, is not without limits —and in that case the once worshipful ancestor fades vaguely into the mass of ghosts or disappears altogether, unless he becomes a god. A ghost who has shown himself formidable, or a person whose death was in some way strange, may quite well enjoy high rank among the venerated ancestors, even if he has been of little account in life. Again, the ancestor most worshipped may be the last person of importance to die : "their father whom they knew is the head by whom they begin and end in their prayer, for they know him best," says one of Callaway's Zulu witnesses (Religious System of the Amazulu, p. 144). It by no means always follows that the character of the ghost, venerated or not, will be identical with that of the living person : "perhaps he, too, who was good becomes bad when he is dead; and he who was bad, when he is dead, is good and becomes a good Itongo" (ibid., p.
151).
Ancestors as Gods.—(IV.) Finally, some one ancestor may so combine in his own person all the worshipful qualities a good ancestral ghost should have, or show such pre-eminence in some one quality, that he is no longer treated as a ghost, however vener able, but receives the full honours due to a god. Among many peoples it is a matter of considerable doubt, both to themselves, when they give any thought to the matter, and to European in vestigators, whether they have any gods; i.e., any beings super natural and non-human from the start, or only more or less worshipful ghosts adored by a greater or smaller portion of the community. This confusion is illustrated by the classical case of Asclepius, who was worshipped in many parts of Greece as a god, but is also several times spoken of as a hero ; i.e., a worshipful ghost, with a clan, the Asclepiadai, called after him. It was an arti ficial clan, a guild of physicians; but this makes no difference. It is quite possible that a real man, renowned in his lifetime for his medical skill, lies behind the cult and myth of the god (see L. R. Farnell, Greek Hero-Cults, p. 234 ff). Practically any work on the Pacific cultures will give instances of the same confusion.
If we ask why ancestors are worshipped, apart from the desire to propitiate them and prevent them doing harm because they are neglected and angry, the answer varies almost indefinitely. Ghosts are often thought of as living in or just outside the house; thus the Zulu amatongo frequently enter houses in the form of snakes (Callaway, op. cit., p. 126 ff.). A Greek house had fre quently a house-hero (i)pwc oisovpbs), originally no doubt the spirit of some ancestor, whose influence, if he was properly looked after by the inhabitants, was good. In particular, he might intervene to beget a much desired child on the housewife, taking the form of her husband for the purpose (see HERODOTUS, vi. 69; the hero Astrabacus, one of the ancient royal house, comes from his shrine in the form of King Ariston of Sparta and becomes by the latter's wife the father of Demaratos). Offspring is indeed a boon regularly expected from ancestors, who, even if they are not supposed themselves to return and be re-incarnated, naturally are interested in the continuance of the line which tends or wor ships them. For a like reason they are expected to protect it in various ways, averting illness, giving warning and advice in dreams, and so forth. Again, as ghosts often are supposed to live in the ground, the ancestors are commonly worshipped in hopes of getting good crops. Thus in Malabar, at the feast of Vishnu, (the beginning of the agricultural year) the celebrant prays: "May the gods on high, and the deceased ancestors, bless the seed. . . . May they also vouchsafe us a good crop." (C. Karunakara Menon in E. Thurston's Omens and Superstitions of Southern India, p. 291). As they are thus associated with gods, they are often called upon to intercede with gods (see Sir J. G. Frazer, Worship of Nature, vol. i., p. 159) ; for they often live in the sky or some other abode of the deity or deities. But the above are only typical examples; there is almost nothing which an ancestral spirit may not be called upon to grant or to avert. Their relation to the gods is usually indeed that of inferior to superior ; but they are commonly supposed to enjoy a larger share of divine favour than the dwellers on earth, if only because they live closer to the deities and so can act as "friends at court" for their worshippers. Usually, however, their ritual differs in kind as well as in degree from that of great gods, regularly preserving something of the methods supposed to be efficacious for securing the repose of a ghost.