S"" S. VI. U6., Oct. 16. '58.] IS'OTES AND QUERIES. 



301 



LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16. 1858. 



OKIGIN OF THE WORD SUPERSTITION. 



(Contimtedfrom 2"* S. v. 125.) 



It is too often lost sight of, that Etymologies are 

 matters of history, matters of fact; though of 

 course when history fails we must have recourse 

 to speculation and conjecture. How deceptive 

 the latter is, all students of etymology must be 

 aware. Words are generated in infinitely various 

 ways, and spring from all the accidents of cir- 

 cumstance, and the caprices of fancy. AVe often 

 meet with derivations which we stumble at on first 

 sight as being most far-fetched, yet they turn out 

 on examination to be historically correct; and, on 

 the other hand, we often meet with derivations 

 which at once carry conviction with them, so ob- 

 vious, apt, and simple are they, yet on examina- 

 tion they prove false.* I feel convinced we shall 

 gain more by following up Cicero's clue than by 

 conjectures which have only a certain plausibility 

 to recommend them. Let me repeat his account 

 of the matter : — 



" Thej' who used to pray and ofter sacrifices whole days 

 together, that their children might survive them, were 

 called Superstitious, which name had afterwards a wider 

 application given to it." 



In my former Note, to which the present is 

 supplementary, I suggested that this extreme 

 anxiety on the part of the Supeistitiosi that their 

 children might survive them, was probably caused 

 by their desire to secure to themselves after death 

 the Rites of Sepulture, which the ancients believed 

 to be all-important. I shall now proceed to give 

 some illustrrttlMUb oi this belief, even though I can- 

 not pretend to establish t e supposed connexion 

 between it and tl ,* proceedings of the Supersti- 

 tiosi. 



Solomon declares in Eccles. vi. 3. : — 

 " If a man beget an hundred children and live many 

 years, . . . aud that he have no burial ; I say that an un- 

 timely birih H better than he." 



Lp. ?f.. ;ii, in treating of the Fifth Article of 

 the Cret. . ..m a long and interesting note on the 

 Bubject, of which I shall only extract a part, as 

 hid work is so accessible and well-known. In 

 arguing that Hades is a place and not n state, he 

 refers to "the judgment of the ancient Greeks," 

 " because there were many which they believed to 

 be dead, and to continue in the state of death, 

 which yet they believed not to be in Hades, as 



• Tor instance, it might be said that when the doctrine 

 of the Soul's Immortality was first introduced amongst 

 the ancient IJoinans, lliey who first embraced it, and be- 

 lieved tliat tlie_v sliould 'survive death, were called Super- 

 slltfH and Sujierstilinsi, or Survivars. 'J'liis is far more 

 probable than most of the derivations assigned for Super- 

 ilitio, and yet it has not au historical leg to stand on. 



those who died be/ore their time, and those vihose 

 bodies ivere unburied" He then proceeds : — 



" The opinion of the Ancient Greeks in this case is ex- 

 cellently expressed by Tertullian, who shows three kinds 

 of men to be thought not to descend ad inferos when they 

 die ; the first, Insepulti, the second Aori, the third Biceo- 

 thanati. 'Creditum est, insepultos non ante ad inferos 

 redigi quamjustaperceperint.' — DeAnim.c. 56. ' Aiunt et 

 immatura morte praeventas eousque vagari isthic, donee 

 reliquatio compleatur setatis, quacum pervixissent, si non 

 intempestive obiissent.' — Ibid. ' Proiude extorres infe- 

 rum habebuntur, quas vi ereptas arbitrantur, praicipue 

 per atrocitates suppliciorum ; crucis dico, et securis, et 

 gladii, et ferie.' — Ibid. The souls then of those whose 

 bodies were unburied were thought to be kept out of Hades 

 till their funerals were performed ; and the souls of them 

 who died an untimely or violent death, were kept from 

 the same place until the time of their natural death should 

 come. Of that of the Insepulti, he produceth the exam- 

 ple of Patroclus : ' Secundum Homericum Patroclum fmius 

 in somnis de Achille flagitantem, quod non alias adire 

 portas inferum posset, arcentibus eum longe animabus 

 sepultorum.' — Ibid. The place he intended is Iliad, *. 71. 

 In the same manner he describes Elpenor, Odyss. A. 51. ; 

 where it is the observation of Eustathius : 'On W|a r^v toIs 



'EAAr^cri, ras t^v a.BanToii' »//u;^as fj.Tj avaiJ-i-yvvtrOai Tats AoiTrats, 



'Legimus prjeterea in sexto insepultorum animas vagas 

 esse,' says Servius on yEneid, in. 67. The place which he 

 intended, I suppose, is this ; 



' HsEC omnis, quam cernis, inops inhumataqne turba est ; 

 Portitor ille Charon ; hi, quos vehit unda, sepulti, 

 Kec ripas datur horrendas nee rauca fluenta 

 Transportare prius, quam sedibus ossa quierunt. 

 Centum errant anaos, volitantque hoec littora circum.' 



Virg. ^n. vi. 325. 



Thus he is to be understood in the description of the fune- 

 ral of Polydorus, vE'/i. iii. 62. : 



' Ergo instauramus Polydoro funus, et ingens 

 Aggeritur tumulo tellus, — animamque sepulcro 

 Condimiis.' 



Not that aniina does here signify the body, as some have 

 observed ; but that the soiu of Polydorus was at rest, 

 when his body had received funeral rites, as Servius : 

 ' Legimus pra:terea in sexto insepultorum animas vagas 

 esse, et hinc constat non legitime sepultura fuisse. Kite 

 ergo, reddita legitima sepultura, redit anima ad quietera 

 sepulcri,' saith Servius, ^n. iii. 67. ; or rather, in the sense 

 of Virgil, ad quietem inferni, according to the petition of 

 Palinurus, yEw. vi. 37. : ^ 



' Sedibus ut saltern placidis in morte quiescam.' 



And that the soul of Polydorus was so wandering about 

 the place where his body lay unburied, appeareth out of 

 Euripides in Hecuba, v. 30. ; and in the Troades of the 

 same poet, this oAtj, or erratio vagabunda insepultorum is 

 acknowledged by the chorus, v. 1073. And when their 

 bodies were buried, then their souls passed into Hades, to 

 the rest. So was it with Polydorus, and that man men- 

 tioned in the history of the philosopher Atheiiagoras, 

 whose umbra or phasma walked after his death.' — Plin. 1. 

 vii. Epist. 27. This was the case o( i\\& Insepulti." — Bp. 

 Pearson, Dobson's ed. 1847, pp. 353-355. 



See also the work on Pompeii (one of the L. E. 

 K. series), Lond. 1831-2, in which, in the chapter on 

 Tombs, this subject is treated of at some length. 



In the narrative of the sufferings of Byron and 

 the crew of H. M. ship "Wager" on the coast of 

 S. America occurs a curious illustration of the 



