Funeral closeness of the family tie among the Greeks can best be seen in their sorrow for the dead. The burial cere monies were briefly as follows: An obolus was placed in the month of the deceased to pay the fare of the ferryman Charon. (See Vol. I. p. 16o.) The body (p1. 24, fig. 12) was washed, anointed, wrapped in linen cloths, crowned with a wreath, and laid in state. Burial-gifts were laid upon the bier or placed in the grave, which was frequently "it stone vault. The law regulated the length of time during which the body was to be kept unburied, and it also prohibited excessive mourning in public.
The funeral procession was led by female flute-players or by hired singers who chanted mourning songs. The male mourners, wearing black or gray garments and with their hair shorn, preceded the bier; the women followed. After the interment a funeral meal was spread in the house of the deceased. Three days later the first offering was made at the grave; the second Was made on the ninth day; and the third, on the thirtieth day, concluded the time of mourning. The tomb was regarded as a family sanctuary, and was decorated from time to time with wreaths. In Sparta the place of burial was in the city itself; in other parts of Greece its site was a matter of choice. It was generally located immediately outside the city-gates, and there the tombstones stretched in long rows. Soldiers who were killed in battle were buried at the public expense.
Besides the free citizens, who were the real rulers, the Greek states, especially the populous cities, included a number of wards who did not enjoy full civic privileges. These were in Athens the mcloikoi (those "dwelling with" the citizens), and in Sparta the perioikoi ("dwellers around"), and the helots, the degrees of dependence being various.' In addition to these there were also slaves, who were obtained by inheritance or by purchase. Commerce and trades were mostly in the hands of the wards, though in Athens neither law nor custom prevented the citizens from following either.
Industrial would lead us too far to specify in full the details respecting agriculture and commerce and the technique of each individual industry. The illustrations on Plate 25, copied from ancient pictures, show sufficiently well the primitive condition of the trades; on the other hand, extant productions indicate the high development of the arts. The
artisan classes were occupied in making a living, and they did not partici pate in the intellectual culture of the nation until at a late period, when they were called upon to supply the markets of the entire Roman world, and when, consequently, it depended upon them, as well as upon the poets and learned men, to maintain the sound traditions of their country. Thus it came about that at the beginning of the Christian era the class of arti sans was remarkably cultivated, and formed the most fruitful field for the spread of Christianity.
already stated (p. 176), Greece possessed no such priest hood as existed in the countries we have before described. In case of need, and indeed always to a certain extent, each individual was his own priest, and the master of the house was the priest of the family. There was no orthodox creed to be taught or preserved; only the ancient tra ditional gods wereIo be venerated. The state allowed each man to have his own conception of them. There were indeed established priests and priestesses /. 26, jig. t), who represented the state and people as a whole, but they had no special privileges, nor even a special consecration; they were merely officials and temple-servants. The Greek recognized no mediator between himself and his gods. He himself supplicated them for benefits, sought to avert their wrath, and poured out to them his expressions of gratitude.
Offerings made the prayers more potent; only where the gifts were brought as a sin-offering did the entire ceremony take upon itself a deeper ethical meaning; nevertheless, not even in such a case was another sup posed to take the place of the petitioner. Sacrifice was always preceded by a purification or washing of the body, which typified the cleansing of the inner man. A cleansing power was also attributed to fire; therefore torches were borne by the priests and supplicants (fig. 2). Some plants also, especially the laurel, were accredited with a similar power, and con sequently wreaths were worn. The purificatory bath was followed by a prayer uttered in a standing posture. When the prayer was addressed to the Olympian gods, the hands were uplifted; if to the divinities of the sea, they were outstretched; if to the subterranean gods, they were turned downward. Persons who implored protection knelt and embraced the knees of the statue of the god.